Chapter Three : Fort Clarence in the 20th and 21st centuries

Change in the military nature of the Fort at the beginning of the 20th century was indicated by the fact that it ‘hosted’ military tournaments for the local population in the years leading up to the First World War. In 1914, on the outbreak of the First World War, the Fort was used as a recruitment centre for young men in the locality anxious to sign up and fight for "King and Country".

The Fort remained largely unaltered in these years apart from the demolition of the large brick archway over the road to the village of Borstal in 1924, which had been built as a defendable gateway over the road into Rochester. In 1925 part of the grounds of the Fort, to the west of the Tower and today named Fort Clarence Gardens,  provided a grassed and wooded recreation ground for the residents of Rochester and was donated as a public space by Charles Willis who sat on the City Council, was four times Mayor and was a Freeman of the City.

Willis, a local business man and philanthropist was known as the 'Borstal Benefactor' who gave a sack of coal to every Rochester citizen during the Great Depression and donated shoes to schoolchildren. It was reported : “Great bags of shoes arrived. One lad had never had shoes before and got this huge pair of boots. He was so proud - and polished them every day with the sleeve of his jumper”.  When he died in 1943, his house in St Margaret's Road was bequeathed to charity.

Charles had his own firm of solicitors with premises in Chatham, and Rochester and had an interest in the paddle steamer fleet on the River Medway. He began buying small plots of Fort Clarence land from the Board of Ordnance from 1909 onwards, including land to the west of the Fort, towards the river. A solicitor’s letter of 1924 informed the City Corporation that he proposed to ‘lay out two pieces of land as a whole as a public recreation ground and then present the ground to the Corporation'. According to a newspaper report, the City Corporation appreciation was warm and Mr Willis was ‘glad of the opportunity to secure this extra lung for the city' and plans were made to lay out the land with terraces and shrubberies, seats and a shelter. 

A civic reception for this gift was requested by the Corporation in May 1925, but declined by the donors because Mrs Willis’ distress was too great, the reason being that Charles and his wife had lost their eldest son on active service after the Armistice in 1918 which brought the First World War to an end. George White Willis was killed on active service in an air accident in January 1919 as a result of an engine failure in the plane he was testing at the time. (link) He was buried in France and it was the intention of Charles and his wife that the recreation ground be divided, respecting the terrain, with the northern portion laid out as a memorial garden for their son, while to the south there would be a public pleasure ground. 

In 1925 the166th City of Rochester Anti-Aircraft Battery of the 55th Kent Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery occupied the Fort. It was a part-time volunteer air defence unit of Britain's Territorial Army from 1925 until 1955 and was raised in Tonbridge, Kent with its headquarters at Fort Clarence. 

With the approach of the Second World War the Territorial Army's units were mobilised on 23 September 1938 during the Munich Crisis, with units manning their emergency positions within 24 hours, even though many did not yet have their full complement of men or equipment. The emergency lasted three weeks, and they were stood down on 13 October. In February 1939 the existing AA defences came under the control of a new Anti-Aircraft Command. In June, as the international situation worsened, a partial mobilisation of the TA was begun in a process known as 'couverture', whereby each AA unit did a month's tour of duty in rotation to man selected AA gun and searchlight positions. On 24 August, ahead of the declaration of war, AA Command was fully mobilised at its war stations. 

Initially known as an Anti-Aircraft Regiment, it added 'Heavy' to its title when the Light Anti-Aircraft units were formed early in the war. Originally armed with the 3 inch 20 cwt Gun, it soon rearmed with the 3.7 inch Gun (mobile & static) and the static mounted 4.5 inch and 5.25 inch Guns. The 3.7 inch HAA on the left can been seen at Fort Amherst and used in action there. (link) 

With the onset of the Battle of Britain, on 1 September 1940 over 200 aircraft attacked Maidstone, Biggin Hill, Kenley and Chatham and in joint action with the fighters, the guns broke up the formations and shot down four aircraft, but the airfields at Biggin Hill and Kenley were badly hit. A circular mounting for a light anti-aircraft gun survives on the open ground immediately west of Clarence Tower in Clarence Gardens on the other side of the Rochester-Borstal Road. 

After the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the Home Guard, 33rd (Short Bros) Battalion, based in Rochester, used Fort Clarence as its headquarters. They were affiliated to the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment whose cap badge they wore. This badge depicts the White Horse of Kent standing on a scroll inscribed with the motto 'Invicta' (Unconquered). The horse was the symbol of the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent. Below is another scroll inscribed 'Royal West Kent'.

The Battalion was formed in May 1940 by the redesignation of the Local Defence Volunteers Company and was made up of men in reserved occupations and those under the age to serve in the Armed Forces. They wore  khaki uniform and were equipped with a few rifles. The Fort served as the Home Guard’s HQ, training centre and stores until it was disbanded in December, 1944. Once again it was the case of turning old buildings into new usage and during that time, the cell block was turned into an ammunition store and the chapel into a gymnasium.

At the same time Fort Clarence's the old Napoleonic sister fort, Fort Pitt, was providing shelter for the pupils of the Medway Technical School for Girls which now occupied the site. In the event of an attack  the pupils the pupils made their way to the safety of the ammunition chambers below the surface. (link) 

After the Second World War came to an end, so to did the Fort's 135 year attachment to the British Army and its ownership passed to the General Post Office Telephones which used Clarence Tower for its work and its flanking towers, on the River Medway to the west and next to the Maidstone Road in the east, were both  demolished, the latter in the 1960s. Perhaps the most important event in the history of Fort Clarence took place in 2016 when 'Historic England' published Paul Pattison's Survey Report : 'Fort Clarence, Rochester, Kent. Napoleonic Gun Tower and Defensive Line'. It recorded that :

In answer to the question : What are the remains above ground at the centre of the Fort today ? They are  : Clarence Tower (1), the Governor’s House (2) and the earth bombproofing over the main magazine (3) remain at what was the centre of the Fort.(link)

In addition, to the west of the Tower are the remains of the first floor of the west casemates (left) constructed to allow the defenders to fire down the ditch. Seen from the inside (right) it appears that the defence of the ditch to the to the Medway Tower was to be by infantry firing from four loopholes on the ground floor because the design of the four windows was not for artillery. 

To the east of Clarence Tower, there are the defensive ditch with a rifle butt used by the Territorial Army as part of a miniature rifle range for rifle practice in the early 20th century.(4) 

In 2022 'Kent Online' announced, perhaps the strangest of the Fort's transformations, when it announced : 'One of Kent’s most important historical homes, dating back to 1808, has gone on the market. This former Napoleonic fortress in Rochester has been converted into a two-bedroom flat and is up for sale for £750k'. Five years before the Guardian newspaper ran an article headlined :

It highlighted the Tower's conversion into a domestic residence consisting of both internal room conversions. but also a roof garden area area with views over the Medway Towns. Link

The Fort, born in a period of war in 1812, then placed at the service of sick and wounded British Army soldiers and then its prisoners, before returning to active service in both World Wars, was finally being used as a domestic residence in a period of peace.

John Cooper