The Provost Marshal (Army), who is appointed by the Secretary of State to be the Inspector of Military Establishments, is the Service Director of the Military Provost Staff which is an integral part of Provost Branch within the Adjutant General's Corps. The Military Provost Staff (MPS) recruits exclusively from other Arms or Services. Most come from the Regular Army and are all carefully selected for the leadership, military management and training skills necessary to motivate the predominantly young Service offenders with whom they will work.
The role of the MPS is to provide such military establishments as required by the Secretary of State. The term 'military establishment' is deemed to mean military prisons, detention barracks or military corrective training centres, each of which would detain offenders whose sentence differed in category, described in more detail below.
The functions of the MPS, in peace, conflict and war, are:
to man and operate, as required, military prisons, detention barracks or corrective training centres;
to train personnel responsible for the custody of servicemen under sentence or those, servicemen or otherwise, who need to be detained in safe custody or close arrest;
to provide operational support to the operational commander in whose area they are deployed.
Today, the major commitment of the MPS is to 'man and operate' the Military Corrective Training Centre (MCTC) at Berechurch Hall Camp, Colchester, where it has been since 1947.
Additionally, MPS provide a valuable advice service to Commanding Officers and others who are charged with providing unit detention centres.
In summary, by ensuring the Army is provided with provost support to the highest standard, the AGC(Pro) {(RMP) & (MPS)} allows commanders and soldiers to devote their time and energies to the task in hand, without being distracted by discipline worries. Good provost support leads to high morale which, in turn, is a key element to success.
Sword of Peace is presented to members of the Military Provost Staff Corps at the Military Corrective Training Centre in Colchester.
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Regimental march - "The Metropolitan March".
