Shoreham Fort

Giving History a Future by Bringing History to Life


Shoreham Camp

In 1913 the area around Buckingham park was peaceful open farm land. Locals had no idea that this was about to change; Kitcheners army was soon to take over the entire area and things would be very different.

Following the declaration of war in August 1914 an army of soldiers would come to live in tents on this open grassland but unfortunately heavy rain began to fall in October 1914 turning the area into a mud bath.

A great improvement was made in the early months of 1915 when the accommodation huts, rapidly constructed during the winter of 1914-15 were deemed fit for habitation and a new temporary town was born. These pages give some idea of where the camp was located and what some of it looked like.


Tented Camp

The tented camp was rapidly assembled during 1914. The conditions were so bad with heavy rain and mud that the troops were moved out of the tents in September so that a more permanent wooden hut camp could be constructed.


Hutment Camp

Hutment map

Timeline

A timeline of the army camp can be found here: Shoreham Camp Timeline.pdf


Goodchild Letters

The following extracts of letters were written by three Goodchild brothers between 1914 and 1916. Henry Finch the nephew of the brothers has kindly allowed clips from the letters to be included here.

The first set was sent by 15103 Pte Arthur Goodchild, Suffolk Regt (date of birth 25 November 1896) to his mother from September 1914 (enlisted) to July 1916 (discharged?). AG enlisted in Kitchener’s New Army although under age and with defective hearing.

The full collection of letters can be read at http://goodchilds.org/the-letters/




— Brian Drury
January 2013