Aldershot Command was a Home Command of the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

History

After the success of the Chobham Manoeuvres of 1853, reformers of the British Army decided to create a permanent training camp at

Aldershot Aldershot ( ) is a town in the Rushmoor district, Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme north-east corner of the county, south-west of London. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Farnborough/Aldershot built-up are ...

. To begin the preliminary work a small party of NCOs and men of the

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

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. The Camp was established at

in 1854 on the recommendation of the Commander-in-Chief, Viscount Hardinge. During the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

, regiments of

Militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

embodied for home defence were housed at the camp, and the

Brigade of Guards The Brigade of Guards was an administrative formation of the British Army from 1856 to 1968. It was commanded by the Major-General commanding the Household Division, Major-General commanding the Brigade of Guards and was responsible for administ ...

used it for summer training, and were reviewed by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

. 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. 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’. In 1898 (when Queen Victoria's son, the Duke of Connaught, was

General Officer Commanding General officer commanding (GOC) is the usual title given in the armies of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth (and some other nations, such as Ireland) to a general officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, a general might be the GOC ...

(GOC)) Aldershot Command was ranked I on the list. A purpose-built command headquarters was completed in 1895. 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. General Sir Redvers Buller was appointed acting General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOCinC) of I Corps in April 1903. Under Army Order No. 28 of 1907 the Home Commands were reorganised to provide a basis for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

Composition of Aldershot Command 1907

The composition was as follows: 1st Cavalry Brigade (Brig-Gen Hon Julian Byng) 1st Division (Maj-Gen James Grierson) *1st Brigade Aldershot *2nd Brigade Blackdown *3rd Brigade Bordon *Three Field Artillery Brigades (each of three batteries)

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It was created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of the regiment, the ...

*One Field Artillery (Howitzer) Brigade RFA *Two Field Companies

*Two Divisional Telegraph Companies RE 2nd Division (Maj-Gen Bruce Hamilton) *4th (Guards) Brigade London *5th Brigade Aldershot *6th Brigade Aldershot *Three Field Artillery Brigades RFA *Two Field Companies RE Army Troops *1st & 2nd Air Line Companies, RE *1st & 2nd Cable Telegraph Companies RE *1st & 2nd Wireless Telegraph Companies RE *1st & 2nd Balloon Companies RE *1st & 3rd Bridging Train RE

First World War

When the BEF was sent to France on the outbreak of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in August 1914, Aldershot Command provided the basis for I Corps under Lieutenant-General Sir Douglas Haig. The

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry in ...

and

Special Reserve The Special Reserve was established on 1 April 1908 with the function of maintaining a reservoir of manpower for the British Army and training replacement drafts in times of war. Its formation was part of the military reforms implemented by Ri ...

then took over home defence, with the assembly of

Central Force In classical mechanics, a central force on an object is a force that is directed towards or away from a point called center of force. \mathbf(\mathbf) = F( \mathbf ) where F is a force vector, ''F'' is a scalar valued force function (whose abso ...

beginning on 18 August 1914. First Army of Central Force was headquartered at Aldershot, with the Highland Division (later

51st (Highland) Division The 51st (Highland) Division was an infantry Division (military), division of the British Army that fought on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front in France during the World War I, First World War from 1915 to 1918. The division was ra ...

) and Highland Mounted Brigade of the TF under command. 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.

Second World War

Field Marshal the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein Kg Gcb Dso 1887-1976 H20268

In August 1939 its geographical area encompassed parts of the following four counties:

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, and

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. The exact boundaries were as follows: "From the River Loddon where crossed by the Southern Railway at Loddon Bridge (south-east of

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

) along the railway through

Wokingham Wokingham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It is the main administrative centre of the wider Borough of Wokingham. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 38,284 and the wider built-up area had a populati ...

Bracknell Bracknell () is a town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Re ...

and Ascot to

Sunningdale Sunningdale is a village and a civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. It takes up the extreme south-east corner of Berkshire, England and is adjoined by green buffers including Sunningdale Golf Club and Wentworth Golf ...

–thence the eastern boundaries of the parishes of

Chobham Chobham is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Surrey Heath, Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England. The village has a small high street area, specialising in traditional trades and motor trades. The River Bourne ...

and Horsell to the railway at

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...

–thence southward along the railway (omitting the portions of the parishes of

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

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 Odiham () is a large historic village and civil parish in the Hart district of Hampshire, England. It is twinned with Sourdeval in the Manche Department of France. The 2011 population was 4,406. The parish in 1851 had an area of 7,354 acres ...

(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." On the outbreak of the war in September 1939, the General Officer Commanding Aldershot Command was

Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was normall ...

