The RAOC can trace its ancestry back as far as 1414 when a civilian Office of Ordnance was created becoming a Military Board of Ordnance in 1683. The Board of Ordnance until its abolition in 1855 supplied weapons and ammunition to the whole Army, and was also entirely responsible for the Royal Artillery (RA) and the Royal Engineers (RE).

In 1792 the Field Train Department was formed under the Board's control. Numerous titles, departments and corps names ensued, with Officers and Other Ranks being members of different departments. This continued after 1896, when the Officers were assigned to the Army Ordnance Department (AOD), while Warrant Officers, NCOs and Soldiers were placed in the Army Ordnance Corps (AOC). It was not until after World War One in 1918, that the two were amalgamated to form the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.

The RAOC continued to serve the British Army until 1993, when it was amalgamated with the Royal Corps of Transport (RCT) , Royal Pioneer Corps (RPC), Army Catering Corps (ACC) and the Postal Courier Service of the Royal Engineers (RE) to become the Royal Logistics Corps (RLC).

Traditionally the role of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) and its forbears has been the procurement, storage and issue of armaments, ammunition and warlike materiel.

During the 1965 McLeod reorganisation the supply functions of the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) were transferred to the Corps, it became the sole supply Corps of the Army. The transport functions of the RASC became the Royal Corps of Transport (RCT). Since that time the RAOC became responsible for everything the Army needed to fight, move and subsist.

The Corps motto is Sua Tela Tonanti which literally translated means "His missiles thundering (of Jupiter)" But within the Corps the historical usage was "Unto the Thunderer his Arms" later changing to "To the Warrior his Arms"