Perowne Barracks
Encyclopedia
Perowne Barracks is a former British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 barracks in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

. It closed in 1994 following the drawdown of the military establishment prior to the handover of sovereignty in 1997. Formerly stationed at the barracks was a Gurkha regiment
Gurkha regiment
' may refer to:* Brigade of Gurkhas, Nepalese soldiers who serve Within the British Army* Gorkha regiments , various infantry regiments in the Indian Army, recruited primarily from Nepal* Gurkha...

 of the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....

. The barracks was named for Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...

 Lancelot Perowne
Lancelot Perowne
Major-General Lancelot Edgar Connop Mervyn Perowne CBE was a British Army officer who commanded 17th Gurkha Division.-Military career:...

 (1902–82), the first Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 of the Gurkha Engineers (unit of the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....

) and later Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...

 of the Brigade of Gurkhas
Brigade of Gurkhas
The Brigade of Gurkhas is the collective term for units of the current British Army that are composed of Nepalese soldiers. The brigade, which is 3,640 strong, draws its heritage from Gurkha units that originally served in the British Indian Army prior to Indian independence, and prior to that of...

.

Since closure, part of the barracks has been used as a training school by the Hong Kong Immigration service, and another part is used by the Crossroads Foundation
Crossroads Foundation
Crossroads Foundation is a non-profit charity based in Hong Kong dedicated to collecting quality excess and second-hand goods within Hong Kong, refurbishing them if necessary, and then distributing them to those in need within Hong Kong and internationally....

 charity.

The majority of the camp has not been maintained since the army left. There is still a large Brigade of Gurkhas
Brigade of Gurkhas
The Brigade of Gurkhas is the collective term for units of the current British Army that are composed of Nepalese soldiers. The brigade, which is 3,640 strong, draws its heritage from Gurkha units that originally served in the British Indian Army prior to Indian independence, and prior to that of...

 badge on a camp building - the secondary school - that can be seen from the Tuen Mun Highway which bisects the camp.

The land is gazetted by the Hong Kong government for redevelopment. It is not clear when any clearing of the site may occur.

The barracks was used until 2008 as the final checkpoint for the annual Trailwalker
Trailwalker
Trailwalker or Oxfam Trailwalker and the related Trailtrekker are endurance walking events run across the world by Oxfam, in which teams of 4 competitors must complete a course of in a set time limit - typically between 24 and 48 hours...

 event along the MacLehose Trail
MacLehose Trail
The MacLehose Trail , opened on 26 October 1979, is a hiking trail that crosses much of the New Territories, starting from Pak Tam Chung, Sai Kung, in the east to Tuen Mun in the west in the territory of Hong Kong. The whole trail is 100 kilometres long, marked by distance posts at 500m intervals...

. In 2009 the Trailwalker route changed to end in Yuen Long.
The slipway of that part of the barracks known as Gordon Hard
Hard
Hard or Hardness may refer to:* Hardness, resistance of physical materials to change under force* Hard water, water with a high mineral content* NP-hard, a term used in Computational complexity theory* Hard, Austria, a town in Austria...

 divides Cafeteria Old Beach from Cafeteria New Beach in So Kwun Wat
So Kwun Wat
So Kwun Wat, commonly pronounced So Kwun Fat , is an area on the south coast of the western mainland New Territory in Hong Kong. The proper So Kwun Wat is a human inhabitant in the valley between Siu Lam and Sam Shing Hui...

. There are still several Nissen hut
Nissen hut
A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated steel, a variant of which was used extensively during World War II.-Description:...

s in this area as of 2009.
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