Wilton Park Estate

Wilton Park at Beaconsfield in 1888

The Wilton Park Estate is located in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire.

History

The house on the Wilton Park Estate, which was known as the "White House", was designed by Richard Jupp for Josias Du Pre, Governor of Madras, and completed in 1779.[1] In 1939 the house was taken over by the War Office and used as an interrogation centre for Nazi prisoners of war: German refugees working for the allies would listen into prisoners' conversations.[2] After the War the house was used by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to re-educate prisoners of war into the British way of life: between January 1946 and June 1948 approx 4,500 Germans were made to attend re-education classes there.[3] The house went on to become the home of the Army School of Administration from 1949 and also the home of the Army School of Education from 1950.[1] The Foreign Office "re-education" facility, still known as Wilton Park and still organising conferences, moved out in 1951 and is now based at Wiston House in West Sussex.[1]

Wilton Park served as Headquarters Eastern Command from 1954 until it was amalgamated into Army Strategic Command in 1972.[4]

In the 1960s a School of Languages was established on the site (Colonel Gaddafi of Libya studied there at that time).[4] Although the house was demolished in 1968, the school remained on the site until April 2014.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Wilton Park Development Brief". South Buckinghamshire Council. January 2014. p. 7. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  2. ↑ "The Nazi prisoners bugged by Germans". BBC. 18 January 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  3. ↑ Arthur Lee Smith. The war for the German mind: re-educating Hitler's soldiers. p. 50.
  4. 1 2 "Wilton Park". Subterranea Britannica. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "The Defence Centre for Languages and Culture (DCLC)". Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. British Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 17 November 2014.

Coordinates: 51°36′09″N 0°37′43″W / 51.60252°N 0.62859°W / 51.60252; -0.62859

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