| Thorp Street drill hall | |
|---|---|
| Birmingham | |
 Thorp Street drill hall, Birmingham | |
  Thorp Street drill hall Location within West Midlands | |
| Coordinates | 52°28′30″N1°53′57″W / 52.47504°N 1.89911°W |
| Type | Drill hall |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1881 |
| Built for | War Office |
| In use | 1881- |
The Thorp street drill hall is a former military installation in Birmingham, England.
The building was designed by Frank Barlow Osborn as the headquarters of the 1st Volunteer Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment and was completed in 1881. [1] This battalion split to become the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Birmingham Rifles in 1891 and evolved to become the 5th and 6th Battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1908. [2] The two battalions were mobilised at the drill hall in August 1914 before being deployed to the Western Front. [3] In 1936, both units converted into anti-aircraft battalions, the 5th battalion as the 45th (The Royal Warwickshire Regiment) Anti-Aircraft Regiment and the 6th Battalion as the 69th (The Royal Warwickshire Regiment) Anti-Aircraft Regiment. [2] While the 45th Regiment remained at Thorp Street, the 69th Regiment moved to Brandwood House in Kings Norton. [2]
Following a re-organisation in the Royal Artillery, 580 (The Royal Warwickshire Regiment) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery was formed at the Thorp Street drill hall in 1947 [4] and, following a further amalgamation, 442 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery was formed there in 1955. [2] The regiment was broken up in 1961; [2] the drill hall was subsequently decommissioned and substantially demolished and the former frontage now forms the entrance to a car park, [5] in what is now the city's Gay Quarter. [6]
The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, previously titled the 6th Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. The regiment saw service in many conflicts and wars, including the Second Boer War and both the First and Second World Wars. On 1 May 1963, the regiment was re-titled, for the final time, as the Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers and became part of the Fusilier Brigade.
The 143rd Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the British Army that saw active service in both the First and the Second World Wars. In the First World War the brigade served on both Western Front and later the Italian Front. During the Second World War the brigade fought in Belgium and France before being evacuated to England where it remained for the rest of the war and was finally disbanded in 1946. Raised again in the 1980s, this brigade disbanded under Army 2020 in November 2014.
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The Birmingham Rifles was a volunteer unit of the British Army founded in Birmingham in 1859. As the 5th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, it served as infantry on the Western Front and in Italy during World War I. Its successor units served in air defence during the early part of World War II, and later as anti-tank gunners in the Burma Campaign.
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The 54th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) formed immediately before the outbreak of the Second World War. It was engaged in defending the West Midlands of England during the war. It comprised a varying number of searchlight (S/L) battalions and later included light anti-aircraft units. It was disbanded at the end of 1943. When the TA was reconstituted in 1947, the former 54th AA Bde was reformed as 80 Anti-Aircraft Brigade but was disbanded on 9 September 1948.
The 1st Northamptonshire Rifle Volunteers were a unit of the British Army raised from 1859 onwards as a group of originally separate Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs). They later became the 4th Volunteer Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment and saw action in the Gallipoli and Palestine campaigns during the First World War. Converted into a searchlight unit between the wars, they served in the defence of the United Kingdom and as an infantry regiment in liberated Norway during the Second World War. Postwar they continued in the air defence role until 1961 when they reverted to infantry as part of the Royal Anglian Regiment.
The Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion was a bicycle infantry battalion of the British Army. Formed in the Territorial Force in February 1914, it remained in the United Kingdom throughout the First World War. After the war, in 1920, it was converted to infantry and became the 5th (Huntingdonshire) Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, in the Territorial Army. The battalion saw extensive service in the Second World War, fighting in France in 1940, Tunisia from 1942–43 and later Sicily and Italy from 1943–45 before ending the war in May 1945 in Austria. It continued to serve after the Second World War until May 1961 when it was amalgamated with the 4th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, to form the 4th/5th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment.
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The 2nd Northumberland Rifle Volunteer Corps, also referred to as the Tynemouth Rifles, was an infantry unit of Britain's part-time force, the Territorial Army. The corps was raised during the expansion of the Volunteer movement in the 1850s and then served with the Territorial Force during the First World War. It converted to an anti-aircraft role just prior to Second World War, and continued to serve until it was amalgamated in 1950.