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See also:BARRACKS (derived through the See also:French from the See also:Late See also:Lat. See also:barra, a See also:bar) , the buildings used for the See also:accommodation of military or See also:naval forces, including the quarters for See also:officers, See also:warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men, with their messes and recreation establishments, regimental offices, shops, stores, stables, vehicle sheds and other See also:accessory buildings for military or domestic purposes. The See also:term is usually applied to permanent structures of See also:brick or See also: Adjacent to the barrack blocks and next to the cook-house are arranged the dining-rooms where the men assemble for their meals; no See also:food is now served in the barrack-rooms, and the air in them is thus kept much purer and fresher than under the old
See also:Double Company See also:Block
See also:Verandah
Stairs
Double Co.
Dining Rm.
Block
Cook House
and Baths
Block
Double Company Block
8 Barrack rooms on each See also:floor
system. The dining-rooms are lofty and well ventilated, and are warmed by hot water; tables and forms are arranged so as to make the most of the space, and room is provided for all the men to dine simultaneously.
Next to the dining-room is the cook-house where the meals for a See also:half battalion are cooked, and served See also:direct to the dining-rooms on each side. See also:Wash-up rooms are arranged off the serving-lobby with See also:plate-racks and shelves for the storage of the crockery after it has been washed. The cooking apparatus is designed for economical use of See also:coal See also:fuel, and, if carefully used, consumes little more than z lb of coal per man per day. The cook-house is well lighted and ventilated by a See also:top See also:lantern; tables, dressers, and pastry slab are provided for preparing and serving the meals, and a sink for washing See also:kitchen utensils. Under the kitchen block is a See also:basement containing the See also:boiler for See also:heating the dining-rooms and another for the See also:supply of hot water to baths and sinks, with in some cases also a hot-air See also:furnace for heating drying-rooms, for drying the men's clothing when they come in wet from a route-See also: The manager's See also:quarter and kitchen premises See also:complete the establishment. Near the recreation establishment is the See also:canteen, devoted solely to the See also:sale of See also:beer, and not permitted to See also:vie in attractiveness with the recreation establishment. A bar is provided for the soldiers, a separate room for corporals, and a See also:jug See also:department for the supply of the families;-this building also has a manager's quarter attached to it, and an See also:office for the checking of accounts.
For the See also:senior non-commissioned officers a sergeants' See also:mess is provided, containing dining-room, reading-room and billiard-room, with kitchen premises and liquor store, which also has a jug department for the sergeants' families. The single non-commissioned officers have all their meals in this mess, and the married members also use it as a club. The warrant officers, and the proportion of non-commissioned officers and men who are on the married establishment, are provided with accommodation at some little distance from the men's barracks. In all See also:recent schemes, on open sites, self-contained cottages have been built, and these are more popular than the older See also:pattern of See also:tenement buildings approached by See also:common staircases or verandahs. The warrant officers are allowed a living-room, kitchen, and See also:scullery, with three bedrooms and a bathroom. The married soldiers have a living-room, scullery, and one, two, or three bedrooms according to the See also:size of their families. A See also:laundry is provided adjacent to the married quarters, equipped with washing-troughs, wringer, drying-closet, and ironing-room; and the See also:women are encouraged to use this in preference to doing washing in their cottages.
