Aylwin or Alwyn

[Moonraker]

The most miserable huts on Salisbury Plain in the Great War were at Hamilton Camp, which was so close to Larkhill as to lose its identity fairly quickly. (The camp was named after Sir Ian Hamilton, GoC on Salisbury Plain before the war and the one who took most of the blame for the Gallipoli debacle.) They may have been used by the 11th South Wales Borderers who spent a short time on a firing course"at Larkhill" and were put in "quarters that appeared like chicken pens. The lads quickly responded … by poking out their heads and cock-a-doodling". Certainly the 10th King's Royal Rifle Corps were there in April 1915, in "a species of rabbit hutches". When a celluloid window in one caught fire, a whole line of huts burnt down. Contemporary postcards show some veryprimitive shacks (which would have been erected after the outbreak of war). I've seen references to these particular huts being called Alwyn and Aylwin, whether after their designer or a celebrated soldier. A Google search has yielded nothing saving that the latter version is sometimes a surname. Any ideas, anyone?

[Simon Jones]

These were patented in 1914 by Francis Percival Aylwin, a civilian engineer, see the drawings here.

The volume Work Under the Director of Works (France) in the series The Work of the RE in the European War contains a brief description and states that they were discontinued after the summer of 1916, being unsuitable for winter conditions. There is also a drawing in which they are described as ‘Aylwins Continever Huts’ (whatever that means).

Regards

Simon

[Moonraker]

Blimey, Simon, that's fantastic. Though I was able to explain in the Forum a few weeks ago what an Armstrong hut was, I didn't really think anyone would know about Aylwin huts. I hope to include a scan of those at "Hamilton & Rollestone camps", taken from a postcard by T L Fuller of Amesbury (whose family still like reproductions of his work to be credited).I think this pic shows those at Hamilton Camp, but I've close-ups of similar huts (one marked "Pigsty") with Rollestone Camp postmarks. (Rollestone featured in a recent forum query.)

[Moonraker]

Six years after my last post, I've come across this in The Times of January 25, 1916:

I suspect that the War Office's reluctance to pay may have been down to dissatisfaction with the huts, rather than slowness in settling bills. But presumably someone approved the original order? Mind you, the huts were being erected in the Lark Hill Camp locality in late November 1914, and this was a period when there were some sloppy contract procedures due to the rush to equip and house the New Armies.

"Continever"(alluded to in Simon's post) was the name of Aylwin's company set up to produce his huts.

By the way, his service papers with the North-West Mounted Police are available on line:

here

Moonraker

[Moonraker]

A study of Meningococcus  concluded that the huts were safer  than they would appear, owing to the porous nature of their material  and the numerous leaks  through which copious draughts of fresh air would flow.  J A Glover, "Observations on the Meningococcus Carrier-Rate in Relation to Density of Population in Sleeping Quarters." The Journal of Hygiene, vol 17, no 4, 1918.

 

The article has some useful statistics about floor-space per soldier in various types of hut. It's available on various archive websites, though you may have to register to read it.

 

[seaJane]

No registration needed for this "Free to read" link - some related articles in the list, in which the article cited above is no.3: https://europepmc.org/search?query=glover Observations on the Meningococcus AND (FIRST_PDATE%3A[1918 TO 1919]).

 

sJ