War Office 44 consists of 732 bundles and volumes of letters addressed to the Ordnance Office from officers of the Royal Engineers and Royal Artillery as well as by government officials and private individuals involved in matters which concerned the Ordnance Office. The National Archives has copied selections from the in-letters addressed to the Ordnance Office relating to the Rideau Canal, Barracks and Ordnance Lands in British North America, and a wide variety of questions of direct and indirect concern to the Ordnance Office. Arrangement is partly by districts, e.g. Canada, Halifax, Newfoundland, Quebec, partly by government departments; e.g. Admiralty, Colonial Office, Treasury, War Office, etc., and partly by subjects, e.g. Artillery, Barracks, Clothing, Engineers, Field Train, Inventions, Laboratories, General Orders, Services of Officers and Men, Surveys, etc.
The photocopies, 25 pages, and the transcripts, 20 pages are available on microfilm reel C-12586. Original microfilmed records of WO 44 are located on microfilm reels: B-217, B-218, B-1293 to B-1352, B-1417 to B-1438, B-1940, and B-3456 to B-3462.
Great Britain. Board of Ordnance : The Master General of the Ordnance, whose office dated from 1483, worked with other officials on a Board of Ordnance, frequently known as the Ordnance Office. It is the oldest of the offices whose records are included in the War Office group at the Public Record Office. One of the important early duties of the Ordnance, which remained so until the middle of the nineteenth century, was to supply weapons and ammunition to both the army and the navy. Even when there was no requirement for a permanent administrative organization to oversee military affairs, there did exist a need for an authority to supervise the procurement, maintenance, storage, and issue when necessary, of the nation's ordnance. This use of a common ministry of supply resulted in some beneficial standardization while reducing the opportunities to bid up prices. The Board of Ordnance also had charge, for most of its existence, of the artillery and engineer corps, fortifications, and barracks although the last category was administered by a separate Barrackmaster General from 1793 to 1822. General Inventory Manuscripts, Volume 2, MG11-MG15, Ottawa, 1976.
Great Britain. Public Records Office online catalogue: 1584