Swinton Barracks is a military installation accommodating two engineer regiments at Perham Down in Wiltshire, England. The site is on the east edge of

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies w ...

, about east of the garrison at Tidworth. The camp forms part of the Tidworth, Netheravon and Bulford (TidNBul) Garrison.

History

After

2nd London Division The 47th (1/2nd London) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, raised in 1908 as part of the Territorial Force. Formation The Territorial Force (TF) was formed on 1 April 1908 following the enactment of the Territorial and Res ...

held their annual camp at Perham Down in 1914, a hutted army camp was built in the village to provide proper accommodation for the training of large military units. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the barracks were used as a training camp by the 99th Infantry Battalion of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. The barracks were rebuilt between 1972 and 1974 and renamed Swinton Barracks at that time. 22 Engineer Regiment arrived at the barracks in January 1975 and were joined by 26 Engineer Regiment. The barracks became a specialist centre for armoured engineering, and its name was chosen to commemorate Major-General Sir Ernest Swinton, who was an early advocate of armoured vehicles and responsible for the recruitment and training of the Tank Detachment in 1916, and, later, Colonel Commandant of the Tank Corps. Extensive reconstruction at the barracks involving new or refurbished buildings was carried out under Project Allenby Connaught between 2006 and 2014.

Units

The units currently based at the barracks are: * 15th Signal Regiment,

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

* 22 Engineer Regiment * 26 Engineer Regiment

References

Installations of the British Army Barracks in England Military history of Wiltshire Tidworth {{Wiltshire-struct-stub