Pirbright Camp is a

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 ...

installation in

Pirbright Pirbright () is a village in Surrey, England. Pirbright is in the Guildford (borough), borough of Guildford and has a civil parish council covering the traditional boundaries of the area. Pirbright contains one buffered sub-locality, Stanford ...

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 ...

. It houses the

Army Training Centre Pirbright The Army Training Centre Pirbright is an initial training establishment of the British Army, at Pirbright Camp. Scope The ATC, along with the Army Training Regiment Winchester and the Army Training Regiment Grantham, provides Phase 1 militar ...

, and a number of other units.

History

In 1875, the

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

acquired of Pirbright's heath which is the southern end of the north-south range of sand hills in Surrey heath, known as Chobham Ridges. It established rifle ranges, a training depot and an 'encampment' for 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 ...

here. Many of the current buildings date from the 1950s, with significant expansion in the 1970s. In April 2021, following the Death of the Duke of Edinburgh, members from across the armed forces, including: the Household Cavalry,

Queen's Royal Hussars The Queen's Royal Hussars (The Queen's Own and Royal Irish) (QRH) is the most senior armoured regiment in the British Army, equipped with Challenger 2 main battle tanks. The regiment was formed on 1 September 1993 from the amalgamation of the Quee ...

Grenadier Guards The Grenadier Guards (GREN GDS) is the most senior infantry regiment of the British Army, being at the top of the Infantry Order of Precedence. It can trace its lineage back to 1656 when Lord Wentworth's Regiment was raised in Bruges to protect ...

Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, monarchy; due to this, it often ...

Scots Guards The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot guards#United Kingdom, Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642 in the Ki ...

Welsh Guards The Welsh Guards (WLSH GDS; ), part of the Guards and Parachute Division, Guards Division, is one of the Foot guards, Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. It was founded in 1915 as a single-battalion regiment, during the World War I, First ...

, The Highlanders,

Royal Gurkha Rifles The Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR) is a rifle regiment of the British Army, forming part of the Brigade of Gurkhas. Unlike other regiments in the British Army, RGR soldiers are recruited from Nepal, which is neither a dependent territory of the Unit ...

, and

The Rifles The Rifles is an infantry regiment of the British Army. Formed in 2007, it consists of four Regular battalions and three Reserve battalions. Each Regular battalion was formerly an individual battalion of one of the two large regiments of the ...

; along with personnel from the

Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, and

Queen's Colour Squadron The King's Colour Squadron is the unit of the Royal Air Force charged with the safe-keeping of the King's Colour for the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom. Since its formation, it has been formed exclusively by Officers and Gunners of No. ...

of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

all took part in training at Brunswick Lines in preparation for his funeral.

Current units

*Alexander Barracks **

*Elizabeth Barracks **3rd Battalion, Ranger Regiment *Brunswick Lines **

Household Division The Household Division forms a part of the British Army's London District (British Army), London District and is made up of five regiments of foot guards#United Kingdom, foot guards and two Household Cavalry regiments. The division is responsible f ...

and Parachute Regiment Centralised Courses

In media

Pirbright was the filming location for ''British Army Girls'', a three-part television documentary first shown on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

in April 2016.

References

{{reflist Installations of the British Army