Background The school was based in a former Franciscan priory, St. Josefsheim, built in 1913, that closed in 1937 and was then used by the
Nazis, as Waldniel Institute, as part of their
child euthanasia programme. In 1952, the Allies were establishing a new headquarters in Hardt Forest just outside the city of
Mönchengladbach which became a major base for both British and
NATO forces - notably the HQs of the
2nd Allied Tactical Air Force,
Northern Army Group and
British Army of the Rhine. The base was known as the Joint Headquarters and effectively became a suburb of Mönchengladbach. NATO referred to it as
JHQ Rheindahlen. It was the families of these personnel that Kent School was to serve as a day school; it also had a boarding facility for children whose parents were in other locations that were not served by secondary schools.
School history Initially, however, the buildings were rented by the British for use as a hospital, the
British Military Hospital Hostert. What became
RAF Wegberg, south of JHQ Rheindahlen, was identified as a better site for the hospital, so the medical facilities were moved there and the site at Hostert became Kent School, a secondary, co-educational, boarding school for the
British Forces in Germany and worldwide. This involved a major redevelopment: a gymnasium and swimming pool were constructed, as well as a bus park for school buses. During the redevelopment work, human remains were uncovered - the bodies of patients who had died - or been killed - at the Nazi-run Institute which had been housed here during the war. In 1993, as a result of the end of the
Cold War and the reduction of Allied Forces in Germany, the site at Hostert was closed and it was returned to the German authorities. == Alumni ==