Alan Lines Posted 4 December , 2002 Share Posted 4 December , 2002 Can anyone help with any information on WEST SANDLING CAMP please? I know that it was near Hythe, Hampshire. (not the Hythe in Kent) I have a letter written from there by a private serving in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. I haven't got his papers yet but it appears he had not been to the front at the time of writing and was recently out from Canada. He gives his address as... No.2 Casualty Clearing Station AMC 2nd CEF West Sandling Camp Hythe Hants. I think it unlikely but there is a chance the 2 CCS may have been passing through as a group rather than this being the actual function of West Sandling. I know that newly arrived troops from Canada from at least the 1st, 5th and 58th CEF passed through there between July 1916 and January 1917 but they only stayed for a week or so and they were not ill or injured! My guess is that it was a camp for those newly arrived from Canada and those about to return to their old units after a spell in the U.K. I have also seen references in soldiers papers to East Sandling. I have contacted the local historians who only know of the West Cliff House that was used as a hospital. Any information at all would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hazel Basford Posted 5 December , 2002 Share Posted 5 December , 2002 What is your evidence for this being Hythe, Hampshire? The area around Folkestone was full of Canadians during WW1. If you look at http://web.mala.bc.ca/davies/letters.image...er12.1915.3.htm you will see a letter from another Canadian, written from West Sandling Camp. He speaks of cycling to visit Canterbury Cathedral. West Cliff could have been the Westcliffe Canadian Ear & Eye Hospital at Folkestone open between 20 October 1915 – 20 September 1919. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hazel Basford Posted 5 December , 2002 Share Posted 5 December , 2002 OK - I see the evidence!! But could the chap have been confused about which county he was in? Please don't take that idea as any sort of insult to him! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted 5 December , 2002 Share Posted 5 December , 2002 Sandling is just to the north of Maidstone, Kent. An article by Tom Arnott about a Canadian soldier (on Tom Morgan's website) refers to both West and East Sandling. East Sandling is noted as being 50km south east of London. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry_Reeves Posted 5 December , 2002 Share Posted 5 December , 2002 With regard to West Sandling Camp, this does appear to have been near to Folkestone. Type "The Dutton Advance Collection" into your search engine to find reference to it in a letter from a Canadian officer, Lt Kirkland. I would also be interested to know if Westcliffe Camp, mentioned by Hazel Batsford, had a WW1 connection. I had a couple of weeks there in the late 1970's during my own army career. This was a hutted camp with the best showers in the world, they simply blasted the muck off you! Terry Reeves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hazel Basford Posted 6 December , 2002 Share Posted 6 December , 2002 Sandling Park is on the modern OS map a couple of miles north of Hythe, Kent and just to the south-east of junction 11 of the M20. A bit of local research should sort this out, but it does seem a confusing situation with this proliferation of Sandlings and Hythes!! Hythe, Hampshire is a small village on the western side of Southampton Water. Admittedly its closeness to Southampton is in its favour but the location is very isolated - and nowhere near Canterbury! The Maidstone Sandling is certainly the right sort of distance from London and within cycling distance from Canterbury. Is there such strong evidence for Canadian troops in the Maidstone and Hampshire location as there is for Folkestone? I am not sure what the original reference to Westcliffe was about. I have not heard of Westcliffe Camp at Folkestone. Westcliffe Ear & Eye Hospital was a hospital in a building, not a hutted hospital or camp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Lines Posted 8 December , 2002 Author Share Posted 8 December , 2002 Thanks very much Hazel, Terry and Mark. It does look as though my man was a bit confused. The address Hythe, HAMPSHIRE appears twice in the letter but I'm pretty certain now he was wrong. I wonder how he got the impression he was in Hampshire though because the Hythe there was a very small village at the time. Possibly he landed in Southampton (which is in Hampshire) from Canada and assumed he was still in Hampshire when he got to West Sandling? Also the fact that nobody who I know that lives in Hythe, Hampshire, including me has heard of a camp near here points to Kent. The West Cliff I mentioned was the West Cliff Hall Hotel, Hythe Hampshire that was used in WW1 as either a hospital or convalescent home and fell into disrepair in the 80's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ivpenneyston Posted 6 December , 2007 Share Posted 6 December , 2007 My A ncestor states his address as The Camp Sandling when he got married in Rochdale Lancs in 1918 he states his occupation as Chauffeur but I can find no evidence to support that he was in the army, could he have been a cilvilian Chauffeur and is The Camp the one in Kent Many Thanks Ina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhill Posted 7 December , 2007 Share Posted 7 December , 2007 The main Canadian training areas for much of the War were based around Shorncliffe and Bramshott. There were frequent transfers between the two, so I suppose newcomers might have been confused as to which county they were in. I must confess my own continued confusion with regards to English political geography. