Headquarters
Company of an
Infantry Battalion contained the staff and troops that kept the
companies of the battalion fed, clothed, shod, in contact with
battalion headquarters and each other.
First World War
A First World War
battalion contained no Headquarters Company, instead having all
relevant subunits attached directly to
Battalion Headquarters.
Second World War
Early War
Headquarters Company
at the outset of the Second World War contained six platoons.
Late War
In 1942, the carrier,
mortar, and pioneer platoons moved to
Support Company and the Anti-Aircraft Platoon was deleted in
favour an an
Anti-Tank Platoon, which also fell under Support Company.
Headquarters company consisted of a transport section which, in
later stages of the war, maintained and operated more than a
dozen types of vehicles numbering as many as fifty trucks,
fifteen motorcycles, and a number of jeeps and staff vehicles.
It also included the quartermaster's section, which was
responsible for the supply of all the thousand items of
equipment needed by the Regiment. This company was a
tremendously complicated organization that included butchers,
mechanics, drivers, storemen, technical repairmen, instrument
repairmen, batmen, cooks, postal clerks, sanitary men, water men
and many others. Most of these soldiers (all infantry trained)
seldom had an opportunity to fire a shot in anger, but they were
often the recipients of the enemy's shelling, and, in many
cases, of his machine-gun fire as well. Without them, fighting
echelon could not have survived a single battle, and their
importance to the Regiment was not to be assessed on the basis
of the number of medals which they won.1
Post War
Headquarters Company
remained a subunit of postwar infantry battalions.
Notes
-
Mowat, Farley. The Regiment
(McClelland & Stewart Inc., Toronto, ON, 1955) ISBN 0771066945
(paperback edition)
Officer Commanding (Could also be a Captain)
Company Quartermaster Sergeant 
Clerk