Claro Barracks

The barracks, which were originally established as the command depot i.e. convalescent camp for Northern Command,^[1] opened in April 1915 during the First World War.^[2] Wilfred Owen wrote many of his poems when based at the barracks, known at the time as Ripon Army Camp,^[3] in spring 1918.^[4]

At the start of the Second World War, the School of Military Engineering, which had been based in Chatham, was split into two training battalions, one of which re-located to the barracks. The barracks were renamed Harper Barracks, after Lieutenant-General Sir George Harper, a famous engineer general.^[5]

In 1940, an Experimental Tunnelling Section was formed, followed in January 1942 by the School of Bomb Disposal.^[6]

Both the School of Military Engineering and the School of Bomb Disposal returned to Chatham in 1949.^[7] During the 1950s, Harper Barracks was the home of a Royal Signals training regiment.^[8]

In 1959, the barracks became the home of 38 Engineer Regiment, who would remain there for nearly half a century.^[9] The barracks was rebuilt and renamed Claro Barracks, after Claro Hill - a local beauty spot, in the 1960s.^[10] In 1974, a bomb attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army badly damaged the barracks.^[11]

The barracks went on to become the home of 21 Engineer Regiment in 2008.^[12]

The following notable units are based at Claro Barracks.^[16]