Army Camp Construction Companies

[DaveKey]

I am trying to understand the construction of the Hursley Park Army Camp & Hospital as part of my research. This has led me to wonder whether anyone has any suggestions on where I can try and find out who built the hutted army camps and how they were constructed? i.e. what companies were involved and whether there are any extant designs etc. Did the army have a "standard" layout that the construction companies followed everywhere, or were the builds more "bespoke"?

I have a photograph of the Hursley Park Camp being built with the, civilian, workmen sitting behind a sign that reads (as best I can make it out):

O H M S

Hursley Park Camp

Jan 12th 1915

G a R

I'm assuming the OHMS is On His Majesty's Service ??? and I'm guessing the "G a R" might be the name of the Company doing the work. Does that sound plausible and if so any thoughts on who "G a R" might be??

Also I have seen some archaeological scans of a different camp and this had some peculiar wooden blocks in a square area. Does anybody have any idea where I could find detailed plans for period camps to compare with this, and to give me hints as to what the different buildings might be based on their "footprint"?

All suggestions welcome.

Cheers

Dave

[Moonraker]

On 12 August 1914 the Directorate of Fortifications and Works was asked to submit plans for a standard hutted camp that could house one battalion at a war strength of 1,000 men. Having already done some preliminary work, the Directorate's design branch produced plans within two days, embracing seventeen different designs, including those for officers' and sergeants' messes, a recreation hut and a large central cookhouse with a dining-hall for a half-battalion on either side. The staple unit was a hut, 60ft by 20ft and with an average height of 10ft, providing sleeping quarters for twenty-four men and an NCO. Forty such huts catered for a battalion's rank and file and could be built for an estimated £15,000. By 17 August the proposals had been approved by the Army Council and a construction programme set under way. Significantly there are many references to upwards of thirty men to a hut, suggesting space had been compressed.

Camps in Britain were built by civilian companies, such as Sir John Jackson Ltd, the major contractor for Salisbury Plain, which got involved in a controversy about over charging, as well as in accusations over shoddy workmanship. Construction workers' wages rose sharply and there were harsh comparisons with what soldiers were being paid. Sensitive to the criticism, the workers would include in posed photographs a board with "OHMS" written on it to show that they too were On His Majesty's Service. "G a R" is possible "G v R" - that is, George V.

The camp layout would be adjusted to the terrain and there were variations in building design, depending on the purpose of the camp. A camp for artillery would be different to one for infantry.

Moonraker

[Moonraker]

There are good plans of Chisledon Camp on this rail website:

here

Scroll (a long way) down the left-hand side list of contents to "Chisledon to Marlborough including Chisledon Camp and the Ogbournes." Elsewhere on the website are many images of the camp.

By early September 1914 W E Chivers of Devizes was erecting seventy-two structures, mainly wood-framed huts lined with asbestos and roofed with corrugated iron, at an estimated cost of £15-16,000. On 12 October H & C Spackman contracted to build a further seventy-two huts.

The "long" layout of the camp was influenced by the railway line that ran on its eastern boundary and a public road on the western side. The landowner was T C P Calley, Colonel Commandant of the 1st Life Guards, who had convinced the authorities that the hard soil near his own house would be unsuitable for erecting huts and the site finally chosen was an unpleasant spot, 'well known as a snipe resort in the winter, and consequently a very wet one'.

Moonraker

[DaveKey]

Hi Moonraker,

As ever some really helpful information. Thanks for this.

I took another look at the photo of the board and I must confess I did wonder about GvR but I'm pretty certain it's "G a R" ... I've tried attaching a detail of the board so you can draw your own conclusions.

You mention standard patterns for the buildings. Do you know if any of these designs survive? I'm particularly interested becaused I'd like to be able to compare with some of the later Plans for a couple of the Winchester Camps and see if they can be identified .. and whether they might still be identifiable archaeologocally. So any references for the information you have would be famtastic (like you haven't done enough already !!)

Thanks again, much appreciated.

Cheers

Dave

[DaveKey]

Oh, the other thing I meant to ask. Do you know whether the construction techniques/designs changed between 1915 & 1917 as the camp was built at different times and it would be interesting to see whether some of the dating can be derived from the designs.

