The Royal Logistic Corps Museum recently received into its collection this set of medals awarded to Major Harry Cornelius Loveridge MBE, one of the earliest members of the Army Catering Corps.

Originally joining the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards in 1927, he was appointed as a Sergeant Cook and soon found himself attached to the Army School of Catering in Aldershot, eventually serving as an instructor. Whilst a Sergeant (Instructor) he entered a dish into the London Universal Cookery & Food Exhibition, for which he was awarded the blue ribboned medal.

Commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps in 1940, he was once of the first regular (as opposed to headhunted civilian) commissioned officers of the fledgling Army Catering Corps upon its formation the following year.

In 1950 Loveridge was one of the first officers of the ACC to be appointed as a Regular Quartermaster, and in 1956 he was appointed as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’s (MBE) Military Division in recognition of his services to army catering.

He would also serve as the first editor of the Army Catering Corps’ Journal for several years, finally retiring from the army in 1959 after thirty-two years’ service. Major Loveridge eventually passed away in October 1968, after which his medals passed to his daughter, who in turn donated them to the RLC Museum.

To learn more about the history of army catering and the ACC, pay us a visit.

 

Alex Crisp – Curator