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Saunders Posted 7 December , 2007 Share Posted 7 December , 2007 Sandling is just to the north of Maidstone, Kent. An article by Tom Arnott about a Canadian soldier (on Tom Morgan's website) refers to both West and East Sandling. East Sandling is noted as being 50km south east of London. There is a Sandling just north of Maidstone but this is the wrong Sandling. The army camps were at Sandling near Folkestone - most men found this an awful place as the fields flooded and when most of the men arrived at the new huts in 1915 they were either not finished or leaked and the men had to go under canvas - nearly caused a mass walk-out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fair Posted 14 January , 2008 Share Posted 14 January , 2008 This thread now contains some photos of the memorial cross which commemorates East Sandling Camp: click here. Presumably West Sandling Camp was not too far away. I will have a dig around the local studies archives and see what I can find. Would love to find a detailed map of the area as it was at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellal Posted 15 January , 2008 Share Posted 15 January , 2008 The 21st Battalion CEF went to West Sandling Camp upon arrival in England. They made many references to their training on Tollsford Hill and marching back and forth morning and night. There are a few photos of them on parade at West Sandling that show Tollsford Hill in the background. So, which Sandling and which Hythe are near something named Tollsford Hill? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorncliffe Posted 18 January , 2008 Share Posted 18 January , 2008 The 21st Battalion CEF went to West Sandling Camp upon arrival in England. They made many references to their training on Tollsford Hill and marching back and forth morning and night. There are a few photos of them on parade at West Sandling that show Tollsford Hill in the background. So, which Sandling and which Hythe are near something named Tollsford Hill? Tolsford hill is behind Beachborough House which was used as a Military hospital by the canadians during the first world war. The tolsford hill area is still used by the army today as a training ground and is not far from shorncliffe camp nr folkestone and hythe kent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellal Posted 19 January , 2008 Share Posted 19 January , 2008 Would this be the hospital staffed by the nurses and doctors who went over from Queen's University in Kingston Ontario, or was it named after a British Queen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorncliffe Posted 20 January , 2008 Share Posted 20 January , 2008 Would this be the hospital staffed by the nurses and doctors who went over from Queen's University in Kingston Ontario, or was it named after a British Queen? The hospital was operated and maintained by the Canadian War Contingents Association and opened in October 1914. An offer was made to the Army Council, through Queen Mary to maintain a hospital in connection with shorncliffe camp. Her Majesty has always taken a keen interest in the care of the wounded. The offer was accepted and the house and grounds at Beachborough Park were lent by the late Sir Arthur Markham MP. The officers, matrons, nurses and V.A.D's were all Canadians. About 3,000 soldiers passed through the wards with only 30 deaths. Beachborough was the only Canadian hospital in the United Kingdom supported by voluntry funds and open to all the wounded soldiers of His Majestys Dominions. The Hospital Closed in early 1919. The above info was taken from " Folkestone During The Great War 1914-1919 by J. C. Carlile" Printed by F. J. Parsons Ltd Folkestone sometime in the 1920's. In the photo attached you can see the 4 extra wards that were erected in the grounds of the house and the message on the back dated 11/06/1916 states " sorry no time for letter but with the recent heavy fighting nr Ypres we are all kept rather busy." He also gives his address as 2nd Canadian Military Hospital Beachborough Park Sandling" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellal Posted 20 January , 2008 Share Posted 20 January , 2008 In the photo attached you can see the 4 extra wards that were erected in the grounds of the house Thank you for those photos. There were many men from the 21st Bttn CEF who were patients there at one time or another. In that second photo, would Tolsford Hill be in the background, or would the photo have been taken from Tolsford Hill? