Armed forces and support personnel

The following results have been obtained from the Ministry of Defence (MOD), annual location statistics reports for 1^st April 2024. The report presents information on the location of all UK stationed regular service and civilian personnel and of veterans in receipt of armed forces pensions and compensation by local authority area. 

Summary

• There were 140 military forces personnel based in the Lancashire-12 area in 2024
• The number has fallen by 56% from the 2023 figure
• There were 1,160 MoD civilian personnel based in the Lancashire-12 area in 2024
• The number of civilian personnel rose by 84% from 2023 in the Lancashire-12 area
• From the Census 2021 there were 53,567 people identified who had previously served in the UK armed forces then resident in the Lancashire-14 area
• The Census 2021 identifies 16,841 veterans resident in Lancaster, Wyre and Blackpool. This is 38.2% of the Lancashire-14 total
• In the Lancashire-14 area there were 9,424 people in receipt of some type of armed forces pension in 2023
• Of these 3,415 (36%) lived in the coastal authorities of Fylde, Wyre and Blackpool

Military forces in the Lancashire-12 area 

According to the Ministry of Defence figures Fylde and Preston districts are the only two authorities in the county where military forces are stationed permanently. The Preston Hive covers Weeton Barracks in Fylde, Fulwood Barracks in Preston and Warton in Fylde. Entries for Chorley, Lancaster, Ribble Valley, South Ribble, Wyre, Blackburn with Darwen (unitary authority) and Blackpool (unitary authority) also appear in the MoD statistics, but only Lancaster (10 'Army Other Ranks') and Chorley, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool (all <5 'Army Other Ranks') actually had military personnel in 2024. Those in Blackpool have only been present beginning in 2022. South Ribble and Wyre may be included for reasons of being consistent with the civilian personnel table. Numbers under 5 are shown for April 2012 and 2013 at Ribble Valley. The latter two counts are in the 'RAF Other Ranks' category. 635 Volunteer Gliding Squadron of the RAF was based at Samlesbury Aerodrome until 2009. Those in Lancaster are most likely based occasionally at Halton Training Camp. The 20 Fylde 'RAF Other Ranks' in the latest figures would likely be employed at Warton Aerodrome.

Fulwood Barracks is now the headquarters of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment. The nearby Kimberley Barracks in Preston and Weeton Barracks in Fylde are used by the 4th and 1st Battalions respectively of the Regiment. Fulwood was from 1982 the home of the 42nd Infantry Brigade and then more recently for 3 Medical Regiment. In November 2016 it was announced that Fulwood Barracks would close in 2022 but since this has been put back to 2030. 

The Lancashire-12 area, with 140 military forces staff, has 15.6% of the modest North West total of 900. The Lancashire-12 figure was down by 56% compared to the previous year but personnel normally stationed at Weeton Barracks had been deployed in Cyprus for two years.

Table 1: UK military forces stationed in the Lancashire-12 area, 1^st April 2024

	Fylde	Preston	Lancaster	Lancashire-12	North West
Officers	f	20	---	20	120
Other ranks	30	80	10	120	780
Total	40	100	10	140	900

Source: Ministry of Defence - Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. A dash (---) denotes zero. (f) denotes fewer than 5. A more detailed table is available as a Microsoft Excel download below.

Ministry of Defence civilian personnel in the Lancashire-12 area

Wyre (1,010) has the largest number of Ministry of Defence (MOD) civilian personnel in Lancashire, while there are 100 in the Preston City area. Over the last year the figure for the Lancashire-12 area has increased by 530 or 84%. The total of MOD civilian personnel for the North West has increased by about 2% from 2023. There are fewer than 5 Ministry of Defence (MOD) civilian personnel located in the unitary authority of Blackburn with Darwen and none in Blackpool. Please note that civilian staff are also included in the total for Civil Service Employees.

Table 2: Ministry of Defence civilian personnel stationed in the Lancashire-12 area, 1^st April 2024

	Fylde	Lancaster	Preston	South Ribble	Wyre	Lancashire-12	North West
Non-industrials	10	10	80	f	1,010	1,130	1,440
Industrial	---	f	10	f	---	20	70
Trading Funds	10	---	---	f	---	20	350
Total	20	20	100	10	1,010	1,160	1,860

Source: Ministry of Defence - Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. A dash (---) denotes zero. (f) denotes fewer than 5. A more detailed table is available as a Microsoft Excel download below.

The distinction between peacetime rôles of respective military and civilian personnel may become blurred, for instance at establishments such as Halton Training Camp. 

Members of the armed forces and veterans resident in Lancashire   

A different measure of armed forced personnel numbers in the Lancashire area was provided by the 2011 census. The census table QS121EW has details of members of the armed forces as residents of households or communal establishments on census day (27 March 2011). The results show that the 14-authority Lancashire area had 2,214 residents that stated they were employed by the armed forces, which is just 1.4% of the total for England. The census also revealed that 2.8% of the total population of England was resident in the 14-authority Lancashire area therefore the results confirm the under-representation of armed forces personnel in Lancashire. The 2021 Census included a question about former employment in the armed forces, and analysis of the data this provides will be used to direct the Veterans' Strategy Action Plan: 2022 to 2024. Analysis of the Census results show that in 2021 there were 53,567 people who had previously served in the UK armed forces then resident in the Lancashire-14 area. This is around 4.3% of the population aged 16 or over. Of these 16,841 (38.2%) were resident in Lancaster, Wyre or Blackpool.

