The Life Guards in Germany 1945-92

Following the end of hostilities in 1945 The Life Guards, the senior regiment of the British Army, were stationed in Goslar in the Harz region of Germany.

Over the next forty-seven years they were based at a number of locations. From 1971 Detmold in North Rhine-Westphalia became a regular posting alternating every few years with the Blues and Royals to the Household Cavalry’s main base in Windsor.

In 1992 as a result of service reductions following the end of the Cold War the Household Cavalry was reduced to a single armoured regiment of five squadrons at Windsor as well as the mounted ceremonial regiment based at Hyde Park in London.

In August 2016 I went on a tour of the locations in Germany and recorded those barracks which were accessible.

Current use is as follows:-

Hastings Barracks, Goslar is used by the local authority.

Northampton Barracks, Wolfenbuttel is now a campus of the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences.

Montgomery Barracks, Kladow, Berlin, is now the Bundeswehr’s Blucher Kaserne. Apart from the photo of the front gate, no photography was attempted.

Luneberg Barracks is mostly used by small businesses, some is in use by one of the major commercial banks and more is used by local authorities.

Harewood Barracks, is now a refugee centre and no photography was permitted.

Lothian Barracks, Detmold is now in mixed use. The barrack block area is residential. The officer’s mess, NAAFI/QM Stores/Cookhouse and adjacent building are used as a school and other community activities and the tank park is an industrial estate.

Athlone Barracks, Sennelager is still in use by the British Army and access is obviously restricted.

Thanks are due to Bernard (Timber) Wood (RIP), Ted Land and other former members of the regiment, and to Steve and JPW of BFG Locations forum for their help in identifying the precise locations concerned.