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorncliffe Posted 21 January , 2008 Share Posted 21 January , 2008 In that second photo, would Tolsford Hill be in the background, or would the photo have been taken from Tolsford Hill? The photo was taken from Summerhouse Hill. The hills in the background make up part of Arpinge training area. Tolsford Hill is off the photo to the left. It all gets very confusing as a vast amount of the countryside around Shorncliffe Camp all belongs to the MOD and seems to blend into one. Just out of interest the huts at sandling camp were built by McAlpine and Sons of Glasgow in Oct 1914 and were Auctioned of in September 1919. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunner Bailey Posted 21 January , 2008 Share Posted 21 January , 2008 As I understand it Sandling camp was a tented camp where troops stayed pending movement to France. The area was dominated by Canadian troops in WW1, centred on Shornecliffe. Sandling Station was built in WW1 just to handle troops. The camp was in the fields surrounding the station. Here's a rough map. Gunner Bailey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellal Posted 21 January , 2008 Share Posted 21 January , 2008 As I understand it Sandling camp was a tented camp where troops stayed pending movement to France. Below is a photo from the archives of the 21st Battalion CEF. There are others at at this link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunner Bailey Posted 21 January , 2008 Share Posted 21 January , 2008 Thanks Al that's great. I'd only seen a photos with tents near the station. More learning! The map I posted in post 18# is centred (red ring) on the area above the station where I saw tents in an early photo. The flat area holding the huts would be to the south and south east of the station nearer the hospital. Gunner Bailey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorncliffe Posted 21 January , 2008 Share Posted 21 January , 2008 As I understand it Sandling camp was a tented camp where troops stayed pending movement to France. The area was dominated by Canadian troops in WW1, centred on Shornecliffe. Sandling Station was built in WW1 just to handle troops. The camp was in the fields surrounding the station. Here's a rough map. Gunner Bailey The original Sandling camp was of wooden huts as shown in a previous picture. It was built to house 8 battalions of the new army who would carry out there training here before moving on to France. I understand that in 1914 the York and Lancs and Queens Regiments were quartered in East and West Sandling Camps but the huts could not accommodate all the men stationed to here and Shorncliffe so smaller tented camps sprung up or soldiers were billeted in local hotels or houses. Sandling station known as Sandling Junction opened on New Years Day 1888 so was up and running long before the first world war. The attached photo shows the camp on the hill above the station. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunner Bailey Posted 22 January , 2008 Share Posted 22 January , 2008 Thanks Shornecliffe Welcome to the forum, and thanks for the infomation I got my incorrect information from a local newspaper a while ago so am pleased to get the real history, and from someone who is clearly very interested in this area. Gunner Bailey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fair Posted 22 January , 2008 Share Posted 22 January , 2008 Al and Shorncliffe - many thanks for posting those photos, most of which I have not seen before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellal Posted 22 January , 2008 Share Posted 22 January , 2008 Al and Shorncliffe - many thanks for posting those photos, most of which I have not seen before. There are several photos of the 21st Battalion CEF training at West Sandling and on Tolsford Hill at this link Enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Flanders Posted 12 November , 2011 Share Posted 12 November , 2011 QUOTE (Gunner Bailey @ Jan 21 2008, 07:54 AM) As I understand it Sandling camp was a tented camp where troops stayed pending movement to France. The area was dominated by Canadian troops in WW1, centred on Shornecliffe. Sandling Station was built in WW1 just to handle troops. The camp was in the fields surrounding the station. Here's a rough map. Gunner Bailey The original Sandling camp was of wooden huts as shown in a previous picture. It was built to house 8 battalions of the new army who would carry out there training here before moving on to France. I understand that in 1914 the York and Lancs and Queens Regiments were quartered in East and West Sandling Camps but the huts could not accommodate all the men stationed to here and Shorncliffe so smaller tented camps sprung up or soldiers were billeted in local hotels or houses. Sandling station known as Sandling Junction opened on New Years Day 1888 so was up and running long before the first world war. The attached photo shows the camp on the hill above the station. thanks for all the information on (West) Sandling Camp and all that concerns it , as well as for the photos. My great grandfather (a Belgian who joined the CEF) stayed at the camp as well with the 5th Field Comp. Engineers,2nd. Canadian division in 1915. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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