Officers' Quarters.—At a little distance from the men's barracks, and usually looking over the See also:parade or See also:cricket ground, is the officers' mess. This building has an entrance-See also: A mess office is provided, and all the accessories required for the mess waiters' department, including See also:pantry, plate-closet and cellarage, and for the kitchen or mess-man's department, with also a quarter for the mess-man. The officers' quarters are usually arranged in wings extending the frontage of the mess building, and in a See also:storey over the mess itself. Each officer has a large room, part of which is partitioned off for a bedroom, and the field officers a,re allowed two rooms. The soldier servant, told off to each officer, has a small room allotted for cleaning purposes, and bathrooms, supplied with hot water from the mess kitchen, are centrally situated. A detached house, containing three sitting-rooms, seven bed- and dressing-rooms, bathroom, kitchen, servants' hall, and the usual accessories, is provided for the commanding officer: also a smaller house, having two sitting-rooms, four bedrooms, bath, kitchen, &c., for the quartermaster. Other regimental married officers are not provided for, and have to arrange to house themselves, a lodging See also:allowance being usually granted. Regimental Accessories.—Apart from the buildings providing accommodation, others are required for administrative and military purposes. These are the guard house and regimental offices, the small-See also:arm See also:ammunition store, the fire-See also:engine house, the See also:drill and gymnastic hall, and the medical inspection block with dispensary, where the sick are seen by a medical officer and either prescribed for or sent into See also:hospital, as may be necessary. Stables are provided for the officers' and transport horses, and a vehicle See also:shed and storehouse for the mobilization equipment. Stores are required for See also:bread, See also:meat, coal, clothing, and for musketry, signalling, and See also:general small stores under the quartermaster's .charge—also workshops for armourers, carpenters, plumbers, painters and glaziers, shoemakers, and tailors. Mention of thefives See also:court, recreation ground and parade ground completes the description of a battalion barrack. See also:Cavalry Barracks.—The accommodation provided for cavalry is very similar to that already described for infantry. The barrack blocks are arranged to suit the organization of the See also:regiment, and are placed so that the men can turn out readily and get to their horses. Detached buildings are provided for cavalry See also:troop stables, one block for the horses of each troop. Formerly stables were often built for convenience with the barrack-rooms over them; but this system has been abandoned on sanitary grounds, to the benefit of both men and horses. Each See also:horse is given 1 500 cub. ft. of air space, the horses' heads are turned to the See also:outer walls, and See also:provision is made, by traversed air-ducts below the mangers, for fresh air to be supplied to the horses while lying down. Above the horses' heads are windows which are arranged to open inwards, being hinged at the bottom and fitted with hopper cheeks to avoid direct See also:draught. See also:Ridge See also:ventilation and skylights are given, so that all parts of the See also:stable are well lighted and See also:airy. See also:Cast-iron mangers and See also:hay-racks are provided, and the horses are separated by bails, with chains to manger brackets and See also:heel posts; See also:saddle brackets are fixed to the heel posts. Each stable has a troop store, where spare saddles and See also:gear are kept; also an expense See also:forage store, in which the day's ration, after issue in bulk from the forage See also:barn, is kept until it is given out in feeds. The stables are paved with See also:blue See also:Staffordshire paving bricks, graded to a See also:collecting channel carrying the drainage well clear of the building, before it is taken into a See also:gully. The space between the blocks of stables is paved with See also:cement See also:concrete to form a yard, and horse-troughs, See also:litter-sheds and dung-pits are provided. Officers' stables are built in separate blocks, and usually have only one See also:row of stalls; the stalls are divided by partitions, and separate saddle-rooms are provided. Stalls and loose boxes in infirmary stables give 2000 cub. ft. of air space per horse and are placed at some distance from the troop stables in a separate enclosure. A forge and shoeing shed is provided in a detached block near the troop stables. A forage barn and granary is usually built to hold a fortnight's supply, and a See also:chaff-cutter driven by horse See also:power is fixed See also:close by. Cavalry regiments each have a large covered See also:riding school, and a number of open mangges, for exercise and riding instruction. See also:Artillery, &c.—The accommodation provided for horse and field artillery is arranged to suit their organization in batteries and brigades, and is generally similar to that already described, with the addition of vehicle sheds for guns and ammunition wagons, and See also:special shops for wheelers and saddlers. Accommodation for other units follows the general lines already laid down, but has to be arranged to suit the particular organization and requirements of each unit. See also:Garrison Accessories.—In every large military station in addition to the regimental buildings which have been described, a number of buildings and See also:works are required for the service of the garrison generally. Military hospitals are established at See also:home and abroad for the treatment of sick officers and soldiers as well as their wives and families. Military hospitals are classified as follows:-First-grade hospitals are large central hospitals serving important districts. These hospitals are complete in themselves and fully equipped for the carrying out of operations of all kinds; they generally contain wards for officers, and may have attached to them separate See also:isolation hospitals for the treatment of infectious cases, and military families' hospitals for women and See also:children. Second-grade hospitals are smaller in size and less fully equipped, but are capable of acting independently and have operation rooms. Third-grade hospitals or reception stations are required for small stations principally, to See also:act as feeders to the large hospitals, and to See also:deal with See also:accident and non-transportable cases. The principles of construction of military hospitals do not differ materially from the best modern See also:civil practice; all are now built on the See also:pavilion system with connecting corridors arranged so as to interfere as little as possible with the See also:free circulation of air between the blocks. The site is carefully selected and enclosed with railings. The See also:administration block
