THE Royal Australian Army Pay Corps, one of the smallest Corps in the Army has had a very chequered existence in its 85 years. Raised and disbanded five times, it has only had a Regular Army component for the past 11 years of its life but has seen service in every theatre of war and other operations in which the Australian Army has participated since 1914.

Raised on September 13, 1914 as the 1st Australian Army Details Australian Army Pay Corps (AAPC) Unit AIF.

The first contingent AAPC (AIF) departed on October 13, 1916 for service in the Middle East, Western Front and Italy seeing service in all theatres of the war as part of the AIF.

In 1915 it was strengthened with the establishment of Militia Units before being disbanded on June 1, 1921 as most pay duties had reverted to civilian clerks in the Military Districts after 1918.

In August 1937 the AAPC was reformed as part of Citizen Military Forces (CMF) and was included in the raising of 2 AIF at the outbreak of war.

Corps members saw active service in the Middle East, South East Asia, Europe, PNG and adjoining islands, and in Darwin, under the guidance of the Chief Paymaster of 2AIF, Brig Guy Moore.

In 1946, after the war, AAPC was again disbanded, this time only for a short period of two years.

It was reraised in May 1948 and was granted the title Royal by King George VI in December of the same year.

The corps was a component of the CMF and provided volunteers to the regular component when required.

It was represented in Korea, Singapore, Malaya, Malaysia and South Vietnam from the 1950s to the 1970s.

RAAPC members were also appointed as Financial Advisers on survey operations in Indonesia, West Irian and the Pacific islands during the 1970s and 1980s.

During the majority of this period in the life of the Pay Corps, the director was the paymaster-in-chief - a civilian position.

The first Army officer was appointed as director in January 1978. Subsequent directors were all regular officers from the arms corps until the position of corps director was disestablished in December 1997.

A significant milestone in the life of the RAAPC occurred on July 1, 1990 when the Regular Army unit pay representatives joined the corps. For the first time in its history the Pay Corps had an ARA component.

The title Pay Corps is, and always has been, somewhat misleading.

While the provision of a pay service to the Army has always been one of the main reasons for its existence, it has not been the only one. The corps has always had the role of financial management, especially on operations.

Financial advisers and cash offices have been included in every major deployment of troops undertaken by the Army.

The maintenance of financial accounts, providing cash and monetary exchanges and the payment of the deployed forces' bills cover those tasks that most people would not be aware of, yet are such an essential aspect to successful deployments.

For the past 85 years, the Pay Corps has served the Army in peace and war - the current members of the corps look forward to continuing this level of service for the next 85 years.

By Lt-Col Gus Pauza, Col Comdt RAAPC