History of the Technical Services Corps (TSC)
The Technical Services Corps (TSC) has its roots in the early days of the Union Defence Force. As early as the 1920s, skilled tradesmen supported the Artillery and South African Air Force by maintaining vehicles, weapons, and aircraft.
During World War I, South Africans worked alongside British forces, maintaining and repairing military equipment under harsh battlefield conditions. One pioneer, Col P.G. Davies, helped establish mobile workshops and what would later be called Light Aid Detachments (LADs).
As the threat of another war loomed in the 1930s, the need for trained technical personnel grew. In 1937, a technical training school was established for SAAF apprentices, and in 1939, the Technical Services Corps was officially formed—just weeks before South Africa entered World War II.
The TSC took on responsibility for a wide range of technical functions, including:
Repair and maintenance of military vehicles and tanks
Weapons storage and armament repair
Management of explosives and munitions
Supporting coastal defence and mobile workshops
One of the first to serve in the new Corps was Melville Kietzman, who deployed with a light tank unit to East Africa and later served in Italy. Many like him would go on to serve with distinction across North Africa and Europe.
To meet wartime demands, the Central Organisation of Technical Training (COTT) was launched in 1939. It trained thousands of men and women in trades such as fitting, machining, blacksmithing, and welding. Women played a key role—some even worked on rifle repairs and tested them personally.
Over time, the TSC developed a strong identity. After using interim badges early on, the Corps adopted its now-familiar cap badge in 1960: a powerful stallion standing over a bolt of lightning—symbolising mechanical strength and electrical power.
Throughout its history, the TSC remained a vital part of the South African military. Whether in workshops or on the front lines, its members kept the army moving—often under the most difficult conditions.
Today, the Technical Services Veterans Association honours this proud legacy and the men and women who served with skill, dedication, and pride.
The History of the Technical Services Corps Badge
During July 1940 the post of Deputy Director General of Technical Services was created. Lt Col G G Ewer, DSO, assumed duty as Officer Commanding Technical Services Corps. During this period a close liaison was being maintained between Deputy Director Technical Services (Workshops) (DDTS (W)) and the Base MT Workshops at Premier mine, where several mobile workshop units were being formed. The function of the Officer Commanding “ T “ Services Corps was similar to those normally required of an Officer Commanding a Regiment.
Workshops and warehouses at Premier Mine were taken over as the TSC base camp, with the married quarters of the mine in Oak Avenue used as the Officers Mess.
At this stage a TSC badge was designed, and it was obvious at the outset that little thought had gone into its creation. Fashioned in copper (not brass or white metal as all other badges of the time) it had a similar shield to the old SAOC badge and in the upper fourth was the initial letters TSC/TDK. Below this was an air screw to signify the connection between the SAAF and the new Corps (Motor Mechanics, Armament Artificers, Instrument Makers, Fitters and Turners and Armourer Apprentices). To digress, there were ten young SAAF Armourer Apprentices undergoing training with their Ordnance Corps counterparts at the time the TSC was formed, but they were not retained in the Air Force. The three loaded artillery shells placed in an upright position represented the Corps’ involvement in the manufacture, storage and distribution of munitions. These shells were set against a typical South African veldt landscape. The scroll was bisected by the point of a shield and the left scroll bore the words “South Africa “and on the right scroll “Suid Afrika“ and the whole badge was 1⅛ inch (28 mm ) wide.
The new badge was received with very mixed reactions throughout the Corps, the full time Volunteers who had signed on for the duration of the war were only too pleased to get a badge they could call their own, and not have to wear the small Springbok “looking through a porthole” badge. The hard core of Permanent Force (PF) men who had already built up an Esprit de Corps in their pre- war formations stubbornly clung either to their Air Force or Ordnance Corps badges, often wearing them when “stepping–out” and reluctantly donning the TSC badge when in camp or the workshops. Also proudly worn were the old buttons, while the “General Service “button” bearing the Union Coat of Arms was looked upon in disdain.
