Information and pictures about the military in Warminster and district including The Tank Barracks, The School Of Infantry, The Land Warfare Centre, Boreham Barracks, Battlesbury Barracks, Knook Camp, Sutton Veny, Boyton and Corton, Codford, Longbridge Deverill, Salisbury Plain, etc.
Canvas tents for the soldiers in camp in and adjacent The Cleeve, Sherrington, in the Wylye Valley, circa 1915. Washing is hanging out to dry on the fence in the foreground and also on lines strung between some of the tents. The photograph was taken by Alfred Vowles of Porlock, Somerset.
From The Wiltshire Times, Saturday 3rd October 1914:
Codford. Kitchener’s Army In Camp.
Last Sunday a glorious sunshine was tempered by a light, health-giving breeze. In and out among the hundreds of bell tents and up and down the long camp lines stretched over the broad acres of pasture land around Codford sunbeams and wind-eddies played hide and seek . . . . . . Could the sweethearts or wives of these men of the North have seen their charmers learning the arts of soldiery in this delightful Wiltshire glen, it would hearten them in the loneliness which must be theirs till Jock and Joe, Harry and Ned come back to their native heath once more [and so on for a column and a half . . . . . ].
Wilfred Middlebrook, in his newspaper serial, The Wylye Valley, written in 1949, makes a reference to Sundial Farm at Corton and its use by the military three years before the First World War. He stated:
“In 1911 there were some big army manoeuvres in the district, and officials were sent to Corton to find accommodation for the Scots Greys. A hundred men were to be quartered in barns and outbuildings, and two officers in the house of Sundial Farm. When the day came, the “two’ officers had increased to seven, with a staff of fifteen who slept in tents on the lawn. One of the seven officers was the late Prince Arthur of Connaught, and another, Lord Brassey.”
Middlebrook goes on to say that Corton people were “proud of having such celebrities in their midst,” and adds “A good story is told of Prince Arthur, who one day called for his valet in vain. Then he went down into the kitchen, where he found the valet fast asleep in the big armchair. His pipe had fallen on his chest, and some joker had placed a large doll in each of his arms! The Prince could not help laughing, and as he motioned the others out of the room he whispered “Let him alone; he’s happy’!”
From The Wiltshire Times, Saturday 11th April 1874:
Volunteer Drill.
On Easter Monday a drill of the 1st Battalion, Wiltshire Rifle Volunteers, was held at Warminster. Corps from Salisbury, Trowbridge, Bradford, Westbury and Warminster took part. On arrival the company, numbering between 300 and 400, marched to Greenhill. After refreshments of sandwiches and ale, which the officers had surprisingly provided, a call to arms was sounded, and the afternoon was spent skirmishing and firing blank cartridges, etc.
From The Warminster Parish Magazine And Church Register, March 1868:
On Septuagesima Sunday our Rifle Volunteers attended the afternoon service in the Parish Church [St. Denys], where a sermon from Genesis ii, 15, was preached to them by their chaplain the Vicar. They mustered seventy, a better attendance than there has been for some time at a church parade. We must hope that the proposal to hold a Camp during the summer on our downs may be carried out. Few things are more calculated to add to the general efficiency of the force than their thus embarking for a few days in a soldier’s life.