Cheers

Dave

[Moonraker]

David

Yes, it does read "G a R", which is a bit puzzling. Contemporary issues of the local newspapers (eg Hampshire Chronicle)may give you some information, though it was around December 1914/January 1915 that they were stopped from printing details about local military activities.

You may find this thread of interest:

click here

See my posts 30 and 32 re plans of buildings.

No doubt there was local variation in the way that camps were constructed, and some of the huts at Chisledon were atypical. And hopefully experience would have led to improvements. The first wartime huts on Salisbury Plain were built on brick piers and of unseasoned wood. The wind would blow up through the floorboards - and through gaps in the walls - necessitating the boarding in of the spaces underneath the huts.

Some designs proved impractical: "Aylwin huts" consisted of canvas stretched on wooden frames with mica windows and wooden floors could house six men and it was claimed that they could be erected in under two-and-a-half minutes. Thousands were ordered for Salisbury Plain and other military centres. Claims that they provided weatherproof and comfortable accommodation proved unfounded and they were soon discontinued – though in 1919 they comprised part of the Contagious Compound at Sutton Veny Hospital where they were 'worn out'.

I wouldn't have thought that dating could be derived from designs.

Moonraker

[DaveKey]

David

Yes, it does read "G a R", which is a bit puzzling. Contemporary issues of the local newspapers (eg Hampshire Chronicle)may give you some information, though it was around December 1914/January 1915 that they were stopped from printing details about local military activities.

That'd be about right! Still it's worth a look. Thanks.

Also, thanks for the link, I'd already found your very useful comments

The first wartime huts on Salisbury Plain were built on brick piers and of unseasoned wood.

Do you have any details of how this construction worked? The wooden piers might match something they have found at Morn Hill, so I'd be very interested in any detail you have.

As to why I was curious about dating hut designs ... Hursley had both 1915 British, 1917 British and 1918 American huts. I know the 1915 build included the British Hospital, but did it extend to the Army Camp (still mainly tented up until 1917) or was it "1915=Hospital, 1917=RFC and nothing inbetween"? An interesting but frustrating puzzle I hope archaeology might help with ...

Thanks again for all the help.

Cheers

Dave

[Moonraker]

Dave

I fear that I've come to the limit of my knowledge on this topic and I don't pretend to have made a study of it. Your best bet is the appropriate volume of Work of the Royal Engineers in the European War, mentioned in the three I've cross-referred to.

Moonraker

[DaveKey]

A small update to my research.

In looking back through the report on the American Expeditionary Forces Engineers on their progress with revamping and expanding the British Military Hospital & Army Camp at Hursley into what was to be called Base Hospital #204 I noticed they were using the following Engineering company:

MacDonald, Gibbs & Co. of London

A bit of digging didn't find much on them beyond :

• a reference to them in a London trade listing for 1915
• their use of narrow guage railway (used in the AEF construction if the rails in the construction site are a guide)
• and significantly ... the Dorset Records Office has several Plans for the Wareham Army Camp, and temporary Hospital, built in part by MacDonald Gibbs & Co in 1914-15

So I was wondering whether they had also been involved earlier at Hursley too?

I'm checking the Dorset archives now ... but if anyone can help with advice/info on ...

• MacDonald Gibbs & Co
• Wareham Army Camp (especially pictures so I can compare the construction)

... I'd be really interested and very grateful.

Also, compared the floor plans with those for the Morn Hill Camp and there are some similarities in some buildings ... especially the Officers' Mess buildings seem to be a distinctive H shape.

Anyone with any comments .... ?

Cheers

Dave

[Moonraker]

You can Buy It Now a postcard of Wareham Camp at a reasonable price

on eBay

The hut in the background looks very much like some of those at Chisledon camp, south of Swindon.

MacDonald Gibbs & Co also built Fovant Camp and I have a postcard showing the light railway engine the company used there.

There may be a couple of other contemporary photographs available via Google Images.

Moonraker

[NigelS]

Has anyone seen evidence of WG Tarrant's company being involved in camp construction in the UK? The Company was certainly heavily involved with the build of huts both of its own and other's design which were prefabricated at the Company's Byfleet works in Surrey before being shipped out to France for re-assembly at camps there by its crews of lady carpenters (a question was even raised in Parliament about them when, initially, there was some concern about their rates of pay compared with men as well as their working conditions and general well being).