is centrally placed, with See also: 
The system of roads, pipes and mains within the barracks are in all cases maintained by the Royal See also:Engineers, as well as the buildings themselves. See also:District and See also:brigade offices are necessary for the administration of large units, and quarters for the general officer commanding and the headquarters See also:staff may sometimes be required. Location of Barracks.—The selection of a healthy site for a barrack building or new military station is a See also:matter of See also:great importance. In the earlier days of barrack construction, barracks were, for See also:political reasons, usually built in large towns, where troops would be at See also:hand for putting down disturbances, and cramped and inconvenient buildings of many storeys, were erected on a small piece of ground often surrounded by the worst slums of the See also:city; such, for example, were the See also:Ship See also:Street barracks in See also:Dublin, and the cavalry barracks at See also:Hulme, See also:Manchester. Worse still were cases where an existing building, such as the See also:Linen Hall in Dublin, was See also:purchased, and converted into barracks with little regard for the convenience of the occupants, and a See also:total disregard for the need of a free circulation of pure air in and about the buildings, which is the first See also:condition of See also:health. In the See also:present day, except in a few cases where strong local See also:influence is allowed to prevail to retain troops in towns, where their presence, and perhaps the See also:money they spend, are appreciated for patriotic or other motives, every opportunity is taken to move troops from the vicinity of crowded towns, and quarter them in barracks or hutments built in the open See also:country. Due regard can then be given to sanitary location, and military training can more effectively be carried out. With improvements in communication by See also:rail, road and See also:telegraph, support to the civil power in case of disturbance can always be afforded in See also:good time, without permanently stationing troops in the actual locality where their assistance may be needed. It has been recognized ever since the See also:Crimean War, that the leading principle of barrack policy must, in the future, be to facilitate in peace time the training of the army for war, and that this can only be done by quartering troops in large bodies, including all branches of the service, in positions where they have space for training,See also:gun and rifle practice, and manoeuvring. The camps at See also:Alder, shot, See also:Colchester, See also:Shorncliffe and Curragh were accordingly started between 1856 and i86o, and the same policy has since been continued by the acquisition of Strensall Common, near See also:York, Kilworth domain, near See also:Fermoy, the See also:lease of a portion of See also:Dartmoor and a large See also:area at Glen Imaal in Co. See also:Wicklow, and the purchase of the Stobs See also:estate in See also:Scotland and of a large part of See also:Salisbury See also:Plain. Barrack Construction.—The See also:history of barrack construction in Great See also:Britain is an interesting study, but can only be touched on briefly. As See also:long as operations in the field were carried on by troops levied especially for the war in hand, no barracks apart from fortifications were required, except those for the royal bodyguard; and even after the See also:standing army exceeded those limits, the necessity for additional barracks was often avoided by having recourse to the See also:device of See also:billeting, i.e. quartering the soldiers on the populations of the towns where they were posted. This, however, was a device burdensome to the See also:people, subversive of discipline, and prejudicial to military efficiency in many ways, while it exposed the scattered soldiers to many temptations to disloyalty. Hence barracks were gradually provided, at first in places where such an arrangement was most necessary owing to the paucity of the See also:population, or where concentration of troops was most important, owing to the disaffection of some of the inhabitants. The earliest barracks of which there is any See also:record as regards See also:England, were those for the foot See also:guards, erected in i66o. Among the earliest of those still existing are the Royal Barracks at Dublin, dating from 1700, and during the 18th See also:century barracks were built in several parts of See also:Ireland; but in England it was at the end of the 18th and beginning of the loth century that most of the earlier barracks were constructed. So long as barrackswere mainly in connexion with fortresses their construction naturally See also:fell to the duty of the See also: Nor shall any See also:dogs be suffered to be kept in the rooms of any barrack or hospital." Another regulation says: " Where kitchens are provided for the soldiers, they shall not be allowed to See also:dress their provisions in any other places." In about 1818 the civil barrack department was abolished on account of abuses which had grown up, and the See also:duke of See also:Wellington as master-general of the ordnance and See also:commander-in-See also:chief transferred to the corps of Royal Engineers the duties