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Warwickshire Home Guard

Her name is Maggie Laity, she is researching casualties of 47th Royal Warwickshire Regt. (Post Office Btn) , your grandfather's grave in Perry Barr Churchyard is one of a number she has found and she is now looking for information to help complete her database of these men. Should you wish to contact her personally if you send me your e-mail address by instant message I will pass it to her.


Colin
 

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hi colin
could you send a private message to me so I can give you email iv forgot how to send a private message
thanks kc
 
kc, your account is not set up to receive instant message, you can either change that by clicking "settings" (top of page), "general" and turn on private messaging or if you click on my name on the post it will give you option to instant message me.

Colin
 
hi colin
im still awaiting a message regarding my granddad of Maggie
kind regards kc
 
hi all
could someone tell me I can find home guards records ( post office) for my grand-dad please he was called George tibbitts he died on 26th dec 1941
kind regards kc
 
Karen, I think you need to be clear about the exact spelling of your grandfather's name and his date of death. ColinB posted a picture in this thread of the headstone of G. Tibbets d. 26 Dec 1940. This has also been discussed in a different thread. This man was a GPO HG member. Is he your grandfather? Or are we talking about a different gentleman?

I am not aware of any GPO Home Guard records. Tracing individuals isn't easy, unfortunately. I tried to give a bit of guidance together here: https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/J9GeneralInformationSearchingforMembers.htm. Hope this might give you the odd pointer.

Chris
 
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hi chris
thank you for your reply regarding my grand-dad there have spelt his name wrong and the date on his grave to my mom is not to sure what to do about it
kind regards
karen
 
Karen,

Provided the family memory is absolutely clear (and there is of course every reason to assume that it is) it seems to me that there are two possibilities:

1. There was a G. Tibetts who was in the Birmingham Home Guard and died on 26th December 1940. There was also a George Tibbitts who was in the Birmingham Home Guard and died on 26 December 1941. Therefore, two different people.

2. The record for George Tibbitts is incorrect - name spelling and date of death which should be 26 December 1941. The CWGC record is incorrect and his CWGC headstone is also wrong.

I think that before you can do anything about 2. above you really need to unravel the mystery suggested in 1. Is the G. Tibetts record right or wrong? If it is right, there were two men, both dying on the same day 12 months apart, both Home Guard, both Post Office. Not impossible but a heck of a coincidence! If it is wrong, that would be equally surprising as I think I remember seeing somewhere some separate confirmation of it.

I wonder if one of the Forum family history experts could have a look at this and perhaps resolve the mystery. (It would also be useful to know where your grandfather was living at the time of his death).

Chris
 
hi chris
iv checked with my mom she has his death certificate George died on 26 dec 1940 they lived at perry common Erdington Birmingham there was a in quest in 1941
so it mean they spelt he name wrong
kind regards karen
 
Thanks, Karen, it does look as though they have got it wrong which is a shame. I think your best bet is to write to the Commonwelath War Graves Commission, telling them that you think that the name is recorded incorrectly and giving them any evidence you have, especially a copy of the death certificate. What they do about the headstone in Perry Barr, I don't know. (Has this question of the wrong name not come up before? Presumably there were family visits to the grave after the headstone was put up?)

Have always felt that the cwgc entry for G. Tibetts was a bit strange. The record usually shows age, address, name of parents or wife. Nothing of that for this gentleman. It almost suggests that the family was wholly uninvolved in events following his death and it was all done by others - hospital or G.P.O perhaps? - who got it wrong.

Chris
 
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Checking UK death records for Tibitts/Tibbitts and Tibetts/Tibbetts in Birmingham

No death recorded for a George Tibetts/Tibbetts in UK 1940/1941

deaths for George Tibitts none,

deaths for George Tibbitts

George Tibbitts born 1899 death registered March 1941 this would cover the last qtr of 1940 and first qtr of 1941
As there were no births of George Tibbitts in UK 1899 I presume that he was the one born 1898.
 
I don't know if this helps or not. Probate shows there is a George Tibbitts who died 26 December 1940 and lived at 95 Perry Common Road, Erdington. Probate granted to his widow Dorothy. He died in General Hospital. This, I think, is the death registered March 1941.

I think the other George's death is registered at Lichfield in Dec 1941 - birth 1887.
Janice
 
Perhaps a search at the library of the burial records might give information about the address of the person buried in that grave?

