Whittington Barracks

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Whittington Barracks is a British Army base in Whittington, Staffordshire, near Lichfield in England. The military barracks were known as the Lichfield Army Training Regiment. Construction of the Barracks for the Depots of the two Regiments and for a Militia Battalion (of which there were four in the county) started in 1877. During the Second World War, Whittington Barracks was essentially handed over to the US Army to serve as their 10th Replacement Depot.

The barracks were constructed on Whittington Heath. The heath was the originally the site of the Lichfield races which had moved from Fradley in 1702. During the 18th century they were one of the largest and well attended meeting in the Midlands – in 1773 a grandstand was erected near the Lichfield-Tamworth Road. However during the course of the 19th century the popularity of the races dwindled, and military use of the heath grew. In 1875, the Marquess of Anglesey was approached by the War Department and asked if he would sell Whittington Heath for the building of a barracks, to which he agreed. October 29, 1880 was the date recorded as the formal handing over of the newly built barrack to the military. In 1895 the last race meeting was held when the war office declared it was "undesirable to hold a race meeting at the gate of the barracks.". The Lichfield races are still remembered the name of a local pub in Freeford called the Horse & Jockey. In Lichfield, there is another pub called "The Scales" was where the race jockeys were "weighed in".

The old grandstand originally became a soldiers home, although it is now the base of the Whittington Heath Golf Course. Golf had been played in the area as the Whittington Barracks Golf Course since 1910 but the land was not brought out from the area until 1994.

The Mercian Regiment

The barracks has been a training centre for the Army since 1881 was home to Army Training Regiment Litchfield, which trained new recruits on their Phase 1 Common Military Training (i.e. becoming soldiers) from The Royal Signals and The Royal Engineers, from 2002 until 2008 when Major General Andrew Farquhar CBE, General Officer Commanding the Army's 5th Division, inspected the recruits and took the salute before the Army Training Regiment's flag was lowered for the very last time. Training for The Royal Engineers moved to the Army Training Regiment in Bassingbourn, while The Royal Signals moved to the Army Training Regiment in Pirbright.

The Army Development and Training Centre, the new Regional Rehabilitation Unit (West Midlands) and the Lichfield Support Unit remain at Whittington Barracks.

The site is also home to The Staffordshire Regiment Museum. As of 2007 Whittington Barracks became the home for Regimental Headquarters of the newly formed Mercian Regiment.

In 2008 the Labour Government set in motion the centralisation of all planning and training of the Defence Medical Services at Whittington Barracks. The relocation of the Headquarters of the Surgeon-General (HQSG) and major components of the Joint Medical Command (JMC) is proceeding to plan in accordance with approvals given in July 2008.

The new HQ, named Coltman House, has been built and is now fully occupied. Alongside the HQSG, the elements of the JMC now at Whittington comprise the defence medical group and the JMC HQ previously at Fort Blockhouse, Gosport, Hampshire, the Director of Healthcare previously based in Whitehall, the Defence Dental Service previously located at RAF Halton, Buckinghamshire, and the Defence Postgraduate Medical Dean, previously located in Birmingham at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine at Selly Oak Hospital. The single service medical heads, the Army Medical Services, Royal Navy Medical Branch and Royal Air Force Medical Branch.

A second phase at the barracks – now renamed Defence Medical Services Whittington – is also anticipated to begin in the summer of 2010. This will include new training facilities, a new learning centre, a new lecture theatre, new messes for officers, warrant officers and NCOs – and a new junior ranks dining and leisure facility.

All these moves from other parts of the country will clearly make Whittington and Lichfield the national centre for military medical training and planning in the United Kingdom.

This, combined with the nearby Armed Forces Memorial, is helping to put Lichfield on the military map of Britain and has is good news for the local economy.

10th Replacement Depot

During World War II the barracks was occupied by the United States Army and in August 1942 was designated as the 10th US Army Replacement Depot, commanded by Lieutenant colonel James A. Kilian.[1][2] Replacement depots, known by troops as "repple depples", temporarily housed reserves or replacements for front-line formations, including soldiers who had previously been injured and subsequently discharged from medical care for return to active service.[3] The depot was also used as a military prison for soldiers convicted of being absent without leave from units headed for front line service.[4] Under the command of Kilian, a native of Highland Park, Illinois, and Major Richard E. Lobuono, the Provost Marshal, the depot became "infamous" for its regime of brutality and the "cruel and unusual punishments of American soldiers imprisoned there."[5][6] Prisoners were regularly beaten with clubs, forced to carry out vigorous physical exercise for seven hours daily, and given only 5 minutes to eat meals. When notice was received of official inspections by visiting officers, prisoners thought likely to make complaints or with visible injuries were temporarily removed from the camp.[7]

In 1946 a court martial was convened at Grosvenor Square, London, to inquire into allegations that nine guards and two officers had ill-treated prisoners at Whittington.[8] The court martial took ten months to reach its conclusion, and eventually grew to include Kilian and Lobuono. Sergeant Judson Smith was sentenced to three years hard labor and a dishonorable discharge and other enlisted men received prison sentences of lesser length. Lieutenant Granville Cubage, accused of ordering the punishments, pleaded that he was following orders from superior officers. He was fined $250 and reprimanded.[9] In September 1946, at a court martial convened at Bad Nauheim, Germany, Lobuono was officially reprimanded and fined $250 (approximately one month's pay), and Kilian was reprimanded and fined $500.[10][11]

References

  1. ↑ "Lichfield's Tribute To U.S. Troops". The Times (50019) (London). 18 December 1944. p. 2. 
  2. ↑ "National Affairs: The Colonel & the Private". Time. 9 September 1946. Retrieved 6 April 2013. 
  3. ↑ "Repple depple". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2002. 
  4. ↑ "Colonel Excused at Brutality Trial". The Binghamton Press. 4 June 1946. p. 10. Retrieved 6 April 2013. 
  5. ↑ "Kilian Scored In Testimony Of Two Aides". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 12 July 1946. p. 5. Retrieved 6 April 2013. 
  6. ↑ "Convict Major Of Cruelties". New York Post. 27 August 1946. p. 16. 
  7. ↑ "Wounded Vet 'Treated Like Dog' at Lichfield". Emporia Gazette. 26 June 1946. p. 3. Retrieved 6 April 2013. 
  8. ↑ "U.S. Court-Martial And A Colonel". The Times (50351) (London). 16 January 1946. p. 2. 
  9. ↑ "ARMY & NAVY: Going Higher". Time. 24 June 1946. Retrieved 6 April 2013. 
  10. ↑ Herowitz, Irvin M. (21 June 1946). "Cabbages and Kings". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 6 April 2013. 
  11. ↑ Grimes, Paul M. (7 May 1947). "Shades of Lichfield". The Cornell Daily Sun 64 (124). Retrieved 6 April 2013. 

External links

Coordinates: 52°39′32″N 1°46′23″W / 52.659°N 1.773°W / 52.659; -1.773

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