Worthy Down Camp is a tri-service establishment near

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, in Hampshire, England. It forms part of the wider Winchester Garrison and houses the headquarters of the Defence College of Logistics, Policing and Administration (DCLPA), as well as the headquarters of the

Royal Logistic Corps The Royal Logistic Corps provides logistic support functions to the British Army. It is the largest Corps in the Army. History The Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) was formed on 5 April 1993, by the union of five British Army corps: * Royal Engine ...

and

Adjutant General's Corps The Adjutant General's Corps is a corps in the British Army responsible for many of its general administrative services, named for the Adjutant-General to the Forces (now the Commander Home Command). As of 2002, the AGC had a staff of 7,000 peopl ...

. DCLPA provides logistic support, policing, guarding, personnel administration and leadership training to all three armed services. The site is north of Winchester, between the villages of

South Wonston South Wonston is a village on the outskirts of the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. The population of the parish of South Wonston was estimated in 2017 to be 2,870. Governance South Wonston is part of the Wonston and Michelde ...

and

Kings Worthy Kings Worthy is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, approximately two miles north-east of Winchester. Kings Worthy was a tithing of Barton Stacey when the Domesday Book was written. St Mary's church The parish church, built in 186 ...

History

An airfield was established here in 1918 for the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

, and became

RAF Worthy Down RAF Worthy Down was a Royal Air Force station built in 1918, north of Winchester, Hampshire, England. After it was transferred to Royal Navy control in 1939 as RNAS Worthy Down (HMS Kestrel), the airfield remained in use throughout the Second Wo ...

. In 1939 the airfield was transferred to the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

and used by the

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

until 1950, then as an engineering training school. The site was handed over to the

Royal Army Pay Corps The Royal Army Pay Corps (RAPC) was the corps of the British Army responsible for administering all financial matters. It was amalgamated into the Adjutant General's Corps in 1992. History The first "paymasters" have existed in the army before t ...

in 1960 and became home to the Electronic Accounting Development Unit who housed their computer centre with its

IBM 705 The IBM 700/7000 series is a series of large-scale (mainframe) computer systems that were made by IBM through the 1950s and early 1960s. The series includes several different, incompatible processor architectures. The 700s use vacuum-tube lo ...

system there. The computer was used to process the 1961 UK census, which was the first to be processed electronically. With the merger of the Royal Army Pay Corps into the Adjutant General's Corps in 1992, the site became the headquarters of the Adjutant General's Corps and a training depot for members of the Staff and Personnel Support, Education and Training Services and Army Legal Service branches. The

Defence Food Services School Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

was built on the site in 2009. In 2012 the RAF School of Administration moved to Worthy Down from

Southwick Park Southwick Priory or Our Lady at Southwick () was a priory of Augustinian canons founded in Portchester Castle on Portsmouth Harbour and later transferred north to Southwick, Hampshire, England. It ceased at the Dissolution of the Monasterie ...

, near Portsmouth. On 9 June 2014 the Ministry of Defence announced that a new £250 million Defence College of Logistics, Policing and Administration was to be built at Worthy Down, with training facilities and living accommodation for up to 2,000 students and staff. The facility, which brought the training for key support roles for the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force onto a single site for the first time, was completed in 2018.

References

{{reflist Installations of the British Army Barracks in England Adjutant General's Corps Military history of Hampshire