The site has been occupied since at least 1713 when ‘the Fortune’ or ‘Forton’ hospital was built to house 700 – 800 men of the Royal Navy.  Built mainly of wood for an entrepreneur named Nathaniel Jackson it’s facilities were leased to the navy for use by the many sick, diseased or wounded sailors and marines for whom the care was mainly ‘rough and ready’.
Under the employees of Mr. Jackson it would appear that they were little better looked after, with what is now known to be MRSA and other bacteria being rife, until moves by concerned people in high places forced the building of the Haslar Royal Naval Hospital.
Completed in 1762, Haslar took on the job which Jackson had to relinquish, and he then sought other uses for the site.
  As luck would have it the American War of Independence broke out and began to yield prisoners in 1755, so Jackson turned his facility into a prison camp. The harvest of POW’s arrived in batches at Portsmouth and thence to Gosport, eventually faring no better than the former residents.
Later on, war against the French sent up the total of those incarcerated at Forton. By the year 1815 the inmates numbered up to 4,000. Many of them languished and died in ancient hulks moored in Forton Creek. At its worst, Forton’s tender mercies sent about a third of all prisoners to their maker at an early date. Most were buried on the site later partly occupied by St. Vincent’s open-air swimming pool.
  The prison huts, many of them wooden, were mercifully burned down in 1807 which led to the use of brick and stone to build a main barracks block which was to be used well into the 20th century. This was surrounded by a wooden palisade, made from rough, poorly fitting, timber logs. In the front of this was thoughtfully added a rough roof of sorts, under which were stalls from which men could sell the items they made from bone, ochre, or wood. The money they accrued was used to supplement their diet and by many to gamble, which exercise was rife in prisons and hospitals of the period and could lead to violence and even death.

At the outbreak of peace it was the military, in the form of the Royal Marine Light Infantry, which took over Forton Barracks. They moved in on the 31st of March 1848 from Eastney, Portsmouth and found it an improvement on their old barracks. A Commandants residence was built outside the perimeter, and quarters, administration areas, and a galley were constructed along with general landscaping. The former open-air swimming pool, in the old graveyard, was brought back into use.
  In 1858 the Bishop of Winchester accepted on behalf of the Diocese the sum of £775 as being the purchase price for the Mill Pond at the rear of the barracks and that area was filled and also landscaped. By 1857 the whole of Forton Field had been purchased.

  Two houses, called East and West had been constructed in 1849 ostensibly for the use of subalterns, along with a wardroom, band gallery, and theatre come gymnasium wherein the Forton Theatrical Society put on fortnightly drama’s. A private dwelling just outside the boundary, Cedar Cottage, was purchased to become the 2nd in Commands residence. A sick-quarters was also made from the take-over of the former cottage hospital on the other side of Forton Road opposite the corner of Mill Pond Road.

William John Boxall, son of James Boxall (c1829 – 1896) (a cousin of Vincent Tickner), and Francis (c1827 – 1912) trained at the old St. Vincent establishment in 1866 as a seaman gunner. William’s service began with the issue to him of one pair of canvas shoes on 22nd November 1866. (Whether one pair would be enough to last to the end of his boys training and subsequent posting to H.M.S. Dasher is a moot point). From Dasher he was sent to H.M.S. Excellent for gunnery training on 8th July 1871 and again on 1st January 1872 when he became a member of the crew of H.M.S. Northumberland until being invalided from the service on 3rd September 1875 having sustained a knee injury and gained one Good Conduct badge.

  The Royal Marine Light Infantry and the Royal Marine Artillery, who had given good account of themselves during the Great War, especially at the Zeebrugge landings, amalgamated in 1923, and completed a move back to Clarence Barracks, Southsea, by 5th September. Forton Barracks was then left to the care- taking of naval pensioners for four years.

The old ship Impregnable at Devonport paid off in 1928 and it’s complement of around 200 boy’s entrained to H.M.S. St. Vincent bringing with them four billiard tables, a handsome contribution to the shop fund, and a picture of Boy Cornwell, V.C.

Advanced classes 103, 104, and 105 had taken their finals. No 103 passing out between 12th – 14th March 1928 with top boy, being Robert Minton. 104 passed out between May 28th – 30th their top boy, George Reynard.
  HMS St. Vincent had the highest top boy marks of all the three training establishments with 443 as compared against 423 for Ganges and 397 Impregnable. General Service Prize winners were H.G. Thitchener, C.T. Lovell, H. Scott, H. Salmon, and L.F. Thornton.

The Anniversary of H.M.S. St. Vincent’s Commissioning on 1st June 1928 was a time of reflection for all concerned, there had been very many changes.
A Mr. Jessup moved on to H.M.S. Barham - Mr. Lawrence to  H.M.S Caster - C.PO Writer F.Whiter to H.M.S. Dolphin.

 
   Other items written in records of note were; the covered swimming pool had been completed. At St. Vincent each boy was required to be able to stay afloat as part of his training and to achieve this he lay upon two ropes in the swimming pool, one under his thighs and another under his chest. A sailor holding the ends of the ropes and walking on either side of the pool held him up as he propelled himself along. Some recruits had never been close to so much water in their lives; few homes having bathrooms.

