end is a supper bar, extending across the room, where mineral waters and other light refreshments are sold; tables are also arranged for suppers. A grocery shop is provided where the men and their families may purchase goods bought under regimental arrangements at wholesale prices, and sold without more profit than is necessary to keep the institution self-supporting. On the first floor are billiard and games room, reading-room and library, and writing-room. The manager’s quarter and kitchen premises complete the establishment. Near the recreation establishment is the canteen, devoted solely to the sale of beer, and not permitted to vie in attractiveness with the recreation establishment. A bar is provided for the soldiers, a separate room for corporals, and a jug department for the supply of the families; this building also has a manager’s quarter attached to it, and an office for the checking of accounts.
For the senior non-commissioned officers a sergeants’ mess is provided, containing dining-room, reading-room and billiard-room, with kitchen premises and liquor store, which also has a jug department for the sergeants’ families. The single non-commissioned officers have all their meals in this mess, and the married members also use it as a club. The warrant officers, and the proportion of non-commissioned officers and men who are on the married establishment, are provided with accommodation at some little distance from the men’s barracks. In all recent schemes, on open sites, self-contained cottages have been built, and these are more popular than the older pattern of tenement buildings approached by common staircases or verandahs. The warrant officers are allowed a living-room, kitchen, and scullery, with three bedrooms and a bathroom. The married soldiers have a living-room, scullery, and one, two, or three bedrooms according to the size of their families. A laundry is provided adjacent to the married quarters, equipped with washing-troughs, wringer, drying-closet, and ironing-room; and the women are encouraged to use this in preference to doing washing in their cottages.
Officers’ Quarters.—At a little distance from the men’s barracks, and usually looking over the parade or cricket ground, is the officers’ mess. This building has an entrance-hall with band alcove, where the band plays on guest nights; on one side of the hall is the mess-room (or dining-room), and on the other the anteroom (or reading-room), whilst the billiard-room and kitchen are kept to the back so that lantern lights can be arranged for. A mess office is provided, and all the accessories required for the mess waiters’ department, including pantry, plate-closet and cellarage, and for the kitchen or mess-man’s department, with also a quarter for the mess-man. The officers’ quarters are usually arranged in wings extending the frontage of the mess building, and in a storey over the mess itself. Each officer has a large room, part of which is partitioned off for a bedroom, and the field officers are allowed two rooms. The soldier servant, told off to each officer, has a small room allotted for cleaning purposes, and bathrooms, supplied with hot water from the mess kitchen, are centrally situated. A detached house, containing three sitting-rooms, seven bed- and dressing-rooms, bathroom, kitchen, servants’ hall, and the usual accessories, is provided for the commanding officer: also a smaller house, having two sitting-rooms, four bedrooms, bath, kitchen, &c., for the quartermaster. Other regimental married officers are not provided for, and have to arrange to house themselves, a lodging allowance being usually granted.
Regimental Accessories.—Apart from the buildings providing accommodation, others are required for administrative and military purposes. These are the guard house and regimental offices, the small-arm ammunition store, the fire-engine house, the drill and gymnastic hall, and the medical inspection block with dispensary, where the sick are seen by a medical officer and either prescribed for or sent into hospital, as may be necessary. Stables are provided for the officers’ and transport horses, and a vehicle shed and storehouse for the mobilization equipment. Stores are required for bread, meat, coal, clothing, and for musketry, signalling, and general small stores under the quartermaster’s charge—also workshops for armourers, carpenters, plumbers, painters and glaziers, shoemakers, and tailors. Mention of the fives court, recreation ground and parade ground completes the description of a battalion barrack.
Cavalry Barracks.—The accommodation provided for cavalry is very similar to that already described for infantry. The barrack blocks are arranged to suit the organization of the regiment, and are placed so that the men can turn out readily and get to their horses. Detached buildings are provided for cavalry troop stables, one block for the horses of each troop. Formerly stables were often built for convenience with the barrack-rooms over them; but this system has been abandoned on sanitary grounds, to the benefit of both men and horses. Each horse is given 1500 cub. ft. of air space, the horses’ heads are turned to the outer walls, and provision is made, by traversed air-ducts below the mangers, for fresh air to be supplied to the horses while lying down. Above the horses’ heads are windows which are arranged to open inwards, being hinged at the bottom and fitted with hopper checks to avoid direct draught. Ridge ventilation and skylights are given, so that all parts of the stable are well lighted and airy.
Cast-iron mangers and hay-racks are provided, and the horses are separated by bails, with chains to manger brackets and heel posts; saddle brackets are fixed to the heel posts. Each stable has a troop store, where spare saddles and gear are kept; also an expense forage store, in which the day’s ration, after issue in bulk from the forage barn, is kept until it is given out in feeds. The stables are paved with blue Staffordshire paving bricks, graded to a collecting channel carrying the drainage well clear of the building, before it is taken into a gully.
The space between the blocks of stables is paved with cement concrete to form a yard, and horse-troughs, litter-sheds and dung-pits are provided. Officers’ stables are built in separate blocks, and usually have only one row of stalls; the stalls are divided by partitions, and separate saddle-rooms are provided. Stalls and loose boxes in infirmary stables give 2000 cub. ft. of air space per horse and are placed at some distance from the troop stables in a separate enclosure. A forge and shoeing shed is provided in a detached block near the troop stables. A forage barn and granary is usually built to hold a fortnight’s supply, and a chaff-cutter driven by horse power is fixed close by. Cavalry regiments each have a large covered riding school, and a number of open manèges, for exercise and riding instruction.
Artillery, &c.—The accommodation provided for horse and field artillery is arranged to suit their organization in batteries and brigades, and is generally similar to that already described, with the addition of vehicle sheds for guns and ammunition wagons, and special shops for wheelers and saddlers. Accommodation for other units follows the general lines already laid down, but has to be arranged to suit the particular organization and requirements of each unit.
Garrison Accessories.—In every large military station in addition to the regimental buildings which have been described, a number of buildings and works are required for the service of the garrison generally. Military hospitals are established at home and abroad for the treatment of sick officers and soldiers as well as their wives and families. Military hospitals are classified as follows:—First-grade hospitals are large central hospitals serving important districts. These hospitals are complete in themselves and fully equipped for the carrying out of operations of all kinds; they generally contain wards for officers, and may have attached to them separate isolation hospitals for the treatment of infectious cases, and military families’ hospitals for women and children. Second-grade hospitals are smaller in size and less fully equipped, but are capable of acting independently and have operation rooms. Third-grade hospitals or reception stations are required for small stations principally, to act as feeders to the large hospitals, and to deal with accident and non-transportable cases. The principles of construction of military hospitals do not differ materially from the best modern civil practice; all are now built on the pavilion system with connecting corridors arranged so as to interfere as little as possible with the free circulation of air between the blocks. The site is carefully selected and enclosed with railings. The administration block
