The Prince Consort's Library in Aldershot Military Town in the English

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

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, ...

was founded by Prince Albert to contribute to the education of soldiers in 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 ...

. Today it is the military specialist library of the Army Library Service, specialising in the provision of information on current military topics, political subjects and international relations in support of operations, intelligence, training and education in the Armed Forces. It is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

History

On 1 June 1859 Colonel Phipps wrote on behalf of Prince Albert to Major-General J. Peel, the Secretary of State for War, stating that the Prince Consort was 'desirous of presenting a collection of 1,000 books to the officers at the Camp at Aldershot', adding that the Prince would also provide the library to house the books. After further correspondence, work began on building the Library in September 1859, and it opened in September 1860 with 1,000 books which were donated from the collection of Prince Albert. The Prince also paid the cost of building the Library, its furnishings, maintenance, and for the planting of trees and shrubs. The total cost amounted to £4,183.3 s and 4 d. The day-to-day running costs of the Library were paid for by the Prince Consort until his death in 1861, when

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 ...

made it known that she wished to continue the Royal interest in the Library and ordered that its maintenance was to be met from the Privy Purse. She also paid the salary of the first official Librarian, Sergeant Charles Gilmore (1834–1914) of the 49th Regiment of Foot, who held the post from 1861 to 1891, and his pension on his retirement. By 1887 the Library still only held 2,160 books, so the Aldershot Military Society was founded on 23 December 1887, under the patronage of Queen Victoria, to pay for further books through the subscription paid by members of the Society, while the Privy Purse continued to pay for the Library's maintenance. This arrangement continued until 1935, when 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 ...

assumed responsibility for both providing books and maintaining the building. The Prince Consort's Library was designed by Captain Francis FowkeFowke on the Royal Engineers website
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 ...

, who also designed the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

. An additional wing was added in 1911 containing a Lecture Hall and Reading Room.

References

External links

For the Army Library and Information Service sitePrince Consort's Library and Cavalry Pediment Sculpture
at the Rushmoor Borough Council site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prince Consort's Library Grade II listed buildings in Hampshire Grade II listed library buildings Architecture in England Libraries in Hampshire 1860 establishments in England Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Military in Aldershot Library buildings completed in 1911 Buildings and structures in Aldershot Research libraries in the United Kingdom

History

References

Further reading

External links