Aldershot Command was a Home Command of the
British Army.
History
After the success of the Chobham Manoeuvres of 1853, reformers of the British Army decided to create a permanent training camp at
Aldershot. To begin the preliminary work a small party of
NCOs and men of the
Royal Engineers arrived in November 1853 on the site of the present
Princes Gardens in the town making them the first soldiers to arrive in Aldershot. These engineers were responsible for surveying and making the preliminary arrangements for The Camp at Aldershot.[1] The Camp was established at
Aldershot in 1854 on the recommendation of the
Commander-in-Chief,
Viscount Hardinge.[2][3][4] During the
Crimean War, regiments of
Militia embodied for home defence were housed at the camp, and the
Brigade of Guards used it for summer training, and were reviewed by
Queen Victoria.[5]
After the Crimean War, a division of Regular troops was permanently based at Aldershot, and ‘the Division at Aldershot’ (including artillery at Christchurch, Hampshire, and cavalry at Hounslow, Middlesex), became one of the most important home commands of the British Army.[6][7]
In January 1876 a ‘Mobilization Scheme for the forces in Great Britain and Ireland’ was published, with the ‘Active Army’ divided into eight army corps based on the major Commands and Districts.
2nd Corps was to be formed within Aldershot Command, based at Aldershot. This scheme disappeared in 1881, when the districts were retitled ‘District Commands’.[8] In 1898 (when Queen Victoria's son, the
Duke of Connaught, was
General Officer Commanding (GOC)) Aldershot Command was ranked I on the list. A purpose-built command headquarters was completed in 1895.[9]
The 1901 Army Estimates introduced by
St John Brodrick allowed for six army corps based on six regional commands. As outlined in a paper published in 1903, I Corps was to be formed in a reconstituted Aldershot Command, with HQ at Aldershot.[10] General Sir
Redvers Buller was appointed acting
General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOCinC) of I Corps in April 1903.[11]
Under Army Order No 28 of 1907 the Home Commands were reorganised to provide a basis for the
British Expeditionary Force (BEF).[12]
Composition of Aldershot Command 1907
The composition was as follows:[12] 1st Cavalry Brigade (Brig-Gen
Hon Julian Byng)
When the BEF was sent to France on the outbreak of the
First World War in August 1914, Aldershot Command provided the basis for
I Corps under Lieutenant-General
Sir Douglas Haig.[13] The
Territorial Force and
Special Reserve then took over home defence, with the assembly of
Central Force beginning on 18 August 1914.
First Army of Central Force was headquartered at Aldershot, with the Highland Division (later
51st (Highland) Division) and
Highland Mounted Brigade of the TF under command.[14] For the first two years of the war, command at Aldershot was divided between the Major-General, Administration (Major-General
Alexander Hamilton-Gordon) and the commander of Aldershot Training Centre (General
Sir Archibald Hunter). Aldershot Command was reinstated in 1916 under Hunter.
In August 1939 its geographical area encompassed parts of the following four counties:
Berkshire,
Hampshire,
Surrey, and
Sussex.[15] The exact boundaries were as follows: "From the
River Loddon where crossed by the
Southern Railway at Loddon Bridge (south-east of
Reading) along the railway through
Wokingham,
Bracknell and
Ascot to
Sunningdale–thence the eastern boundaries of the parishes of
Chobham and
Horsell to the railway at
Woking–thence southward along the railway (omitting the portions of the parishes of
Guildford and
Artington to the west of the railway and the three small portions of Sussex lying to the north of the railway) to
Liss–thence northward along the road leading to Reading, through
Selborne,
Alton and
Odiham (but inclusive of the portions of the parishes of Alton and
Chawton lying west of that road)–to
Swallowfield–thence along the
River Loddon to Loddon Bridge."[15]
On the outbreak of the war in September 1939, the General Officer Commanding Aldershot Command was
Lieutenant-General Sir
John Dill.[15][16] Regular troops in the command included the
1st Infantry Division and
2nd Infantry Division.[17] A similar process to August 1914 was repeated when Dill became GOC
I Corps in the new
British Expeditionary Force which was despatched to France.[18] In the event of an invasion of the UK, it was intended that each command could form the basis for a
field army.[19] However, on the outbreak of the war, Aldershot Command was used to form I Corps and then became responsible for providing drafts for
British Expeditionary Force.[20][21]
Unlike the other Home Commands, Aldershot had no Coast divisions or other defence forces under its command, and was solely responsible for providing drafts and reserve formations.[22]
Following defeat during the
Battle of France, the Army reorganised its forces based in the UK. For Aldershot Command, this resulted in being downgraded into Aldershot Area within the new
South Eastern Command on 15 February 1941. The new formation was formed by the splitting of
Eastern Command and absorbing Aldershot's geographical area.[23][24] South Eastern Command ceased to exist at the end of 1944,[25] and Aldershot was transferred to
Southern Command, without its own GOC.[26]
Post-War
GOCs were appointed to Aldershot District from 1944 to 1967, when it disappeared in the reorganisation that led to Southern Command being redesignated GHQ
UK Land Forces. From 1968, the HQ of
South East District was at Aldershot; it was renamed Southern District in 1992, and HQ
4th Division in 1995.[27]
Lieutenant-General Commanding Troops at Aldershot, and 1st Army Corps
10 January 1901 General Sir Redvers Buller VC GCB KCMG (on his arrival back from South Africa)[43]
25 October 1901 Lieutenant General
Sir Henry Hildyard, KCB (temporary when Buller was dismissed, pending the return from South Africa of French)[44][45]
^
abCol John J. Dunlop, The Development of the British Army 1899–1914, London: Methuen, 1938.
^Brigadier-General Sir James Edmonds, Military Operations, France and Belgium 1914, Volume I, (London: Macmillan, 3rd edn 1934; Woking: Shearer Publications, 1984 reprint) p 31.
^Brigadier-General Sir James Edmonds, Military Operations, France and Belgium 1914, Volume II (London: Macmillan, 1925; Imperial War Museum/Battery Press reprint (nd)) p 5.
Dunlop, John K. (1938). The Development of the British Army 1899–1914. London: Methuen.
OCLC59826361.
Ironside, Edmund (2018). Ironside: The Authorised Biography of Field Marshal Lord Ironside. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press.
ISBN978-0-75098-740-0.
U.S. War Department (1943). Technical Manual: Handbook on the British Army with Supplements on the Royal Air Force and Civilian Defense Organizations. Washington: U.S Government Printing Office.
OCLC19930228.