Postcard of soldiers including 6th Lord Bolingbroke at Sutton Veny, 1917

Group of trainee soldiers including Private Vernon St.John, 6th Viscount Bolingbroke, seated second from the right. The training camp was based at Sutton Veny and it is likely to be the first barracks Vernon was sent to following his enlistment in March 1917.

Situated close to Warminster and Salisbury Plain, Sutton Veny was ideally located for troop training and ten camps were established around the village. Part of the training schedule included living for a week in a trench which was intended to prepare the men for conditions in France.

This postcard belonged to Lord Bolingbroke and was generously gifted to The Friends of Lydiard Park by a former friend of his, Anne Barr in 2024, part of a wider collection of St.John memorabilia.