485 
NOTES 
OH" THE 
OFFICE WOKE OF A GARRISON BATTERY 
OE 
ROYAL ARTILLERY. 
BT 
MAJOE E. W. PHIPPS, E.A. 
Introduction. 
There is, I think, great need of a manual of battery office work that could be used 
by officers taking command of a battery, unaccustomed to the details of the large 
amount of clerical work .that now falls on batteries. I have no pretensions to write 
such a manual, but I print these notes as a contribution towards one, placing them 
at the disposal of any officer who may consider them useful. 
My chief aim has been to show the connection between the various books, and 
between the number of entries that a single casualty may render necessary. There 
is nothing new, original, or untried in these notes. The system of accounts is that 
enforced in India, while the instructions designed to keep up the connection between 
past and present entries, accounts, and letters, and to facilitate reference, are taken, 
often literally, and always in spirit, from the orders of the old 10th Brigade when 
under the command of Colonel (now Major-General) H. P. Goodenough. 
One omission may be explained. Many officers are intent on having a system 
of cross-totalled accounts, by means of which they believe they can obtain per¬ 
fect security against loss. No possible form of accounts prevents fraud; and as 
for errors, a clerk that cannot keep a simple system correctly will break down any 
complicated plan, and will, by erasures and corrections, reduce the cross-totalled, 
sheet to a state of chaos. Whenever I have been able to watch the progress of one 
of these complicated systems, sooner or later a breakdown has occurred, the 
explanation being “It worked beautifully, but my Pay Clerk is ill in hospital, his 
assistant is in the guard-room, and I have been too busy to attend to it.” It does 
not do to rely on a system that fails the moment any pressure comes on the battery, 
and that requires trained clerks to work it. If a battery has time to cross-check all 
its accounts, by all means let it be done; but the permanent system must be the 
very simplest possible. At present it is a mere chance whether a garrison battery 
has a Pay Clerk at all; and as far as my experience goes, I think it best to try to 
avoid any calculations or clerical work that can be spared. 
I should be glad to receive any suggestions from officers who may take an interest 
in these matters of ordinary routine. 
