Story of Wartime Canadian Army Entertainment Unit Based at Down Place, Guildford

Published on: 27 May, 2025
Updated on: 28 May, 2025

During the Second World War Surrey was home to 230,000 Canadian troops, living in tented camps, huts or billeted in country houses. Their roles included defending Britain from a potential German invasion, building Dunsfold Aerodrome, and training for the raid on Dieppe and D-Day. At Down Place, north of the Hog’s Back west of Guildford, a section of the Canadian Auxiliary Services Entertainment Unit were based. Military historian Frank Phillipson, reveals what they did.

Down Place was a Georgian country mansion that was requisitioned around 1940, and with additional huts, was taken over by Royal Army Service Corps.

OS Map of 1946 showing Down Place.

In December 1943 five troupes of the Canadian Auxiliary Services Entertainment Unit reached England and as The Army Show were to entertain units of the Canadian Army.

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Initially based in Aldershot they later moved into the Down Place camp.

Commanded by Major Rai Purdy, these units entertained troops throughout Britain and, after the 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy, at the front lines in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany.

After VE Day, units entertained troops waiting to be repatriated and those serving as occupation forces.

Canadian Army Show officials predicted that after VE Day, the demand for entertainment overseas would peak in late June 1945 and planned to turn out five shows a month during that summer.

In June alone, more than 817 other ranks were on strength at Down Place to handle entertainment demands.

In late 1945 a new show called Rhythm Rodeo was presented at Shackleford Heath in a gigantic big-top before an audience of some 5,000 service personnel.

Above and below, running order and details for the Rhythm Rodeo show.

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It consisted of a wild west circus, with acts and displays that included Colonel Kit Carson, cowboys on horseback, lasso girls, chuck wagons, Indians and other western paraphernalia, a skating routine, people dressed as horses in a comedy routine, and Indians holding up a stage coach.

Rhythm Rodeo included 91 cast and crew members, including 29 CWACs (Canadian Women’s Army Corps).

Above and below, programme for the Rhythm Rodeo show.

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Pens and stables were built there to accommodate the 70 or so horses needed to conduct the show with some 55 horses being shipped more than 150 miles by rail from the north of the UK.

The cast rehearsed for about nine weeks, preparing for their opening on December 15.

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A performance was put on for Guildford children on Christmas Day, but the promised army lorries to transport them were not available and anyone attending had to make their own way to reach the Shackleford Heath site.

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The show closed on January 15, 1946.

In January 1946 the Canadians left Down Place, while more than 20 entertainment units, known as The Army Show, remained on active duty until 1947.

Post-war, Down Place was converted into eight flats, and, together with some of the other huts and buildings, was used by Guildford Rural District Council as temporary housing due to the post-war housing shortage.

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There were advertisements for auctions on November 6, 1958, March 25 and 26, 1959, and September 12, 1962, of building materials prior to the demolition of Down Place.

Down Place was demolished in 1963.

The first part of a Canadian Army newsreel No.102, showing the Rhythm Rodeo show, can be seen at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm6A0G3U2M8&list=PL04CC43B7CD63C686&index=103