Janice
 
thank you all for helping me and my family regarding George tibbitts
kind regards kc
 
Hi I am Maggie the person who took the photo. Karen i did email you to the addy i was given but it seems it was the wrong one, however there now seems to be a problem
regarding this . I will email the person I am in touch with at the Church and also the warden, who were very helpful when i was photographing the war graves and tracked down for me a grave i was looking for she apparently does the recording of the graves so may come up with a solution.

I had a query on this person as the warden had told me the burial was there but the records were at another church, I had emailed the lady afterwards on 18th May querying this but she replied did not know anything about it. As I was just taking photos i let it be but I will follow that up by emailing her again. I will obviously let you know the outcome. They do have a book of all the names of both wars and details. I was given permission to photocopy the book so I will see what other details there are for him in there
In the meantime if you contact the war graves commission with I'm sure you can get it sorted I am a volunteer for the WGPP who work with CWGC and they have this photo along with the others so will let them know also
If i can be of any more help do let me know
regards
Maggie
 
hi Maggie
thank you for all your work you have done my mom was only 2 when he died so she cant really remember a lot since iv started to this tree I found his grave I felt so sad for him names was wrong and he was pushed in the corner my mom would like to take a like has she cant remember much . she is the only child still alive her brother and sister have passed away
kind regards karen
 
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hi all
im looking for any pictures of home guards post office this is where George tibbitts served perry barr Birmingham
kind regards kc
 
hi Maggie
can you tell me if you had any joy with finding anymore info regarding George tibbitts please
kind regards karen
 
In case this is of interest here are some pictures from the Bournville Magazine in 1941 showing new recruits from Bournville into B Company. 27th Warwickshire home Guard.
 

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Thanks very much for those images, Mike. They are certainly fascinating to me and will be to the many others who have an interest in HG history. I intend to use them at some stage, if that's OK with you. Have to say that there will be consternation in some quarters at the cosy image suggested by ladies joining the men for afternoon tea during a weekend camp! Dents the macho impression which then and later the Home Guard wanted to project and rather reinforces the Dad's Army one!

Are you aware of any further HG mentions in that magazine? And is there a specific date in 1941 for that issue of the Bournville Magazine?

Chris
 
Chris.
I wondered if you might have an interest in them.Glad that is so. Use them, they do not belong to me. I'm afraid I do not have a certain month in 1941 when that issue was published, but it might have been December. I am sure that the Home Guard will have been mentioned in other issues. I have quite a lot of the old magazines which I rescued many years ago. Unfortunately they were all put in my loft and I have been meaning to bring them down to study for some time (years). When I do I will look at those of the war period and check it out
 
Chris.
Have just found an old Bournville Reporter from the 100th anniversary of Bournville in 1979. It mentions that on Sept. 4th that year there was a program on BBC TV called "Midlands at War" in which some films of the Bournville Home guard were included and two members, Ray Richards & Norman Sabin were shown chatting about life in the Bournville home guard. Don't know if the film still exists.
 
kc said:
thank you all for helping me and my family regarding George tibbitts
kind regards kc
Click to expand...

kc,

A bit of further information has emerged concerning your grandfather, George Tibbitts, and the circumstances surrounding his tragic death on Boxing Day 1940. You may of course already be aware of it. It now appears in my Home Guard website here: https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscencesWarkssstaffshg.htm#post

No group photographs of the Post Office Home Guard Battalion in which he served seem yet to have surfaced.

Chris
 
kc said:
thank you all for helping me and my family regarding George tibbitts
kind regards kc
Click to expand...

kc,

A bit of further information has emerged concerning your grandfather, George Tibbitts, and the circumstances surrounding his tragic death on Boxing Day 1940. You may of course already be aware of it. It now appears in my Home Guard website here: https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscencesWarkssstaffshg.htm#post

No group photographs of the Post Office Home Guard Battalion in which he served seem yet to have surfaced.

Chris
 
hi chris
thank you for your reply regarding my grand-dad George tibbitts could you please tell me where and how to get a copy of the newspaper report please
kind regards kc
 
I obtained a copy indirectly but I'll try and find out the original source.

Chris
 
thank you chris
what I cant understand about my grand-dad chris that is grave is war grave I would like to know when this was put they or was they a mark before thanks kc
 
On the CWGC website it just lists the fact that he is buried at the churchyard but on the details of the headstone it says "upkeep by family". I am not sure of the significance of this. As he was going on duty I assume it counted as killed on service?
Janice
 
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