SITTING-ROOMS FOR TOMMY ATKINS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 108, 8 May 1937, Page 27

SITTING-ROOMS FOR TOMMY ATKINS

"Barracks" as a word signifying exterior ugliness and interior lack of comfort i has for long been current in

the language. At last the Army Coun-

cil has made up its mind to remove i the reproach that the soldier is accommodated in unattractive conditions, says the London "Observer." The best feature of the new type of barracks, some of which are to be built almost at once, is the provision of a club or sitting-room connected to ... each pair of dormitories for about , twenty-four men. For the first, time in , the history of the Army the soldier is to be provided with a real living-room adjacent to but apart from his sleeping quarters and dining-room.

Steel wardrobes for each man, cen-

tral heating, constant hot water, a plug for a wireless receiver in each livingroom, together with a really good arrangement "?of kitchens and diningrooms will provide k degree of comfort riot yet experienced in any barracks. ' ■>.■■■. '■■ ■?: „•'-

The soldier of fifty years ago would be astonished at the degree of.. comfort to be obtained even in the pre-sent-day barracks, which in their turn are- -now -regarded -as out-of-date and a deterrent to recruiting. Barrack life has always lagged somewhat behind home life, but at last an attempt is to be made to give the soldier something rather better than he can get in his own home. We are still, however, far from,the ideal set forth in Kipling's "Army of a Dream," in which he visualised a separate room for each man.

Until towards the end of the eighteenth century soldiers in 'England were usually quartered on the populations

of the towns they had to garrison. Barracks for the Foot Guards had been built in 1660, and the Royal Barracks ta Dublin were built in 1700.

TV; early regulations concerning barrack construction and maintenance show that conditions were, .unbelievably bad, according to modern ideas. Overcrowding was general and married quarters were : usually provided by the simple expedient of putting a blanket screen round one quarter of the barrack room. .'.-.".'

Wellington was'the first reformer, «nd he. insisted on single iron bedsteads for every man instead of wooden berths, and a definite number of cubic feet of .space per man. In the old days the men had to cook their own food, and when kitchens were introduced—a much-derided■• novelty—strict rules were made that the soldier was to use the %itche"n,' and ■not to do his .cooking anywhere else.

The Crimean War, which drew attention to so many abuses in the Army, was followed by a Commission to inquire into barracks. This Commission found that trie annual peace-time mortality in the Army was nearly' double that of the civilian male of the corresponding age. The recommendations of this Commission were drastic, and svere followed/with the result that the peace-time.death-rate in.the. Army dropped to something like half. that of the civilian male.., ■ • . :

The .barracks at .present in use, though some of them are of considerable age, give little cause for complaint as to healthiness. It is the appreciation of the fact that healthiness of bods can be increased by happiness of mind which underlies the design of the new "Standhurst" type of ■ barracks.