Royal Marines Barracks - Gun Wharf, Chatham, Kent, UK
N 51° 23.301 E 000° 31.384
31U E 327661 N 5695923
This marker is a plaque mounted on a stone pillar to the south of the Medway Council offices at Gun Wharf.
Waymark Code: WMGT77
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/07/2013
Views: 3
The plaque has the badge of the Royal
Marines at the top and beneath, the text:
On this site during
1779 - 1950
stood the barracks of the
Royal Marines Chatham
Division
This commemorative
stone was funded
by contributions raised by the Royal
Marines Historical
Society and unveiled
on 1 May 1997
The Roll-of-Honour website tells us:
"The establishment of the Marines
as a permanent force under the Admiralty came about in 1755, and the subsequent
acquisition of Barrack Headquarters at Chatham (c. 1780), Portsmouth, Plymouth,
and Woolwich. The Royal Marines were based at Chatham for over 200 years. From
1775 until 1950 the Chatham Division of Royal Marines occupied barracks on a
site adjacent to the southern end of the Dockyard. The Royal Naval Barracks for
the marines were close to the dockyard, and around these and the dockyard grew
up the village of Brompton, serving this major concentration of military
personnel. The the Royal Marine Barracks, is now the site of Medway Council
offices.
The full set of fortifications at
Chatham included Kitchener Barracks (c 1750-1780), the Royal Marine Barracks (c
1780), Brompton Artillery Barracks (1806) and Melville Barracks. H.M.S.
Collingwood and H.M.S. Pembroke were also both naval barracks.
The Chatham Naval Memorial
commemorates the 18,500 officers, ranks and ratings of the Royal Navy who were
lost or buried at sea in the two World Wars. It stands on the Great Lines
between Chatham and Gillingham."