After the success of the Chobham Manoeuvres of 1853, reformers of the British Army decided to create a permanent training camp at Aldershot. To begin the preliminary work a small party of NCOs and men of the Royal Engineers arrived in November 1853 on the site of the present Princes Gardens in the town making them the first soldiers to arrive in Aldershot. These engineers were responsible for surveying and making the preliminary arrangements for The Camp at Aldershot.[1] The Camp was established at Aldershot in 1854 on the recommendation of the Commander-in-Chief, Viscount Hardinge.[2][3][4] During the Crimean War, regiments of Militia embodied for home defence were housed at the camp, and the Brigade of Guards used it for summer training, and were reviewed by Queen Victoria.[5]
After the Crimean War, a division of Regular troops was permanently based at Aldershot, and ‘the Division at Aldershot’ (including artillery at Christchurch, Hampshire, and cavalry at Hounslow, Middlesex), became one of the most important home commands of the British Army.[6][7]
In January 1876 a ‘Mobilization Scheme for the forces in Great Britain and Ireland’ was published, with the ‘Active Army’ divided into eight army corps based on the major Commands and Districts. 2nd Corps was to be formed within Aldershot Command, based at Aldershot. This scheme disappeared in 1881, when the districts were retitled ‘District Commands’.[8] In 1898 (when Queen Victoria's son, the Duke of Connaught, was General Officer Commanding (GOC)) Aldershot Command was ranked I on the list. A purpose-built command headquarters was completed in 1895.[9]
The 1901 Army Estimates introduced by St John Brodrick allowed for six army corps based on six regional commands. As outlined in a paper published in 1903, I Corps was to be formed in a reconstituted Aldershot Command, with HQ at Aldershot.[10] General Sir Redvers Buller was appointed acting General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOCinC) of I Corps in April 1903.[11]
Under Army Order No. 28 of 1907 the Home Commands were reorganised to provide a basis for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).[10]
Promoted to GOC-in-C South Eastern Army on 19 November 1941, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery is seated in a jeep during one of his military exercises.
In August 1939 its geographical area encompassed parts of the following four counties: Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, and Sussex.[15] The exact boundaries were as follows: "From the River Loddon where crossed by the Southern Railway at Loddon Bridge (south-east of Reading) along the railway through Wokingham, Bracknell and Ascot to Sunningdale–thence the eastern boundaries of the parishes of Chobham and Horsell to the railway at Woking–thence southward along the railway (omitting the portions of the parishes of Guildford and Artington to the west of the railway and the three small portions of Sussex lying to the north of the railway) to Liss–thence northward along the road leading to Reading, through Selborne, Alton and Odiham (but inclusive of the portions of the parishes of Alton and Chawton lying west of that road)–to Swallowfield–thence along the River Loddon to Loddon Bridge."[15]
On the outbreak of the war in September 1939, the General Officer Commanding Aldershot Command was Lieutenant-General Sir John Dill.[15] Regular troops in the command included the 1st Infantry Division and 2nd Infantry Division.[16] A similar process to August 1914 was repeated when Dill became GOC I Corps in the new British Expeditionary Force which was despatched to France.[17] In the event of an invasion of the UK, it was intended that each command could form the basis for a field army.[18] However, on the outbreak of the war, Aldershot Command was used to form I Corps and then became responsible for providing drafts for British Expeditionary Force.[19][20]
Unlike the other Home Commands, Aldershot had no Coast divisions or other defence forces under its command, and was solely responsible for providing drafts and reserve formations.[20]
Following defeat during the Battle of France, the Army reorganised its forces based in the UK. For Aldershot Command, this resulted in being downgraded into Aldershot Area within the new South Eastern Command on 15 February 1941. The new formation was formed by the splitting of Eastern Command and absorbing Aldershot's geographical area.[22] South Eastern Command ceased to exist at the end of 1944,[23] and Aldershot was transferred to Southern Command, without its own GOC.[24]
Post-War
GOCs were appointed to Aldershot District from 1944 to 1967, when it disappeared in the reorganisation that led to Southern Command being redesignated GHQ UK Land Forces. From 1968, the HQ of South East District was at Aldershot; it was renamed Southern District in 1992, and HQ 4th Division in 1995.[25]
Lieutenant-General Commanding Troops at Aldershot, and 1st Army Corps
10 January 1901 General Sir Redvers Buller VC GCB KCMG (on his arrival back from South Africa)[40]
25 October 1901 Lieutenant General Sir Henry Hildyard, KCB (temporary when Buller was dismissed, pending the return from South Africa of French)[41][42]
^Brigadier-General Sir James Edmonds, Military Operations, France and Belgium 1914, Volume I, (London: Macmillan, 3rd edn 1934; Woking: Shearer Publications, 1984 reprint) p 31.
^Brigadier-General Sir James Edmonds, Military Operations, France and Belgium 1914, Volume II (London: Macmillan, 1925; Imperial War Museum/Battery Press reprint (nd)) p 5.
Dunlop, John K. (1938). The Development of the British Army 1899–1914. London: Methuen. OCLC59826361.
Ironside, Edmund (2018). Ironside: The Authorised Biography of Field Marshal Lord Ironside. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. ISBN978-0-75098-740-0.
U.S. War Department (1943). Technical Manual: Handbook on the British Army with Supplements on the Royal Air Force and Civilian Defense Organizations. Washington: U.S Government Printing Office. OCLC19930228.
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