Curragh Camp (GB)
The Curragh Camp (Irish: Campa an Churraigh) is an army base and military college in The Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. It is the main training centre for the Irish Defence Forces and is home to 2,000 military personnel.
The Curragh has historically been a military assembly area, owing to the wide expanse of plain. In 1599 Henry Harvey noted "a better place for the deploying of an Army I never beheld." However, the Curragh's history goes further back; it is mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters that Lóegaire Lorc, the king of Ireland, was slain on the Curragh by Cobthach Cóel Breg. There were numerous training camps organised on the Curragh in the nineteenth century including the training of militia to defend the country during the Napoleonic Wars. However, the first permanent military structures were built in 1855 by British soldiers preparing for the Crimean War. These structures were wooden in character but the camp did have its own post office, a fire station, ten barracks, two churches, a water pumping station, a court house and a clock tower.
In 1861, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited to inspect troops, including their son (Edward VII—the then Prince of Wales)—who was serving at the camp. A great troop review was held for the visit and an album of the occasion can be found in the Royal Archive at Windsor Castle.
The first of the "modern" barracks (Beresford Barracks) was built at the camp in 1879, and six new barracks were subsequently constructed through the start of the 20th century. The names of the barracks that were built by the British Army were Ponsonby Barracks, Stewart Barracks, A.S.C Barracks, Engineer Barracks, Gough Barracks and Keane Barracks.
By 1893, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) was Major-General Lord Ralph D. Kerr CB. The garrison was the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment (18th Foot), the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers (20th Foot), and the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment (31st Foot). In 1894, the Worcestershires were replaced by the 2nd Battalion the Hampshire Regiment (67th Foot).
The Curragh was a little isolated, which led to stringent regulations about taxi fares. However, the camp was well provided for, with recreational facilities (including, for the officers, hunting with the local gentry), several postal deliveries a day (last collection for England at 11 pm), and a daily Mass for Catholics at the East Church. A gun was fired every day at reveille, at 1 pm and at 9.30 pm.
Postmark Examples
![]() Curragh Camp redirected cover sent to Hamilton Then redirected to Musselburgh using a 1d red cancelled by the single arc duplex 455 'and' the single barred diamond 455. |