Work Experience Blog: Pace Sticking in the British Army

The International Pace Sticking Competition was recently held at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and received significant coverage on military social media channels. But what are pace sticks and what are they used for? Work Experience student Codie explores pace sticks, their origins and how we look after them in our latest blog post.

History

Pace sticks are an important part of the British Armed Forces, but what are they? A pace stick is a long stick that looks similar to a drafting compass and is often used in drill training to measure marching paces and distance between troops, to ensure accurate and precise alignment with each other. The origin of the pace stick is from the Royal Regiment of Artillery who used a Gunner’s stick to measure the distance between field guns, which was rapidly adopted by infantry to aid in drill.

The pace stick has gone through several changes over the years of its use, such as the removal of the fixed distance of how far it could open and is now able to be opened to 12-40 inches for different purposes such as stepping out and stepping between ranks.

Pace sticks are often carried by Warrant Officers and Drill Instructors. Many nations in the commonwealth have adopted it with the most noticeable non-British operators being the Australian Federal Police and all branches of the Canadian Armed forces.

Competition

The pace stick hasn’t only been used for drill, it has also been used for competitions, specifically the All Arms International Pace Sticking competition which often includes; Grenadier Guards, Bahrain police, AFC Harrogate, Pakistan Military Academy, Welsh Guards and of course the Royal Logistic Corps who even got 2nd place for the UK in the 2025 competition. The teams consist of 4 people, led by a driver, who then carry out drill as precisely as possible.

How we maintain pace sticks in the museum

Here at the museum, we need to maintain our pace sticks for display and storage purposes to preserve the history of the Royal Logistic Corps and the 5 Forming Corps that were joined into it. First, after it is received, it is given an identification code which has the details of the pace stick including its history, condition, text, when it was used and where it is stored. This is important to make sure the item and its story don’t get forgotten, and can be found and possibly be put on display. After that we put it in a wrap using an acid-free tissue and with gloves on to make sure the metal on the pace stick doesn’t oxidise. Once we wrap it up, we place the pace stick into a custom-made box to stop any outside threats to the pace stick from reaching it. If we are putting a pace stick up on display, we put on gloves and carefully remove it from the box. After that we unwrap it and take it out of the storage to place on the display.

Several volunteers and staff members have used pace sticks and one museum volunteer remembers, “It was very informative if you had it to the troops as it helps them get into position and you can show them where they are meant to be”.

Codie, Work Experience Student

Blog images: a pace stick recently donated to the museum. This example had first belonged to RSM R.T. Harrison RASC, 506 Coy, and was later passed on to his son Philip when he was later appointed as RSM with 1 Regiment Army Air Corps.