Fonds NCL - Army Branch Libraries: Northern Command Library

Northern Command was a Home Command of the British Army from 1793-1889 and 1905–1972.

Great Britain was divided into military districts on the outbreak of war with France in 1793. The formation in the North, which included Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland and Durham, was originally based at Fenham Barracks in Newcastle upon Tyne until other districts were merged in after the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1840 Northern Command was held by Major-General Sir Charles James Napier, appointed in 1838. During his time the troops stationed within Northern Command were frequently deployed in support of the civil authorities during the Chartist unrest in the northern industrial cities. Napier was succeeded in 1841 by Major-General Sir William Gomm, when the command included the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, Durham, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Flintshire, Denbighshire and the Isle of Man, with HQ at Manchester. Later the Midland Counties of Shropshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire were added and from 1850 to 1854 the Command included three sub-commands: NW Counties (HQ Manchester), NE Counties (HQ York) and Midlands (HQ Birmingham). From 1854 to 1857 there were two sub-commands, Northern Counties and Midland Counties, each with a brigade staff, but after that they disappeared and Northern Command remained a unitary command.

In 1876 a Mobilisation Scheme for the forces in Great Britain and Ireland was published, with the 'Active Army' divided into eight army corps based on the District Commands. 6th Corps and 7th Corps were to be formed within Northern Command, based at Chester and York respectively. The Northern Command Headquarters itself moved from Manchester to Tower House in Fishergate in York in 1878. The corps scheme disappeared in 1881, when the districts were retitled 'District Commands. Northern Command continued to be an important administrative organisation until 1 July 1889, when it was divided into two separate Commands: North Eastern, under Major-General Nathaniel Stevenson (HQ York), and North Western, under Major-General William Goodenough (HQ Chester).

The 1901 Army Estimates introduced by St John Brodrick allowed for six army corps based on six regional commands. As outlined in a paper published in 1903, V Corps was to be formed in a reconstituted Northern Command, with HQ at York. Major-General Sir Leslie Rundle was appointed acting General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOCinC) of Northern Command on 10 October 1903, and it reappears in the Army List in 1905, with the boundaries defined as 'Berwick-on-Tweed (so far as regards the Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteers) and the Counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Isle of Man. The defences on the southern shores of the estuaries of the Humber and Mersey are included in the Northern Command'.[9] By 1908 the Midland Counties of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire and Rutland had been added, but Westmoreland, Cumberland and Lancashire had been moved into Western Command.

The Command HQ was established at Tower House in Fishergate in York in 1905. The Fishergate site was named Imphal Barracks in 1951, but closed in 1958, when Northern Command HQ moved to a new Imphal Barracks on Fulford Road, York. Portions of the former headquarters at Fishergate are now serviced accommodation. The Command was merged into HQ UK Land Forces (HQ UKLF) in 1972.