Captain and Mrs Maxwell took over from Captain Noble, who had left on the first of February. Royal Marine Sergeants Combes and Paget also left, being replaced by Sgts. Pitheral and Watts.

Lieutenant Dunwich & Mr.Woodford, Petty Officers Martin, Baker, Rose (who had been Parade Gunners Mate at Whale Island), and Seamen Shuttleworth, Dray, Bryant, Marshal, Thompson, Sadler and Hicks. Second Divisional Officer was Mr. Woodward, with Instructors, Petty Officers Martin and Baker. Class 16 was notable in being the first St. Vincent recruited class.  
       The new St. Vincent made quite an impression on other members of Vincent Tickner’s family for, besides William, his own father Frederick James also joined the Royal Navy at around 1935 and began his training at the Gosport establishment, going on to serve as Radio Officer aboard H.M.S. Rodney during the ‘Bismarck’ action. He gave to his son the name of the place he remembered most, Vincent.

  
        Ellen Thornton remembers her father Petty Officer Chick serving at Vincent in the early 1930’s until his retirement when he took on a janitorial job. This was concerned with the four wooden huts on the corner of Mill Lane where he looked after and repaired the highly detailed wooden ship models which were used in training. One task he had concerned a young cousin, Jack Wearne, who was a trainee. Jack was among those given evening leave to go to Stokes Bay to see the Jubilee Fleet lit up and as he had not returned by midnight, he was considered AWOL (absent without leave), Petty Officer Chick was detailed to find him. (Unfortunately the outcome is not known).
                    
    Before 1939 Continuous Service Boys and Communications Boys were trained at one of four establishments, H.M.S. Caledonia, H.M.S. Impregnable, H.M.S. Ganges, and H.M.S. St. Vincent which had capacity for 800 although this number was increased.
Boys, upon reaching their first ship would be paid 8 shillings and 9 pence, and at age 18, as an ordinary seaman, 14 shillings.
Specialists rated an extra 1s 9d a week up to 35 shillings, and more for each good conduct badge awarded after 3 – 8 – 12 years.
The complement at Vincent in 1935 numbered up to 1,700 amongst which were recorded 842 cases of disease and 260 injuries. Those taken to Haslar Hospital for treatment numbered 372. In October 1935 and 1936 St. Vincent was amongst those establishments which suffered an outbreak of haemolytic streptococci necessitating the taking of 2,792 throat swabs .

  An H.M.S.O. Report on the Health of the Navy, published in 1936, revealed that an epidemic of gastro-enteritis had broken out at St. Vincent during 1935, and 56 other cases were affected by an undetectable organism. One case of meningocochal infection proved to be non-fatal. (thankfully for the boy concerned) An infestation of cockroaches in the boy’s galley was treated with Admiralty insecticide.
 
     In 1934 the establishment was visited by officers from the German ship’s Koenigsburg (which Coastal Command aircraft were to sink in the coming war) and Leipzig. They were shown the 110-foot mast, that was erected in 1933 and dominated the parade ground as one came through the main entrance. It had been erected in 1933. It’s lower half taken from the German battleship Baden, which had been one of the German Fleet, purposely scuttled at Scapa Flow by their crews following surrender at the end of the Great War. The topmast and topgallant came from the old ship H.M.S. Emperor of India, whilst the upper signal yard had once been H.M.S. Calliope’s.

“I was posted to H.M.S. St. Vincent as a Boy 2nd Class. Arrival at the barracks was a daunting experience for someone of my age and very soon the discipline became apparent.

After all the formalities of paperwork and so on, there being plenty of it even then, and having been given my number P/JX 154226 Portsmouth Division, I and my colleagues were marched to the stores and issued with what appeared to be a vast amount of uniform; summer white drill tunic and trousers, winter serge ditto, underwear, socks, stockings (white), handkerchiefs, bedding (blankets, bedroll, pillowcases), towels, housewife, ditty box (for keeping valuables and odds and ends), shoes, boots, overcoat, rainwear, etc, etc.

About 20 of us boys were then marched to what was to be our home for the next 18 months. This was a brick building, one of four, two storeys high and consisting of four dormitories, each having 20 beds. Fortunately the dormitory I found myself in was on the ground floor which was useful after some of the most strenuous days, having no stairs to negotiate.

The first six weeks of training was probably the hardest time I ever endured before or since, although the remainder of my time was no walkover. After this initial period we were granted some leave and I was reluctant to return at the end of it.
What we were not told on receipt of our kit was that every single bit had to be embroidered with our initials and surname. An instruction which came not so much as a surprise but more of shock horror and was a task definitely not for those with a long surname, although it was fine if you were called Fox. This task was undertaken in our ‘spare’ time. All the necessary needles and threads were contained in our housewife which also held wool for darning socks, scissors, and everything else we needed.

  Together with rifle drill, using standard .303 rifles, marches with and without back packs, physical training on the square and in the gymnasium, cleaning dormitories and lavatories etc, and last but not least, climbing up and over the mast even on very cold and treacherous frosty winters days for which we were paid one shilling a week.

   At the end of initial training we were given the choice of which section of the navy we would like to serve in (stoker, seaman, gunner, signalman, etc.).