History
The garrison was established in 1911 as the Remount Depot, which supplied the military with horses for both operational and ceremonial purposes.
During the Second World War, the garrison functioned as the Army Technical School. Since its establishment, the garrison has been the location of a number of Army Apprentices College and technical schools, and has provided apprenticeships to an estimated 50,000 trainees.
The Garrison was also the home of "Depot" REME, this was housed at Poperinge Barracks. The Barracks was named after a small town in Belgium and was previously located in the south-west of Arborfield Garrison, having been built back in 1939 to accommodate two Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiments of the Royal Artillery. These remained at Arborfield until just prior to D-Day in June 1944. Following their departure and up to July 1946, the barracks were then used as an Army depot for the assembly and dispatch of troops bound for service in north-west Europe.
In that month of July 1946, the REME Training Centre was formed and a Regimental Training Tactical Wing was established in the barracks - now to be known as 'Training Battalion and Depot REME'. The Barracks consisted of wooden huts mostly grouped in 'spiders', each spider being made up of six huts joined by corridors to central washing and utility rooms.
It was to be thirty-one years later, in October 1977, when Poperinge barracks finally closed as a training centre. Over the whole thirty-eight years of its existence, literally thousands of REME soldiers passed through the gates of Poperinge Barracks, on their way to operations and postings all over the world.
Read more about this topic: Arborfield Garrison
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