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Home Guard

Thanks, rosie. Your father would have been either a member of the Belliss factory unit or, more likely, a member of the Battalion which was responsible for defence of the area in which he lived. Either way, he would have been devoting huge amounts of time to the service. Later in the war this was stipulated at a minimum of 48 hours per month; but many men did far more than this, especially in the earlier years. All this on top of jobs which probably occupied 50, 60 or even 70 hours a week. It's difficult to imagine how they did it.

If the certificate you have is the King George VI certificate, this might not tell us much but it will at least provide the precise length of your father service. Could you possibly post it, for all to see?

Chris
 
Thank you Chris.
The certificate just a sort of "thank you" really without service dates. I will try to post it but last time I tried I didn't have much success, I'm hopeless with that kind of thing!
It's the same old story, I wish I'd asked more.
I don't know how they coped with everything and all that extra work. He was ill at the time too as he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few years later. (Not much was known about the illness at that time.)
rosie.
 
Hi All i am posting this Photo for a friend Margaret Fry it is of her father Victor Fry .It is taken outside the Clifton Picturehouse on the Walsall Rd I think it was taken around 1942/3 Her Dad is in the back row first one on the right side in uniform.the clifton.jpg
 
Great photo taken in front of a cinema I knew well as a child and teenager. I notice a wall poster behind them advertises a film 'Lassie Come Home'.
 
Hi there guys
Here is a couple of photographs of the home gaurd parade on sunday march 23 1941 for a march past
A drumhead service, it was held in a municipal car park birmingham,
General sir robert Gordon Finlayson, G.O.C, Westeren command took the salute in front of the council house birmingham
 

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Thanks, Alan.

This seems to be a wider-angled version of the same photograph, showing a bit more of the city background, as well as the size of the parade.

Chris

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And here is an enhanced version of the march-past image.

Chris
 

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Hi Viv
Hope you are well ,and i like your photographs of the home gaurds
and i thought you may like these so i have posted them for you and the gang to see
I have down loaded three for you i do have plenty more of the war years pictures with the planes as well
and i have quite afew pics of different home gaurds and whom are connected to there factories
 

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Thanks for an interesting image, Pedrocut. These men would all have been members of the 6th Warwickshire (Sutton) Battalion. Very regrettably the 1941 Officers' List, which has been published and is a very useful method of tracking down individual HG officers in every battalion), is incomplete as far as the Sutton unit is concerned. And so I can't check on most of the names mentioned. Capt. Bigwood, however, definitely became a Lt.-Col. which was the normal rank for a Battalion C.O. from early 1941 and commanded thereafter. "Lt.-Col. Strevens" bore a strange rank for an "Administrative Assistant" - that may have been his Great War rank but he would not have maintained that later. He may have been the Battalion Adjutant. Similarly with Messrs. Holte-Smith, Gay and Hollands. All the "Misters" would have been given proper ranks within weeks.

Not sure of the extent to which a mounted unit like this represented a normal activity during the 4-and-a-half years of the Home Guard's existence, even over such appropriate terrain as Sutton Park. It certainly represented a good "photo opportunity" but I suspect that the every day work of these men was much more to act in a conventional infantry role - observation, patrols, guard duty, establishment of defensive positions, exercises - and training in every conceivable technique required by an infantryman.

It would be very interesting if any member can throw further light on the men shown and their HG service.

Chris

(Edited: Battalion number subsequently corrected)
 
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Thank for posting those photographs Alan, if there are any of Belliss & Morcom I would like to see them. My Dad was "reserved occupation" and worked there. He used to patrol at the Edgbaston Reservoir. I have never been able to find which unit he was with so B&M seems most likely.
Best Wishes,
rosie.
 
Rosie,

Your father is likely to have served in:
EITHER a small unit, a platoon, consisting entirely of men employed at that factory - this unit would have been responsible for the defence of the factory and would would have been part of a Battalion responsible for a number of such factory units in a particular area of the city;
OR in a different a platoon based close to where he lived and part of a Battalion which was probably more geographically concentrated in its responsibilities. There were twenty or thirty such Battalions within the City boundary, each comprising anything between one and two thousand men (and a few women) and every square inch was the responsibility of one unit or another.

I am wondering which of these would make more geographical sense, in view of the memory of his having patrolled the Resa?

Chris
 
Hello Chris,
Thanks for your reply. He was living in Ridgeway, Edgbaston at the time. He did ride a bike, but I suppose that was common.
I know he was working on submarine engines but that's no help!!
I wish I'd have asked more but now there's no-one left who would remember.
Thanks again,
rosie.
 
hi chris
do you have any photos of post office home guards please im trying to find a photo of my grandad george tibbitts
kind regards
 
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Hi Viv
Hope you are well ,and i like your photographs of the home gaurds
and i thought you may like these so i have posted them for you and the gang to see
I have down loaded three for you i do have plenty more of the war years pictures with the planes as well
and i have quite afew pics of different home gaurds and whom are connected to there factories

The last picture, with the cyclist, appears in the Birmingham Daily Gazette (July 1941) under the story of the "Home Guard round up enemy in Birmingham all-night test."

Here is the write up and the other pictures...
 
Hi Pedrocut and Viv
Here are afew more home gaurds for you to look at hope you enjoye them
 

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Hi Pedrocut
Here are a couple more for you to had to your collection
 

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