Sir John Dill. Regular troops in the command included the 1st Infantry Division and 2nd Infantry Division. 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. In the event of an invasion of the UK, it was intended that each command could form the basis for a

field army A field army (also known as numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps. It may be subordinate to an army group. Air army, Air armies are the equivalent formations in air forces, and ...

. 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. 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. In September 1939 there were five companies of the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

in the command, the 1st and 2nd

Companies A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether natural, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specifi ...

, and the A, B, and C Companies ( Depot). 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 equi ...

had Nos 1 and 5 Sections in the Command; 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" existed in the army before the fo ...

had a Detachment at

and a detachment at

; and the Royal Army Veterinary Corps had a detachment at

Camberley Camberley is a town in north-west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. It is in the Surrey Heath, Borough of Surrey Heath and is close to the county boundaries with Hampshire and Berkshire. Known originally as "Cambridge Tow ...

. The Army Tank Brigade was headquartered at Aldershot with the 4th, 7th, and 8th Battalions of the

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 World War I, First World War. Today, it is an Armoured warfare, armoured regiment equipped with Challenger 2 main battle tanks ...

, later, in 1940, to become 4th, 7th and 8th Royal Tank Regiments. Following defeat during the

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

, 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. South Eastern Command ceased to exist at the end of 1944, and Aldershot was transferred to Southern Command, without its own GOC.

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.

General Officers Commanding-in-Chief

Appointments as General Officers Commanding (GOC) and General Officers Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) have included:Army commands
The Division at Aldershot *1857 Lieutenant General Sir William Knollys *1 July 1860 Lieutenant General Sir John Pennefather *1 October 1865 Lieutenant General Sir James Scarlett *1 November 1870 General Sir James Grant *14 April 1875 General Sir Thomas Steele Aldershot District Command *1 July 1880 General Sir Daniel Lysons *1 August 1883 Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Alison *1 January 1889 Lieutenant General Sir Evelyn Wood VC *9 October 1893 (GOC-in-C) General the Duke of Connaught *9 October 1898 General Sir Redvers Buller VC **temporary appointments while Buller commanded in South Africa: **9 October 1899 Lieutenant General Thomas Kelly-Kenny CB **15 December 1899 General Alexander Moore **17 September 1900 Lieutenant General Sir William Butler KCB 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) **25 October 1901 Lieutenant General Sir Henry Hildyard, KCB (temporary when Buller was dismissed, pending the return from South Africa of French) *15 September 1902 Lieutenant General Sir John French In 1905 title changed to GOC-in-C.
In 1907 title changed to Aldershot Corps.
In 1908 became Aldershot Command again. Aldershot Command *1 December 1907 Lieutenant General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien *1 March 1912 Lieutenant General Sir Douglas Haig GOC and Major General Administration, Aldershot Command *1914-16 Major General Alexander Hamilton-Gordon GOC Aldershot Training Centre *1914-16 General Sir Archibald Hunter Aldershot Command *April 1916 General Sir Archibald Hunter *1 October 1917 General Sir Archibald Murray *15 November 1919 General Lord Rawlinson *2 November 1920 General The Earl of Cavan *1922 to 1923 Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Morland *1 March 1923 Lieutenant General Sir Philip Chetwode *1 March 1927 Lieutenant General Sir David Campbell *30 June 1931 Lieutenant General Sir Charles Harington *12 October 1933 Lieutenant General Sir Francis Gathorne-Hardy *12 October 1937 Lieutenant General Sir John Dill *3 September 1939 to 1940 Lieutenant General Sir Charles Broad *7 March 1940 Lieutenant General Michael Barker *21 May 1940 Major General Geoffrey Raikes *25 June 1940 Major General Dudley Johnson VC South Eastern Command
Commanders included:British Military History: Aldershot Command
*15 February 1941 Lieutenant General Sir Bernard Paget *25 December 1941 Lieutenant General Sir Bernard Montgomery *7 August 1942 Lieutenant General Sir John Swayne *19 March 1944 Lieutenant General Sir Edmond Schreiber *25 September 1944 Lieutenant General Eric Miles Aldershot District *September 1944 Major General Charles Norman *December 1944 Major General Henry Curtis *September 1945 Major General Robert Ross *September 1946 Major General Sir Noel Holmes *November 1946 Major General Joseph Baillon *November 1948 Major General William Dimoline *1 September 1951 Major General John Eldridge *1953 Major General Edward Burke-Gaffney *8 February 1954 Major General Sir Douglas Campbell *7 February 1956 Major General Ronald Bramwell-Davis *7 February 1960 Major General Sir Denis O’Connor *8 November 1961 Major General John Francis Metcalfe *7 November 1963 Major General Patrick Man *4 July 1966 Major General Charles Stainforth

References

Works cited

* * * * * * {{coord missing, Hampshire Commands of the British Army Military in Aldershot Olympic equestrian venues Olympic modern pentathlon venues Venues of the 1948 Summer Olympics