The end of the war saw the Barracks return to comparative normality and numbers soon decreased. The war had seen the Corps take on a number of new roles, not the least the Landing Craft or Amphibious role. In the late 1940s the annual Exercise Runaground found a small amphibious task force assembling off Eastney and landing craft packed with commandos storming the beaches. The Amphibious School was based at Fort Cumberland, later moving to Poole. Sharing the Fort was the Technical Training Wing, training men in more than 20 trades varying from mechanics to coachtrimmers, artificers to carpenters and painters. In the northern part of the barracks was the Signals Training Wing, while detachments for sea service would form up and train in C Company. Indeed Eastney was a hive of training schools.

 


Exercise Runaground n Eastney beach

 

The closing down of Chatharn Division in 1950 had its knock‑on effect, the Royal Marines Drafting, Pay and Records Office from Chatham spending 13 years in the old Portsmouth Gun Battery and Hutment Camp, later named Melville Camp, from 1960.

On 14 July 1959, the Corps was honoured when the City of Portsmouth granted the Freedom of the City to the Royal Marines. HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, the Captain General received it on behalf of the Corps on the Main Parade. Appropriately the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth who presented it was a former Royal Marines officer, Councillor (later Sir Alfred) Blake, who had commanded 45 Commando for a short time in North West Europe.


Lt Col GPD Pease and Capt EH Warren lead the March past, in front of the Guild Hall

Another formal occasion took place on 27 October 1965 when Admiral of the Fleet, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma was installed as the first Life Colonel Commandant of the Royal Marines, being welcomed into the Corps by his nephew, the Captain General. It was on that day the Earl Mouintbatten said 'I'm proud indeed today that the Royal Marines should feel I measure up to them and have admitted me to their ranks. Of all the honours that have befallen me, this is the one I appreciate the most and can now share in your 300 years traditions. 1 look forward to basking in your reflected glory of what the young Marines will achieve in the future'. The previous year, the Royal Marines Tercentenary, Earl Mountbatten had finally managed to persuade the Corps to accept the Preobrajensky March as their Regimental Slow March, 30 years after the original offer!

One of the first familiar landmarks to disappear was the central pillar of the Main Gate. The inability of new modern coaches to negotiate the turning into the barracks and the continual stream of Royal Marines learner drivers, at the wheel of three‑ton trucks, who battered the pillar necessitated its removal in 1966. The Second in Command of the Barracks had the bright idea of selling the bricks in aid of the Museum Fund, but how much money was raised is not recorded  not much I would guess.

 

                       
Melville Camp 1965

 


Admiral of the Fleet the earl Mountbatten of Burma inspects the recruit Company at his installation as Life Colonel Commandant, in October 1965

 
The withdrawal of British Troops from the Far East in the late 60s and early 70s, particularly 3 Commando Brigade, who had been continually abroad in trouble spots since 1945, found the Corps looking for another new role. The demise of major ships of the Fleet, the new role covering the flanks of NATO in Europe, and the assumption of the Arctic Warfare role, meant that a new emphasis must be placed on where the Corps would train and operate. 43 Commando spent just over a year at Eastney in the old Hutment Camp area, renamed Comacchio Camp, but they were slowly run down and finally disbanded in 1968.

Eastney was suffering. The final run down started in 1971 when the Signals and Technical Training Wings moved to Lympstone and Poole, Fort Cumberland was closed and parts of the Barracks pulled down and sold off. Only the Headquarters of Royal Marines Training, Reserve an Special Forces remained: even the Band of the Commander-in‑Chief Naval Home Command were lodgers, albeit very welcome ones. No longer did the Parade Ground ring to the commands of Drill Instructors nor the sports fields pound . to the feet of fit young men. With the need for increased security the Barracks became a fortress once more. One bright light in the dark tunnel came with the enlargement of the Royal Marines Museum and its official opening by the Captain General in the old Officers' Mess on 1 August 1975. Rumours and counter rumours that the Royal Marines School of Music would once again return to Eastney were finally scotched and the decision was made to move all the serving elements out of Eastney Barracks.


The Bust of Earl Mountbatten unveiled 15 July 1975

For 240 years there has been a continuous Royal Marines presence in the Portsmouth area, 130 of them at Eastney, and both the Corps and the City of Portsmouth will be sorry that the links have now been broken. There will still be a few elements left in Portsmouth and Gosport, while the Band will also remain within the city walls, so the ghosts of the past will not be forgotten. The plans for the future development and improvement of the Royal Marines Museum are now being laid and it is this that will remain a permanent memorial to the Royal Marines considerable contribution to the great naval port of Portsmouth.


The Captain General opens the Corps Museum, 1 August 1975

 


Aerial view of Eastny Barracks 1921 Taken before the Esplanade and housing of Eastney and Milton were built
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