Warminster Garrison is a military

garrison A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a mil ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, on the edge of

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...

in Wiltshire, England.

History

The history of

Warminster Warminster () is an ancient market town with a nearby garrison, and civil parish in south west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish had a population of about 17,000 in 2011. The 11th-century Minster Church of S ...

's military garrison can be traced back to

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...

, where a small camp was located on the side of the current

Battlesbury Barracks Battlesbury Barracks is a British Army installation in Warminster, Wiltshire, England. It is the permanent base of the Royal Dragoon Guards, serving as armoured cavalry. History The barracks is on the eastern outskirts of the town, near the ancie ...

(part of the garrison). However, following

Options for Change Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in summer 1990 after the end of the Cold War. Until this point, UK military strategy had been almost entirely focused on defending Western Europe against the Soviet Armed Forces, ...

announced following the

Dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

and subsequent end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, Headquarters, Combined Arms Training Centre (CATC) located in Warminster was dual-headed as Headquarters, Warminster Garrison and Warminster Training Centre on 1 April 1993. This itself formed between a merger of the now defunct Headquarters

School of Infantry A School of Infantry provides training in weapons and infantry tactics to infantrymen of a nation's military forces. Schools of infantry include: Australia *Australian Army – School of Infantry, Lone Pine Barracks at Singleton, NSW. France ...

and the Barracks, Warminster (today known as Battlesbury Barracks). All three of these elements merged into the Warminster Training Centre (WTC). On 4 May 1995, as part of the second phase of Options for Change, the Infantry Support Weapons Wing at

AAC Netheravon Netheravon is a village and civil parish on the River Avon and A345 road, about north of the town of Amesbury in Wiltshire, South West England. It is within Salisbury Plain. The village is on the right (west) bank of the Avon, opposite Fittle ...

closed and its components moved to WTC as part of the Infantry Training Centre (ITC). To align its name with its evolving role, CATC was renamed Land Warfare Training Centre in June 2000, which was further refined in 2002 to become Land Warfare Centre (LWC) with HQ Training Support Command (Land) becoming HQ LWC. Thus WTC became known as Land Warfare Centre. Sometime before 2016, LWC was renamed as

Waterloo Lines Waterloo Lines is a British Army barracks on Imber Road in Warminster, Wiltshire, England. It is currently home to a number of Army specialist training schools and a sizeable portion of the Headquarters Field Army (not to be confused with Army ...

Current occupants

The current occupants of the garrison as of April 2021 is as follows: * Commander, Warminster Garrison –

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

Garrison Sergeant Major A garrison sergeant major (GSM) in the British Army is the senior warrant officer of a garrison and holds the rank of warrant officer class 1. The GSM London District, always a guardsman, holds one of the four most senior WO1 appointments in the ...

– Warrant Officer 1

* Headquarters, Land Warfare Centre * Headquarters,

Infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...

* Headquarters,

Defence Training Estate Defence Training Estates is an organisation within the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence. It is the operating division of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, and is responsible for the management of the ...

* Regimental Headquarters,

Small Arms School Corps The Small Arms School Corps (SASC) is a small corps of the British Army, established in 1853 by Lord Hardinge. Its personnel provide advice and instruction to infantry weapon trainers throughout the army, in order to maintain proficiency in th ...

* Specialist Weapons School ** Gurkha Company (Tavoleto) –

OPFOR An opposing force (alternatively enemy force, abbreviated OPFOR) is a military unit tasked with representing an enemy, usually for training purposes in war game scenarios. The related concept of aggressor squadron is used by some air forces. ...

role * Junior Staff Centre (part of Sandhurst Group) *

Combined Arms Tactical Trainer The Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (CATT) is the British Army's primary tactical battlegroup simulator, consisting of over 150 networked simulators which replicate the interiors of armoured vehicles. It has sites at Warminster in Wiltshire (near ...

* Infantry Trials and Development Unit * Reconnaissance and Armoured Tactics Division (part of

The Armour Centre ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Bovington Camp Bovington Camp () is a British Army military base in Dorset, England. Together with Lulworth Camp it forms part of Bovington Garrison. The garrison is home to The Armour Centre and contains two barracks complexes and two forest and heathland tr ...

)

* Headquarters, Strike Experimentation Group *

Royal Dragoon Guards The Royal Dragoon Guards (RDG) is a cavalry regiment of the British Army. It was formed in 1992 by the amalgamation of two other regiments: The 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards and the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. Based in Battlesbury B ...

– since November 2020 * Joint Asset Management and Engineering Solutions (JAMES) Delivery Team

Harman Lines Harman Lines is a military installation of the British Army, which is part of Warminster Garrison on the Salisbury Plain. Harman Lines is on Sack Road in Warminster, Wiltshire, United Kingdom. History In 1965, Warminster saw a large expansion, ...

* Falcon Area Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron,

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 ...

(28 Engineer Regiment) ** Close Support Troop,

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

(detached from 28 Engineer Regiment, supporting Falcon Squadron) * Land Warfare Centre Battlegroup Light Aid Detachment,

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is a corps of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's Professional Engineers". History Prior to REME's for ...

*Harman Lines Light Aid Detachment,

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Footnotes

British Army Garrisons