The History of Frimley Park Manor House and Estate

The Manor of FREMLEY was, at the time of the Doomsday Survey, part of the monastic estate of Chertsey Abbey.   On the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII gave the estate to his daughter Mary and when she became Queen in 1553 she gave the estate to Sir John White of Aldershot, as a reward for his service as Lord Mayor of London.

A granddaughter of White’s married Sir Walter Tichborne in 1602, who succeeded to the estate as part of the marriage settlement.  The present mansion was built in 1699, by James and Mary Tichborne, the sixth generation of the family to own the estate, on the site of an unpretentious hunting lodge.  The last of the Tichbornes to own the house, Sir Henry Tichborne, sold the house and estate to James Laurell in 1790 for £20,000.00.  George IV, as Prince of Wales, was a frequent visitor to the house and it was James Laurell’s son who, it is said, staked and lost the estate in 1857 at cards to one John Tekel, in the presence of the Prince.

The estate was then 1457 acres and included Tekel’s Park, Barossa Common and the whole of what is now Camberley.   In 1860, after Tekel died, his widow, daughter of the third Earl of Stanhope and niece of William Pitt, divided and sold the estate, Barossa Common becoming additional training grounds for the new Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Up until 1890 the estate changed hands a number of times, but the next known owner was Colonel (later Sir Malcolm) Fox of the Black Watch, Inspector of Gymnasia, who lived in the house until 1897.

In 1898, The Crown Prince of Siam was a gentleman cadet at the RMC Sandhurst and was subsequently attached to Army Units in the Aldershot area.  During this time he lived at Frimley Park, his bedroom was one of the smallest rooms at the top of the house because Siamese Royal Protocol ordained that members of the Royal Family must sleep above the commoners and servants of the Royal household.

From 1920 to 1947 the house was owned by Theodore Ralli, a Liverpool cotton broker, who made many improvements including the sunken garden, formal garden and pergola and the oak paneling in the dining room. The paneling was brought to Frimley Park from the Ralli’s house in Liverpool and had originally come from Chillingham Castle.  He also built three bedrooms were over the billiard room (now the main Lecture Room, Marlborough Hall) as a nursery suite for the Ralli children.

During the Second World War, the house became a maternity hospital, Marlborough Hall being the delivery room.  From 1947 to 1950 the house was used by the Officers’ Association.  In 1951 the house and grounds were taken over by the War Department for the WRAC Staff College, which remained in situ until 1957. 181 Regular and 34 Territorial Officers of the WRAC passed through the College.

In 1957, the Amery Committee proposed that a training centre for the CCF and ACF be established, under a Board of Governors.  The War Office decided Frimley Park should be used to house the newly named Cadet Training Centre.  After extensive renovations CTC, Frimley Park opened in 1959 and the first course assembled on the 5^th of April; an ACF Officers’ King George VI Memorial Leadership Course of 18 students.

Since 1966, the remaining estate has been much reduced in size.  Firstly by the widening of the Frimley Road to the south of the park into a dual carriageway, secondly by the building of Frimley Park Hospital and lastly by the building of the Gilbert Road housing estate between the park and the M3.  In 1989, a further encroachment of 2.7 acres was made by the hospital.  However, this paid for the new admin block, classrooms, range and showers and was officially open by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1991. A gymnasium shared with the new MOD Hospital Unit was opened in 2001.

The Cadet Training Centre has frequently been visited by distinguished people, including The Queen, Captain General of the CCF, on 12 July 1978, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, Colonel in Chief of the Army Cadet Force. During the more than forty years since opening, over 90,000 adults and cadets have passed through CTC.