This year marks the 75th anniversary of the forma-

tion of the AACC and they, unlike our own Corps, 

have survived numerous reorganisations and 

changes during their three quarters of a century 

history. At its peak, the post-war Corps strength 

was over 2000 but is now down to 367 including 

officers. To many of those past and present, it is 

only a matter of time before the AACC becomes 

yet another military casualty of commercialisation 

and reorganisation. But that said, 75 years as a 

stand-alone Corps is worthy of celebration, out-

lasting our own Corps by 25 years!

The similarity between the histories of both 

Corps is really marked; both were instigated by sin-

gularly minded individuals who had the foresight, 

vision and powers of persuasion to create a profes-

sional Corps for catering within their respective 

armies. In our case it was Sir Isidore Salmon the 

honorary catering adviser to the British Army from 

March 1938 until his death; for the Australian’s it 

was Sir Cedric Stanton Hicks, again the honorary 

catering adviser. Sir Isidore came from an industry 

background whilst Sir Cedric was previously pro-

fessor of human physiology and pharmacology at 

the University of Adelaide.

The “Ration Assassins” and the 

Australian Army Catering Corps:  

75 years and still going…just!

The cap badges are remarkably similar both 

depicting the famous or infamous flaming caul-

dron and the mottoes identical as ‘We Sustain’. 

The regimental colours are almost the same with 

the Australians Slate Grey and Yellow compared 

to our Grebe Grey and Yellow. Both organisations 

were extremely proud of their Army Schools of 

Catering, the ACC of course at Aldershot and the 

Australians at Puckapunyal, an army base in central 

Victoria, South-East Australia. Their name is taken 

from the aboriginal for a large hill that is set within 

the training area which has been variously trans-

lated as “the outer barbarians”. Perhaps more of a 

comment to those who were trained there. In the 

case of Aldershot, the name may have been derived 

from the Alder trees that populated the heathlands 

of an area that was described prior to 1850 as “a 

lonely wasteland, unsuitable for agriculture with 

a scant population”. Some might say that this has 

been what it has been like since much of the British 

Army pulled out, but now subject to significant 

re-development.

As well as having chef trades the AACC also 

had stewards until they ceased to exist in 2014. 

While we trained stewards they never wore the 

Before the formation of the Australian Army Catering Corps (AACC) in 1943, the regimental cooks 

that were the basis of catering at unit level were nicknamed the “ration assassins” by their Aussie 

comrades in arms. Over the intervening 75 years that reputation has changed dramatically to the 

professional chefs of the Corps today.

Back row, second from 
the right: Cpl Kay on his 
B1 Course November 
1962 to January 1963, 
Nee Soon, Singapore

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ACC ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER