Tidworth Camp is a military installation at

Tidworth Tidworth is a garrison town and civil parish in south-east Wiltshire, England, on the eastern edge of Salisbury Plain. Lying on both sides of the A338 about north of the A303 primary route, the town is approximately west of Andover, south ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershir ...

, England. It forms part of the Tidworth, Netheravon and Bulford (TidNBul) Garrison.

History

The Camp was established when the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence (MoD ...

acquired a 19th-century mansion – Tedworth House – and large tracts of land to its north in 1897. Headquarters Southern Command was established at Tidworth Camp in 1905. Lucknow Barracks and Mooltan Barracks were completed in 1905, Tidworth

Military Hospital A military hospital is a hospital owned and operated by a military. They are often reserved for the use of military personnel and their dependents, but in some countries are made available to civilians as well. They may or may not be located on a ...

was finished in 1907. Aliwal Barracks, Assaye Barracks, Bhurtpore Barracks, Candahar Barracks, Delhi Barracks and Jellalabad Barracks were added later, and a Royal Ordnance depot was established during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

. The barracks are named for battles in India and Afghanistan: Aliwal,

Assaye Assaye is a small village in the Jalna district of the state of Maharashtra in western India. The village was the location of the Battle of Assaye in 1803, fought between the Maratha Empire and the British East India Company The East Ind ...

, Bhurtpore, Candahar,

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders wi ...

Jellalabad Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلال‌آباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and divisio ...

and Mooltan. (Jellalabad Barracks should not be confused with the former barracks of the same name in Taunton, Somerset). There was also an army hospital during the First World War. A description of it, including actions taken to address a suspected meningitis outbreak, is provided by Arthur Bullock, who spent around a week there in 1918. In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the Camp was home from 1942 to 1944 to various formations of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

including 7th Armored Division (14 June to 7 August 1944), 9th Armored Division, and 8th Armored Division. HQ Southern Command left the Camp and moved to

Erskine Barracks Erskine Barracks was a military installation at Fugglestone St Peter, in Wilton parish some northwest of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England. History The site, which had been farmland until used for temporary army buildings during World War II, ...

near Fugglestone St Peter in 1949. The military hospital closed in March 1977. Extensive reconstruction at the Camp involving 160 new or refurbished buildings was carried out under Project Allenby Connaught between 2006 and 2014. Tedworth House had various military uses, including providing accommodation for nurses; from 1977 to 2011 it was the Officers' Mess for the Camp. It is now a recovery centre operated by the

Help for Heroes Help for Heroes (H4H) is a British charity which provides lifelong recovery support to British Armed Forces service personnel who have been wounded or injured in the line of duty, and to their families, originally only since 11 September 2001, th ...

charity.

Military cemetery

Tidworth Military Cemetery, north of the Camp and surrounded by farmland, is under the care of the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mi ...

. 417 First World War burials from Tidworth, and from Fargo Military Hospital near

Larkhill Larkhill is a garrison town in the civil parish of Durrington, Wiltshire, England. It lies about west of the centre of Durrington village and north of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. It is about north of Salisbury. The settlement ...

, include many of Australian or New Zealand servicemen. There are also 106 graves of the

and 40 of other nationalities.

Former branch railway

A branch from the

Midland and South Western Junction Railway The Midland and South Western Junction Railway (M&SWJR) was an independent railway built to form a north–south link between the Midland Railway and the London and South Western Railway in England, allowing the Midland and other companies' ...

at Ludgershall was built in 1901 and opened to passengers in 1902. Goods tracks known as Tidworth Military Railway continued west from Tidworth station into the military area. The branch returned to military control in 1955 and was closed in 1963.

Barracks

The barracks which encompass the camp include: * Aliwal Barracks ** King's Royal Hussars **

Royal Tank Regiment The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as th ...

* Assaye Barracks ** Queen's Royal Hussars ** 4th Armoured Medical Regiment,

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps ...

**3rd Armoured Close Support Battalion, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers * Bhurtpore Barracks **1st Armoured Medical Regiment, Royal Army Medical Corps * Candahar Barracks **10 Army Education Centre Group, Adjutant General's CorpsArmy Policy & Secretariat,
FOI(A) Request relating to current AECs (7 December 2020).
whatdotheyknow.com.'' Retrieved 8 December 2020. *Delhi Barracks **Headquarters,

1st Armoured Infantry Brigade The 1st Armoured Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the British Army with a long history including service during both the First and the Second World Wars. It was based at Tidworth Camp. Previously, it has been designated 1st (Guards ...

**Headquarters, 1st Artillery Brigade **6th Armoured Close Support Battalion, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers *Jellalabad Barracks ** Headquarters South West **4th Armoured Close Support Battalion, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers *Lucknow Barracks **1st Battalion, Royal Welsh **British Army Bands Tidworth *** Band of the Royal Artillery ***Band of the Corps of Royal Engineers ***Band of the Adjutant General's Corps *Mooltan Barracks **1st Battalion,

Royal Regiment of Fusiliers The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (often referred to as the Royal Fusiliers or, simply, the Fusiliers) is an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Queen's Division. Currently, the regiment has two battalions: the 1st battalion, part o ...

*Prince Philip Lines ** 5th Force Support Battalion, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers

References

{{reflist Installations of the British Army Barracks in England Military history of Wiltshire Tidworth