The GOV.UK website includes veteran location statistics that detail armed forces pension and compensation recipients by local authority. In the year to 31^st March 2023, the total number of individuals in receipt of either a pension or compensation under the Armed Forces Pension Scheme, War Pension Scheme or Armed Forces Compensation Scheme was 9,424 in the 14-authority Lancashire area. Over a third of the Lancashire total (3,415) were resident in the neighbouring authorities of Wyre, Blackpool and Fylde.

The government established the Office for Veteran's Affairs in 2019.

Local support for the armed forces   

The armed forces covenant sets out the relationship between the nation, the state and the armed forces. Lancashire County Council signed the Armed Forces Covenant in 2013, has been a Gold award holder within the MoD’s Employer Recognition Scheme since 2020, and has collaborated with all Lancashire councils since 2019 under the banner of the Lancashire Armed Forces Covenant Hub. This partnership project was created to improve delivery of the Covenant and encourage collaboration between public sector organisations and charities in Lancashire in support of the Armed Forces community.

The county council has implemented a scheme to recruit local ex-service personnel to become part of the mentoring in schools programme.

A corporate covenant is a voluntary pledge from businesses and charitable organisations who wish to demonstrate their support for the armed forces community. The list includes a number of local and national organisations. These include British Aerospace and Rolls Royce that have an important presence in Lancashire as part of the local aerospace industry. United Utilities is also on the list and has a major presence in the Lancashire-14 area.

The Royal British Legion is one of a number of armed forces charities that have branches throughout the county.

Lancashire is home to a central government Veterans UK site at Norcross, on the outskirts of Thornton Cleveleys. The MoD Fraud Team is also based at this site.

MOD defence training estate sites in the Lancashire-14 area

The land owned by the Ministry of Defence for the purpose of training the armed forces is known as the Defence Training Estate (DTE). The website has information for the North of England that mentions a site that covers part of Lancashire.  The Holcombe Moor Training Area is an all-year-round general purpose facility used by the Territorial Army, Cadets and the regular army. The main part of the site is outside the county, but the 303 hectares of freehold land include a section in Rossendale district. There are five public rights of way that cross the site, and it forms an integral part of the West Pennine Moors. Public access is of course restricted to periods when there is no live firing.

Halton Training Camp in Lancaster district is a 19 hectare site with barrack accommodation and a small wood running parallel along the north bank of the River Lune. It is all-year- round, general-purpose training camp with the emphasis on TA and Cadet training at weekends and mid-week as a base for regular army units undergoing adventurous training.

The Justice System and the Armed Forces Community

Over the last 25 years the King's Centre for Military Health Research at King's College London has been considering the difficult issue of recorded offences by those who were either serving or ex-serving UK military personnel. This was to assess the impact of deployment combat exposure, and post-deployment mental health problems on subsequent offending behaviour.

It found that convictions and incarceration were substantially lower in the military group analysed than in the general population (1.7% vs 7.0%).

This research is referenced in a factsheet produced by the Armed Forces Network.

In May 2014, a quick local assessment was made of detected offences records covering the 14-authority Lancashire area. For the 2013/14 financial year, less than 0.3% of all detected offences were committed by people who showed their employment status as being with the armed forces. It is however not possible to distinguish any detected offences by former members.

Museums, cemeteries and memorials

The King's Own Royal Regiment Museum is in central Lancaster, and tells the history of the Regiment from 1660s to the 1960s. Westfield Memorial Village is an example of a housing development that was completed after the First World War for service personnel. The estate is close to Lancaster railway station and is opposite the football ground. Over the years, some of the houses have been sold to the general public, but a number of ex-service personnel are still resident at the site.

The Lancashire Infantry Museum is located at Fulwood Barracks, Preston, and is said to be the largest regimental archive, and the premier centre for historical military research in Northern England. It is intended that the museum will remain open when the barracks itself closes in 2027.

The regimental charity of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's, Lancashire and Border) provides welfare and benevolence support to serving and retired members. 

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission cares for cemeteries and memorials at 23,000 locations, in 153 countries. The 'find a cemetery option' allows for sites to be searched by county in the UK. Choosing the Lancashire option generates a list of over 500 sites. The list covers the historic Lancashire region that is much larger than the 14-authority Lancashire area.

The War Memorials Trust is the charity that works for the protection and conservation of war memorials across the UK. The website has information on war memorials in parts of Lancashire. The site also has the search grants showcase facility, which is a database of grants for war memorial repair and conservation projects.  The search facility allows a list of grants to be viewed for the Lancashire area.

Victoria cross commemorative paving stones

In 2013, the government announced the proposal for commemorative paving stones to be laid in the birth places of Victoria Cross recipients from the First World War. The list includes 11 men born within the present local authority boundaries of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Chorley, Hyndburn, Lancaster, Preston and South Ribble. 

Other links

The North West Reserve Forces & Cadets Association promotes the Volunteer Reserve Forces of all three Armed Services through liaison with local authorities, employers, trade unions, the media and other influential groups. Its headquarters is at Altcar in Merseyside, near to Great Altcar in West Lancashire.

Page updated March 2025