The SAOC helmet flash was made up of horizontal bars of dark (Ordnance Blue), Orange- Tangerine (sealed PF side) and again Dark Blue. With the advent of the TSC, the upper bar of Dark Blue was replaced by sky blue, thus incorporating the SAAF helmet flash colour. In later years when the Tiffies went “Up North “they wore their black berets with a strip cut from the helmet flash and stitched the tricolour below their badges. This in turn, caused confusion amongst British Troops who were often asking why TSC men wore their 1939–1945 Star Medal ribbon on their berets. It so happened that this medal ribbon had the same colour combination as the Technical Service Corps.
A second TSC badge was designed and then issued during 1942 and this was much more generally accepted throughout the Corps. Manufactured from a dull bronze, it was approximately the same size as the previous badge. It depicted an aerial bomb in a vertical position – illustrating TSC continued involvement with the production, storage and delivery of all munitions and military explosives. The bomb was superimposed on a vehicle wheel, for the bulk of the TSC task then, as now, has to do with the maintenance and repair of all types of vehicles. The scroll was bisected by the nose of the bomb and the left portion of the scroll bore the initials T.S.C. and on the right, the Afrikaans, T.D.K.
The year of 1942 saw great changes on the war fronts of the world. After the sneak attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941, the United States entered the war and the turning point in the Pacific Theatre of operations was the Battle of Midway in early June 1942. On the Eastern Front the German Army was being bled white in the frozen wastes of Stalingrad and Leningrad, the former lasting from August 1942 to February 1943. In the Western Desert, the Deutsches Afrika Korps was stopped at El Alamein by the South Africans in July 1942 and rolled back by Montgomery’s 8th Army on 23 October 1942.
The year 1960 was a major one in the history of the Technical Services Corps, for this was the year that the present proud badge came into being. The bimetal device was adopted on 4 July 1960, replacing the cap badge of 1942. The stallion in white metal is alert, wears a headstall and stands with its hind feet on the subjacent scroll (a position suggesting the rampant and referred to by a Major TJ Edwards
in his book “Regimental Badges” as for-scene). The background is a flash of lightning represented in brass.
The stallion with headstall indicates power under control, mechanical or horsepower, while the lightning flash symbolises electrical power. These symbols were freely adopted from the badge of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, which derived inspiration from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
The scroll is subdivided into three proportions, the first containing the initials T.D.K., the second is without letters while the third has T.S.C.
The Instrument Shop at 61 Base Workshop was deeply involved in the manufacture of the prototype badge. A representative from a badge-manufacturing firm in Pretoria had been consulted and he stated that it was not economically possible to manufacture the badge as proposed. Sgt. PJ Nel was in charge of the Instrument Shop, and he instructed two apprentices to get on with the job, under his supervision. Pte HJ Strydom made a tracing of General Christiaan de Wet’s famous white Arabian, Fleur, from a photograph of the larger-than-life equestrian statue outside the Raadsaal in Bloemfontein. This tracing, without the figure of De Wet and the saddle, but with headstall was transferred to aluminium, cut out and Strydom carefully sculpted the contours of the body. Pte JS de Villiers cut the lightning flash from brass – Cloete and the lettering carefully cut on an engraving machine. Another apprentice suggested to Strydom that before he finish the sculpting, he traced in the fact that Fleur was a stallion, after all, one cannot see the gender of the equestrian figure on the REME badge. With tongue in cheek this detail was performed and, much to everyone’s surprise in later months the badge was approved in total.
A year later and shortly after South Africa was declared a Republic, the first of the new TSC badges was issued throughout the Corps. A rumour began several years later that the badge had won an international design award. This has no foundation, for had it been the case the Director TS would certainly have a record in the form of a certificate, letter or plaque and this has not been forthcoming. The rumour persists and lends a certain lustre and mystique to the Corps, and can only contribute to elan and esprit de corps.
History of the Field Workshops
