Directorate of Ordnance Services

Director Ordnance Service was established in 1950 under the Directorate of Sri Lanka Army Ordnance Corps which was established on 14 October 1949. Major BG Brecher, an advisor to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps became the first Director of the Dte of Ord Svcs on 11 March 1950.

At the time, Dte of Ord Svcs had been a part of the Army Headquarters and their major duties included policy matters, planning of goods and book keeping. Only the goods procurement division and ports division commenced their duties at the premises in which Arms/Ammunition depot was located while the other divisions, Overseas goods procurement and local goods procurement and finance division, were functioning under the SLAOC Headquarters in Panagoda.

After Lt Col BG Brecher, the last Royal Ordnance officer serving in Ceylon, went back to Britain the vacant post of the Commanding Officer was filled by Lt Col DFT Abeysinghe. From thereon, all the responsibilities in the Director Ordnance Services vested upon him and he was made responsible to the commander of the army on all technical duties related to Ordnances.

On 17 March 1980, the units at Panagoda Cantonment and the Army Headquarters were brought together to form the Dte of Ord Svcs. Administrative and technical duties of the Dte of Ord Svcs came under the purview of the Director, Logistics at AHQ. The first senior supply control and account Officer Major OKP Gunasekara and the officer in-charge of local procurement unit, Capt ML Jayarathne were working under the direction of Commanding officer of SLAOC. Furthermore, the then commanding officer of SLAOC, Lt Col MH Dharmasiri was also overlooking the duties of the Dte of Ord Svcs twice a week.

Thereafter, Major JPA Jayawardene and Major DSG Kempitiya held the Staff appointment in the Dte of Ord Svcs.During the period that followed the restructuring of the establishment of Army Headquarters, the logistics directorates was added to the Army headquaters’ establishement. Accordingly, in March 1982, Directorate of Ordnance Services commenced its work in the St’ John’s Ambulance Service building at the Army Headquarters with 3 Officers and 10 Other Ranks. Major T Shivashanmugam had been its acting Director of Directorate of Ordnance Services. In order to avoid administrative constrains initially established Directorate of Ordnance renamed as Ordnance Procurement Company. Technical duties were vested under the Directorate of Ordnance Services while the administrative duties were vested under the RHQ SLAOC. These changes were carried out under the direction of Major T Shivashanmugam of SLAOC who was serving as the acting Commanding Officer of RHQ SLAOC in April 1983.

From there onwards, the earlier Directorate of Ordnance became to be known as the ‘Ordnance Procurement Company and Major DSG Kempitiya ato and Capt ST Abeyratne served as Officer Commanding and deputy respectively. Subsequantly Capt ST Abeyratne was promoted to the rank of Major and taken over the Officer Commanding appoinment Until the Ordnance Procurement Company was approved in 1991, this continued as 'Ordnance Procurement Company'.

Lt Col T Shivashanmugam while serving as the Commanding Officer of RHQ SLAOC was also serving as the acting Director of the Directorate of Ordnance Services until January 1985. Then, Lt Col EDI de Fonseka (Subsequantly promoted to Rank of Colonel) served as the Director Ordnance Services until August 1986. Lt Col T Sivashanmugam was again appointed as the Director, Ordnance Sevices.

Therefore, the first senior officer to have held the appointment of Director, Directorate of Ordnance was Col EDI De Fonseka followed by Lt Col T Sivashanmugam. The undermentioned senior officers who held the appointment of Director Ordnance Service.