For hundreds of years, Devizes has been a military town and home to various formal and informal army units such as the Royal Wiltshire Militia. The Wiltshire Regiment units were based in Devizes as early as 1804 and a large army base was built in 1878 called "Le Marchant Barracks" which became the Wiltshire Regimental Headquarters until 1959. Le Marchant Barracks below.  By 1878 the Le Marchant Barracks were completed alongside the main Devizes to Beckhampton road. They were named after Sir John Gaspard Le Marchant, who commanded the 99th Regiment of Foot in 1839; with the 62nd Foot this regiment formed the Wiltshire Regiment in 1881. On the completion of the Le Marchant Barracks in 1878 St. James's became the garrison church of the Wiltshire Regiment.There is an excellent museum in Salisbury "The Wardrobe" which features the a great deal of information on both the Wiltshire and Berkshire Regiments. The specific history of the Wiltshire Regiment is covered in two parts 1) Up to 1881 Wiltshire Regiment to 1881, and 2) Wiltshire Regiment from 1881.
On the outbreak of the first world war in 1914 the barracks became a hive of activity. In the first few months 5000 soldiers were processsed and over 3000 Reservists were called up.. Most of them went to the 1st and 2nd Battalions on the Western Front who had suddered serious casualties. When built the barracks had accomodation for 250 soldiers. It was a self contained community with married quarters, a hospital and its own cricket ground. Between the wars most recruits did their 6 months basic training at le Marchant barracks to bring them up to battalin standard. Most recruits were from Wiltshire, but recruits also had to be sought in London and Birmingham to make up the numbers from a rural county.Their programme included physical and educational development and most recruits gained 10lbs in weight during their training. A thumbnail sketch of the Wiltshire Regiment 1921–1959 The Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire Regiment) 1881–1921 Active 1 July 1881–9 June 1959. Country United Kingdom Branch Army, type Line Infantry Garrison /HQ le Marchant barracks,Devizes. - Nickname "The Springers" "The Moonrakers" "The Splashers"
- Motto Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense
- March "The Wiltshire" and "The Farmer's Boy" (quick)
- "Auld Robin Grey" (slow)
Anniversaries 21 December (Ferozeshah) Ceremonial chief HRH The Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh (1953–1959) The Barracks was the regimental headquarters until 1959 and then became a regimental museum until this moved to The Close in Salisbury.An enclave within the site remains the home of the Wessex Reserve Forces and Cadets Association whilst the majority has been developed for housing. English Heritage building listing Image of England Number: 447034 Location: Former keep and attached wall and gateway, le merchant barracks, London Road, Roundway Date listed: 03 April 1987. Date of last amendment: 04 February 1999 Grade II SU 06 SW ROUNDWAY LONDON ROAD (South East side) 1383/5/209 Former Keep and attached wall and gateway, Le Marchant barracks II Armoury, guard house and store, now part warehouse. Dated 1878, designed at the War Office by Major HC Seddon RE. Built in red brick with limestone and stone dressings; lateral stacks and asphalt roof. Fortress Gothic Revival style. PLAN: square, with ground-floor guard room and detention cells, corner stairs, stores on the upper floors. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys; 5-window range. A regular, square block with opposite square stair towers rising above the roof, other two corners chamfered, with raised parapets, stone sill and lintel bands, dentil eaves and crenellated parapet. Battered ground floor to a weathered band, narrow metal-framed windows with stone lintels, stepped in threes to the stair tower. A glazed iron verandah over the entrance to the former guard room. To the rear is a double door formerly for the barracks fire engine. INTERIOR: not inspected, but noted as having a fire-proof frame of iron columns to jack arches, stone open-well stairs, and a standard layout of stores and other rooms. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached wicket gateway with an iron gate, and one of originally two gate piers forming the main entrance to the barracks. HISTORY: the Keep was a secure armoury, store, guard house and lock-up, and the characteristic building of the Localisation depots. These were part of the Cardwell reforms, which redistributed barracks around the country to encourage local connections and assist recruitment. As such, the Keep raised the local profile of the barracks, and provided an emblematic focus for the local Wiltshire regiment, whose home this was from 1878 until 1967. With the similar version at Reading, one of only ten surviving examples of this important symbolic building. (Watson Colonel Sir HM: History of the Corps of Royal Engineers: Chatham: 1954-: 157-160). 1939 -1943 Coming Soon! 1943 onwards Prisoner Of War Camp 1943-1945- click here for more information Can you help? If you have any pictures or stories from the war please email Devizes Heritage direct by clicking here | 
