Imjin Barracks is a British Army installation situated near

Innsworth Innsworth is a village near Gloucester, and a civil parish in the borough of Tewkesbury, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. The parish population taken at the 2011 census was 2,468. It contains Imjin Barracks, the home of Allied R ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, that is home to the headquarters of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

Allied Rapid Reaction Corps The Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) is a rapid reaction force maintained by NATO. It is capable of deploying a High Readiness Force (Land) Headquarters at short notice for operations and crisis response. History The ARRC was created on 1 ...

(ARRC).

History

Imjin Barracks is located at the site of the former RAF Innsworth, which was a non-flying Royal Air Force station between 1940 and 2008. The station opened in 1940, the first unit based there being No 7 School of Technical Training, which trained engine and airframe fitters and mechanics. In December 1941, No 2 WAAF Depot was opened at Innsworth and from then on the station became increasingly associated with the women's branch of the service. Eventually it was decided to reserve the station almost exclusively for WAAF training, including

barrage balloon A barrage balloon is a type of airborne barrage, a large uncrewed tethered balloon used to defend ground targets against aircraft attack, by raising aloft steel cables which pose a severe risk of collision with hostile aircraft, making the atta ...

training amongst other vital roles. In 1951, the headquarters of the RAF Record Office which had been based nearby in Gloucester and

Barnwood Barnwood is a suburb and former civil parish in the city of Gloucester, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It lies about east of the centre of the city. Barnwood was originally a small village on the Roman roads in Britannia, Roman r ...

, moved to the station and gained Group status. Three years later, in 1954, No. 5 Personnel Despatch Unit arrived, charged with the administration and processing of personnel selected for overseas service. Just after the war ended, the RAF Base Accounts Office moved from

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

to Gloucester and grew into the Central Pay Office and became part of the RAF Personnel and Training Command, which formed in 1994, based at Innsworth. In 2005 it was announced that HQ Personnel and Training Command was to co-locate with HQ

RAF Strike Command The Royal Air Force's Strike Command was the military formation which controlled the majority of the United Kingdom's bomber and fighter aircraft from 1968 until 2007 when it merged with Personnel and Training Command to form the single Air ...

RAF High Wycombe Royal Air Force High Wycombe or more simply RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It houses Headquarters Air Command, and was originally designed ...

. The new collocated HQ's were subsequently merged to form Air Command and the decision was taken to close RAF Innsworth. The drawdown took place over the next three years with elements of the Personnel Management Agency moved to

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...

and

RAF Cranwell Royal Air Force Cranwell or more simply RAF Cranwell is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station in Lincolnshire, England, close to the village of Cranwell, near Sleaford. Among other functions, it is home to the RAF Colleg ...

. RAF Innsworth finally closed on 31 March 2008.

Army control

The Innsworth site is now managed by the Army and has been renamed Imjin Barracks. When the RAF vacated the site in 2008, elements of AFPAA (renamed Defence Business Services in 2014) including the MoD Medal Office and Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre continued to operate from the site."The former RAF Innsworth site in Gloucestershire was officially renamed Imjin Barracks at a special ceremony on Friday 21 November 2008". It was formerly known as RAF Innsworth
Farewell Innsworth, welcome Imjin
An Estate and Environment news article, 24 November 2008). In 2010, the barracks also became home to the

(ARRC), a 3-star headquarters with more than 400 permanent staff from 21 contributing nations, which relocated from the

Rheindahlen Military Complex JHQ (Joint Headquarters) Rheindahlen was a military base in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany active from 1954 to 2013. It functioned as the main headquarters for British forces in Germany and for the NATO Northern Army Group. La ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The barracks were named after the

Battle of the Imjin River The Battle of the Imjin River (), also known as the Battle of Solma-ri () or Battle of Gloster Hill () in South Korea, or as Battle of Xuemali () in China, took place 22–25 April 1951 during the Korean War. Troops from the Chinese People's Vo ...

because of the connection with the

Gloucestershire Regiment The Gloucestershire Regiment, commonly referred to as the Glosters, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 until 1994. It traced its origins to Colonel Gibson's Regiment of Foot, which was raised in 1694 and later became the ...

, which formed part of the United Nations contingent in the Korean War, and was thought to be an appropriate name for the headquarters of ARRC, which is a multinational force."The Korean War was a United Nations campaign and it is significant that nine of our partners in the ARRC fought alongside the British under the UN flag. It is also a name that generates tremendous and understandable local pride as the 1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment won a Battle Honour for their part at the battle, and their Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel James Carne, was awarded the Victoria Cross and the US Army's Distinguished Service Cross for his actions, and Lieutenant Philip Curtis was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
Farewell Innsworth, welcome Imjin
An Estate and Environment news article, 24 November 2008).

Based units

The following units are based at Imjin Barracks.

British Army

* 1st (UK) Signal Brigade ** Headquarters, 1st (UK) Signal Brigade ** Gurkha ARRC Support Battalion

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communications an ...

22 Signal Regiment The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communications an ...

** 252 Signal Squadron

Ministry of Defence

Defence Business Services Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest ‘Shared Services Centres’ in Europe and was initially set up to deliver Corporate HR, Payroll, Armed Forces Pensions and Compensation, Finance, Vetting and Information Services across the ...

* MOD Medal Office * Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre Commemorations Team

NATO

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe The Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the military headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) that commands all NATO operations worldwide. SHAPE is situated in the villag ...

*Allied Rapid Reaction Corps ** Headquarters, Allied Rapid Reaction Corps

References

External links

{{commons category, Imjin Barracks
BBC Gloucestershire: Salute to the end of an era at RAF Innsworth

HQ Allied Rapid Reaction Corps

Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC)
Installations of the British Army Buildings and structures in Gloucester Barracks in England