of construction and See also:maintenance of barracks. In 1826 a course of See also:practical See also:architecture was started at the school of military See also:engineering at See also:Chatham under See also:Lieutenant-See also:Colonel (afterwards See also:Sir See also: To give every soldier his allotted amount of boo cub. ft., meant a reduction in accommodation of the barracks by nearly one-third the number. Many buildings were condemned as being entirely unsuitable for use as barracks; in other cases improvements were possible by alterations to buildings and opening-up of sites. Ventilation of the rooms was greatly improved, cook-houses, ablution-rooms and sanitary accessories were carefully examined and a proper scale laid down. Separate quarters for the married soldiers did not exist in many barracks, and in some instances married men's beds were found in the men's barrack-rooms without even a See also:screen to separate them; in other cases, married people were accommodated together in a barrack-room, with only a blanket hung on a See also:cord as a screen between the different families. The recommendations of the committee resulted in a single room being allotted to all married soldiers, and this accommodation has gradually improved up to the comfortable cottage now provided. From the time of this first thorough inquiry into barrack accommodation, steady and systematic progress has been made. Although lack of funds has always hampered rapid progress, and keeps the accommodation actually existing below the standard aimed at, much has been done to improve the soldiers' condition in this respect. Numerous regimental depots and other barracks were built under the Military Forces Localization Act of 1872. The Barracks Act of 1890 replaced the worn-out huts at Aldershot, Colchester, Shorncliffe and Curragh by convenient and sanitary permanent buildings, and further additions and improvements have been made under the Military Works Actsof 1897, 1899 and 1901. As some See also:evidence of the practical result of the care and money that has been expended on this work, it is interesting to See also:note that while, in 1857, the See also:annual rate of mortality in the army at home per r000 men was 17.5 (compared with 9.2 for the civil male population of corresponding See also:age), See also:forty years later, in 1897, the rate of mortality in the army was only 3.42 per moo. No doubt, improved barrack accommodation contributed' greatly to this result. Barrack construction work remained in the hands of the Corps of Royal Engineers until 1904, when a civil department was again formed under an architect styled " director of barrack construction," to deal with the construction of barracks at home stations, and the construction and maintenance of military hospitals. British Colonial.—Barracks at colonial stations are governed by the general scale of accommodation in the Barrack Synopsis, modified according to the See also:climate of the station, in the direction of increase in floor area and height of rooms. In the planning of rooms for occupation in tropical or sub-tropical countries provision has to be made for the freest possible circulation of air through the buildings. The walls have to be protected by verandahs from the direct rays of the See also:sun, and the special local domestic arrangements have to be taken into consideration. For example, in hot countries it is usually undesirable to have kitchens directly attached to the dwelling-houses, sanitary arrangements vary according to the methods adopted, and in some cases it is necessary to provide a free circulation of air below the ground floors of all inhabited buildings by raising them off the ground some 4 ft. The aspect of the buildings will usually be arranged so as to catch the prevailing See also:wind, and the mode of construction varies greatly according to the See also:custom and resources of the country. See also:Indian Barracks.—In India, barracks for the British troops are built by the Royal Engineer officers detailed for military work duties, assisted by military foremen, who pass through the civil engineering colleges, and by a native subordinate staff. The scale of accommodation to be provided is laid down in the Indian army regulations, and is for the private soldier more liberal than is allowed by the home See also:government for any of the colonial stations. The barrack-rooms are lofty and airy, with verandahs all See also:round, and See also:clerestory windows. See also:Roofs are usually of double tiling. The allowance of space is 90 sq. ft. per man in rooms 16 ft. high, with, in addition, a day room adjoining for the use of the men for their meals or as a sitting-room. Recreation establishments are liberally provided for, and other means of recreation, such as See also:bowling and skittle alleys, See also:fives courts, plunge baths and cricket grounds, are given. Separate blocks of married quarters are provided, and schools for the children. Hospital accommodation on a higher scale than at home is necessary; but See also: The floor and cubic space allotted per man is a little less; accommodation for officers is not usually provided, except to a limited extent, unless the barracks are on a country site. The German army, however, now provides every regiment with a fine officers' mess-house furnished at the public expense. Married quarters for some of the non-commissioned officers are provided, but not for privates. See also:American barracks are interesting, as providing for perhaps a higher class of recruit than usual; they are well designed and See also:superior finish internally is given. The barracks are arranged usually on the separate block system, and centre round a See also:post-See also:exchange or soldiers' club, which is a combined recreation establishment, gymnasium and sergeants' mess, with bath-house attached. Canteens for the sale of liquor were abolished in 1901. See The Barrack Synopsis (19o5); The Handbook of Design and Construction of Military Buildings (1905); The Army Regulations, India, vol. xii. (E. N. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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