The Princess Royal Barracks, Deepcut, commonly referred to as Deepcut Barracks, is a former

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 Gurkha ...

installation near

Camberley Camberley is a town in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately south-west of Central London. The town is in the far west of the county, close to the borders of Hampshire and Berkshire. Once part of Windsor Forest, Camb ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

. It was 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 ...

(RLC) and also the Defence College of Logistics, Policing and Administration, before both moved to

Worthy Down Camp Worthy Down Camp is a tri-service establishment near Winchester, 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 ...

History

The area had been used as a training ground for the army from the late 19th century with no formal military infrastructure until 1900 when the

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 head ...

commenced the build of a number of camps, including Blackdown. The land was owned by the Pain family of Frimley Green who built a number of high status dwellings on the land. Blackdown Camp was established in the late 1903 initially to accommodate artillery and infantry, centred on Winchester house, renamed Blackdown House when it was appropriated by 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 (MoD). This article contains text from ...

for military use. The barracks built in Blackdown Camp were Minden, Dettingen, Alma, Frith, Aisne and Marne Barracks. The Victorian houses were demolished in the 1950s, the land around Blackdown House being left to forestry, and around Dettingen House being redeveloped for a modernised Officers Mess. The site of Aisne and Marne Barracks were also re-developed and used for Military Family Housing. What remained of Frith Barracks were closed in the late 1970s and the land left to vegetation and used as a Military Training Area. Between 1967 and 1971 Minden Barracks was demolished and rebuilt as Blackdown Barracks (renamed Princess Royal Barracks after

Anne, Princess Royal Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950), is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of ...

). The Barracks were the garrison of the

Royal Army Ordnance Corps The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equip ...

, and the School of Ordnance, until it merged into the

in 1993. Dettingen and Alma Barracks have been closed and sold, and by 2002, demolished for housing development. A decision to sell the barracks was announced in January 2008 by the then Armed Forces Minister

Bob Ainsworth Robert William Ainsworth (born 19 June 1952) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry North East from 1992 to 2015, and was the Secretary of State for Defence from 2009 to 2010. Following the g ...

, who said that the sale would not take place before 2013. In 2013, following the

Defence Training Review The Defence Training Review was established by the then Defence Secretary, Lord Robertson, on 22 July 1999 to examine all individual training and education, Service and civilian, in the British armed forces. The review report, ''Modernising Defen ...

and the merger of tri-service training to a single location, it was confirmed that the barracks were to close with the land being released for housing development. Part of the barracks has been demolished to facilitate the construction of the new 1,200 homes in the

Mindenhurst Mindenhurst is a new neighbourhood in the village of Deepcut in Surrey, England, which is being built on the Princess Royal Barracks. It is in the London commuter belt giving families a rural lifestyle whilst being able to easily commute into t ...

neighbourhood. Work on decommissioning the barracks is expected to last until 2021.

Trainee deaths at Deepcut

Between 1995 and 2002 there were four deaths of trainees at the barracks which prompted families, the public and Ministry of Defence itself to call for investigation into any possible links, following four

Coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within the coroner's jur ...

's commissioned investigations and inquests. One produced a verdict of

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

by gunshot wounds, the other three returned

open verdict The open verdict is an option open to a coroner's jury at an inquest in the legal system of England and Wales. The verdict means the jury confirms the death is suspicious, but is unable to reach any other verdicts open to them. Mortality studies c ...

s. On 3 June 2016, a Coroner's report into the death of Private Cheryl James in 1995 found that the death was "self-inflicted" and that Private James fired the gun intentionally.

References

External links

''The Scotsman'' feature page on Deepcut barracks deathsBBC news articleThe Royal Logistic Corps
{{Authority control Barracks in England Buildings and structures in Surrey Education in Surrey D Military installations established in 1903 Royal Logistic Corps 1903 establishments in the United Kingdom