Details of the scale of Tarrant's wartime operations can be found from a local newspaper article at the end of post #75 Here; with the amount of camp construction work that must have been going on in the Surrey & Hants border area at Aldershot, Deepcut, Pirbright, Blackdown, Bisley etc., it would seem unlikely that a well established local building company wouldn't have been involved, but I haven't seen any evidence yet to confirm it one way or the other.

As well as some patents on aircraft design & fabrication (mainly in connection with the ill-fated Tarrant 'Tabor' aircraft), Tarrant had a couple relating to his hut designs which includes some fairly detailed drawings that can be viewed Here & Here

(Another thread which discussed Tarrant huts can be found Here.)

NigelS

[DaveKey]

You can Buy It Now a postcard of Wareham Camp at a reasonable price

on eBay

The hut in the background looks very much like some of those at Chisledon camp, south of Swindon.

MacDonald Gibbs & Co also built Fovant Camp and I have a postcard showing the light railway engine the company used there.

There may be a couple of other contemporary photographs available via Google Images.

Moonraker

Hi Moonraker,

Thanks for the heads up on the card and Fovant Camp. Would it be possible to PM or post a copy of the light railway engine ?

Cheers

Dave

[Moonraker]

Dave

I'll have a go in the next couple of days.

Moonraker

[Moonraker]

I've had a go and here it is, I hope:

On the back of the card is annotated "This is a few of the 660 men working here". The plate on the locomotive shows it to be the Kerr Stuart Wrenn 0-4-0 Number 1252 built for MacDonald and known have to been used in the construction of Fovant Camp. Later it was employed at other military camps, including RAF Halton.

Moonraker

[William Shelford]

This locomotive was built by Kerr Stuart & Co Ltd, in Stoke-on-Trent. It was given the works number 1252.

It was a standard "Wren" class locomotive of the "old" type, the class being revamped in 1917 to reduce production costs.

No.1252 was supplied on 15/12/1914 to the War Department at Fovant in Wiltshire for use by MacDonald Gibbs & Co, during construction work at Fovant Camp. It was later sent to the Air Ministry at Halton Camp in Buckinghamshire, where a narrow gauge line was built from the Camp across the Tring Road (Icknield Way) into the Halton Estate of Alfred de Rothschild for the removal of timber, being felled for the war effort. It as advertised for sale at Halton Camp in “Surplus” between 1/8/1922 and 1/6/1923. However no further trace is recorded.

While a number of these locomotives of the "new" type survive in preservation in the UK (together with a couple of newly built examples), the remains of two locomotives of the "old" type (Nos.2388 and 2392, both built in 1915) survive in Port Stanley.

MacDonald Gibbs & Co also had three other of these locomotives. No.2389 was supplied to Fovant Camp in 1/1915.

While No.2459 and No.2460 were supplied them at Didcot in 8/1915. No futher history for No.2389 is known, but the other two were owned by a number of other firms after the war. No.2460 not being scrapped until c1950.

[aaxmo]

To view a film on on Railway Engineers in the AEF. Go to:: http://blip.tv/ds7917/16th-regiment-of-engineers-railway-1917-1919-5550798

[PhilB]

The BWM was awarded to some soldiers who didn`t see action - did camp construction in UK by Royal Engineers qualify for a BWM?

[Moonraker]

On 9/14/2011 at 09:00, DaveKey said:

... I'm checking the Dorset archives now ... but if anyone can help with advice/info on ...

 

• MacDonald Gibbs & Co
• Wareham Army Camp (especially pictures so I can compare the construction)

... I'd be really interested and very grateful.

Dave last visited us on November 21 last year, but at the Dorset archives he might have come across
 

these files

 

(I found them by chance when researching a card sent by someone working for "Macdonal & Gibbs" at Fovant Camp.)

 

Moonraker

 

[Moonraker]

One of the principals of Macdonald, Gibbs & Co, Arthur Macdonald, had an interesting war record. After training at the Royal Military College of Canada, he worked as an engineer on various railway projects around the world before 1914. He was appointed Captain, Royal Engineers, July, 1915; Lieutenant-Colonel, September, 1915; Director of Works, British Adriatic Mission in Serbian, retreat through Albania; awarded DSO and Serbian White Eagle; Deputy Assistant Director of Works, War Office, 1918.

 

Moonraker