- For the Soviet terms, see People's Commissariat and Commissar
A commissariat is the department of an army charged with the provision of supplies, both food and forage, for the troops. The supply of military stores such as ammunition is not included in the duties of a commissariat. In almost every army the duties of transport and supply are performed by the same corps of departmental troops. An officer of a commissariat is called a Commissary.
British Army
In the British Army, the Commissariat was a uniformed civilian service until 1869, when its officers transferred to the new Control Department as commissioned Army officers. The supply organisation of the British Army went through a number of incarnations, including the Commissariat and Transport Department, Staff and Corps, before becoming the Army Service Corps in 1888.
In the "Major General's Song" in Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan, the Major-General hopes to someday know "precisely what is meant by commissariat" (satirizing the 19th century British officers' lack of concrete military knowledge).
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