World War 1, Europe, England, Belton Park, Machine Gun Training Depot. 1917

Despite the popular belief that the war would be over by Christmas, Field Marshal Kitchener, Britain’s new Secretary of State for War, predicted long, drawn out hostilities, and that the British Army would need more men. Almost 2.5 million men volunteered to join Kitchener’s New Army, and the government realised that they didn’t have the infrastructure to house and train them all. Schools and warehouses were requisitioned and locations for new, temporary training camps were sought.

It came as no surprise when Adelbert, 3rd Earl Brownlow, donated the use of his estates at both Belton and Ashridge to the War Office soon after war was declared. As a Privy Counsellor (from 1887), Under-Secretary of State for War (1889-1892) Adelbert had seen the need for a strong army and good training through British involvement in the Boxer Rebellion and the Second Boer War.
From September 1914, bell tents were erected within Belton Park for the temporary accommodation of thousands of soldiers. By April 1915 however, a small town had been built for around 20,000 men of Kitchener’s Army, a military base hospital, churches, YMCA huts, a cinema and its own railway line. New electricity, water and sewerage services were provided and, in a change from the traditional design, each regimental line had separate barracks, latrines, wash houses and mess huts. By late spring 1915, the recruits of the 11th (Northern) Division were judged ready and during June and July the division left Grantham and set sail for Gallipoli.

Belton Park Camp then became the base depot and headquarters of the war raised Machine Gun Corps from October 1915, closing in 1922. The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was created by Royal Warrant on 14 October 1915, The Base Depot and HQ in England were established at Belton Park and Harrowby. There were several ‘schools’ at Belton Park, from the Machine Gun Corps to Signalling and a Cooks School. Between 1915 and 1922 around 170,500 officers and men served with the MGC, each man spending