ABSTRACT
The title of a petty officer in the navy who attends to the helm, signals, and the like, or an army officer whose task is to supply clothing, subsistence, and accommodation for the troops. ‘Quartermaster,’ says an American officer in The Magic Army, by Leslie Thomas, ‘let me have a loudhailer.’ There are two naval examples of ‘quartermaster’ used vocatively in Doctor at Sea, by Richard Gordon. In Thirteen Days, by Ian Jefferies, a quartermaster in the army is addressed in a friendly way as ‘Q’.
