page_title: Prospect Camp, Bermuda
section_title: Use of the camp
hierarchical_section_title: Prospect Camp, Bermuda / History / Use of the camp
caption_attribution_description: English: Governor of Bermuda and General Officer Commanding (GOC) the Bermuda Garrison, Lieutenant-General Sir Denis John Charles Kirwan Bernard, KCB, CMG, DSO, inspects the First Contingent of the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC) to the Lincolnshire Regiment at Prospect Camp on 22 June 1940. Personnel from the Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers were attached to the contingent to travel to Britain where they separated to join their parent corps (the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers, respectively). Accompanying the GOC is Lieutenant PAD Smith, BVRC, in command of the contingent. Officers in the front row (left to right): Lieutenant Anthony Frith Smith, BVRC; Lieutenant John Brownlow Tucker, BVRC; Lieutenant B. Abbott, BVRC; Lieutenant Patrick Lynn Purcell, BMA.
context_page_description: Prospect Camp, also referred to as Prospect Garrison, was the main infantry camp of the Bermuda Garrison. It also contained Fort Prospect, Fort Langton, and Fort Hamilton, as well as being the base for mobile artillery batteries, manned by the Royal Artillery. Outlying parts of the camp were disposed of in the early decades of the Twentieth Century as the garrison in Bermuda was reduced. The core area, including the barracks, passed to the local government when the garrison was withdrawn in 1957.
context_section_description: Through much of the 19th century, a full battalion of infantry soldiers was based in Bermuda, along with various artillery, engineer, and other support units. By the 1860s, financial constraints, the intention to redeploy more of the British Army in Britain to guard against invasion, and the intention to compose what would come to be known as the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), meant the garrison in Bermuda was scheduled for reduction. With Bermuda remaining an important naval base, however, the regular soldiers were obliged to remain in full strength for many years, until the government of Bermuda could be induced to raise part-time units, the Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, to take on part of the responsibilities of the garrison. From then on, the regular soldiers in Bermuda were slowly whittled away. Between the two world wars, the regular Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers were withdrawn completely, handing their responsibilities entirely to the BMA and the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers. Although regular infantry soldiers remained, Bermuda no longer had a full garrison, and only a detached company was posted to Prospect Camp. As a new battalion deployed to Jamaica, it detached a company in Bermuda along the way.
  During the Second World War, in addition to housing the headquarters and the regular infantry, the camp was also used for training overseas contingents from the part-time units (which had been embodied on a full-time basis for the duration of the war). The First Contingent of the BVRC, which left Bermuda to join the Lincolnshire Regiment in England, trained at Prospect Camp, along with several volunteers from the BMA and BVE who travelled with them to England, before detaching to join their larger corps. In 1943 Prospect Camp housed the Training Battalion, a temporary force composed of volunteers from the BVRC, the BMA and the Bermuda Militia Infantry, to train for deployment overseas. The battalion then split into two contingents; the Second Contingent of the BVRC which joined the Lincolnshire Regiment in Britain, and the Bermuda Militia contribution to the new Caribbean Regiment, for which it provided the Training Cadre, which was raised in North Carolina.
caption: Governor and General Officer Commanding, Lieutenant-General Sir Denis Bernard, inspects the First Contingent of the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps to the Lincolnshire Regiment at Prospect Camp on 22 June 1940.
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