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Home Guard

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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...

I'm really enjoying looking at all these photos, I particularly like the first one of this group. Those men look more heavily-armed than those in the other pictures, as well as a Bren and a Thompson, they also seem to be carrying the SMLE rifle, instead of the the usual P1913.
 
do you have any photos of post office home guards please im trying to find a photo of my grandad george tibbitts

Regrettably not, kc.

Your grandfather was most probably a member of the 47th Warwickshire (Post Office) Battalion. You will probably recall that I made a mention of him in my Home Guard website and of the tragic circumstances surrounding his death on Boxing Day, 1940, as follows:

Vol. Tibbitts died in the General Hospital on 26th December 1940. He now lies in St. John's Churchyard, Perry Barr. The circumstances of his accident on that same day, Boxing Day, are recorded in two newspaper clippings, dated 28th December 1940 and 2nd January 1941 respectively.........

To see further information, please use this link: https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscences137BhamGPO.htm#1

The linked page makes mention of three other men of the same Battalion who lost their lives in Home Guard service, two of them victims of the air raid of 22/23rd November 1940 when a direct hit occurred on the G.P.O. depot. As a result of that incident bravery awards were made to other members.

There MUST be further surviving information about this unit, and especially photographs, perhaps including George Tibbitts. But I have yet to come across it, unfortunately.

Chris
 
Great image of Messrs. Brunges and Tozer, Pedrocut.

I have often wondered whether there was a connection between this C.W.L. Tozer and the Birmingham Fire Brigade Tozers. If there was, he must have been about the only member of the family who wasn't a fireman!

I have quite an extensive write-up about the episode on 26th October 1940 when these two men of the Aston Home Guard earned their bravery awards. The location is variously described as a public shelter located below a fruit & veg. shop owned by a Mr. Willetts or one on the corner of Barker Street, Lozells opposite the Villa Cross picture house. If anyone is interested, please say so and I'll post the link.

Chris
 
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The Pype Hayes Home Guard, Parade and March Past in Tyburn Rd near the Apollo Cinema, in August 1940.
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Thanks for that, oldMohawk. Interesting picture – look at the mixture of men marching. Mainly older, some in Home Guard denims, others still in civvies, Great War medals worn by a number, some with armbands on which, if this is August 1940, would read either LDV or the new name of "Home Guard". (Uniform or at the very least an armband would have been important in the event of capture. It might, possibly or possibly not, have given the individual the protection of the Geneva Convention rather than being summarily shot as a terrorist as German Radio was threatening).

Look at the numbers of them. So many amongst them taking up arms again only 21/22 years after having survived the previous conflict. Although "taking up arms" may be the wrong phrase - not many weapons in evidence at that point! All members of just one of the first 10 Birmingham battalions formed in May/June 1940. These ten battalions would very quickly be subdivided and extended to 30+ which were defending the city by the end of the year.

Good to know that it is identified as the Tyburn Road. I wonder if any of the onlookers would join them later, especially the two youths on the central reservation.

I have a wider version of the same image which shows the officer taking the salute – Captain S. A. Godsall M.C. – and identifies the Battalion as the 3rd Birmingham Battalion, Home Guard. I will attach it to this post. I reproduced an article which provides further information and images concerning these earlier battalions and it can be seen here if anyone is interested: https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscences58Birminghamstaffshg.htm

They're all in step as well!

Chris

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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.View attachment 111398

Belated thanks for that great image, TOPSYTURVEY. Does your friend have any further information at all about this? Any names of her father's comrades? Would the name Cradock ring any bell? Where was he living at that time - which might pin down the unit in the image?

Chris
 
This image shows a number of members of the Marston Green Home Guard unit, probably taken between 1942 and 1944. The interest in it is probably less the foreground (except for that tiny minority of Forum members who are interested in such things!) but, as is often the case, the background.

The building in the background is Chapel House Farm, situated near to the Marston Green railway station. It later became the clubhouse for the Marston Green Golf Club before being buried under extensions to Birmingham Airport in the 1970s. Look carefully and you will see behind an open window a couple surveying the scene below them.

It isn't clear when the farmhouse ceased to be a farm and became a golf club. A nine hole course was laid out in 1938 and it was a further 10 years before the final nine appeared. And so the people in the window could either be the farmer and his wife; or whoever it was who looked after the place as it transformed itself into a golf club. What seems to be established is that a Mr. and Mrs Harry Monkhouse lived in the house, at least in the immediate post-war era: Harry Monkhouse was the head greenkeeper and his wife looked after the clubhouse catering. But whether that was the couple hovering in the background.....

If anyone has any knowledge of Marston Green in the 1940s and can add anything to what we know about the house and its function, that would be very welcome.

Chris

(Sources: private collection and staffshomeguard; websites of Solihull Council and golfsmissinglinks)

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Moderator comment:
This and the few following associated posts have been transferred from the Marston Green and Tile Cross thread and relate to the image below.
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Sorry, a little off topic, but did the Home Guard have women in it as there is a woman in the seat in the first row?
CHINCH
 
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Yes indeed CHINCH. Women were part of the Home Guard from the very beginning. Some even turned up at police stations to register immediately after Anthony Eden's broadcast of May 14th 1940 – no doubt much to the consternation of the sergeant in charge who had been expecting only men.

Their involvement was strictly unofficial: despite pressure from various sources to include women formally within the Home Guard, this was not done until 1943 when the Government finally bowed to pressure and permitted the recruitment of Women Auxiliaries but strictly in a non-combatant role. Prior to that, in 1941 an announcement had even been made whereby female involvement was specifically prohibited. But there seems little doubt that the assistance of women was accepted and even welcomed in many Home Guard units throughout the country for the entire period of the Home Guard's existence. The roles were varied but mainly supportive: administrative, cooking, communications and so on. Nevertheless many women were trained to handle weaponry.

I have a nice description of the experiences of one lady, Maud Arden, who was a Women Auxiliary in a South Staffordshire Battalion based in Aldridge. She had herself served in the Women's Army in the Great War and now trained as a signaller in her local Home Guard. She must therefore have been in her forties by then. Most of her comrades were younger than she: they are named and come from Aldridge, Walsall Wood, Pelsall, Great Barr and elsewhere. Worth reading as an insight into those times (and into contemporary female attitudes). It's here: https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/HomeGuardingPages/63staffshg.htm

Chris
 
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Yes indeed CHINCH. Women were part of the Home Guard from the very beginning. Some even turned up at police stations to register immediately after Anthony Eden's broadcast of May 14th 1940 – no doubt much to the consternation of the sergeant in charge who had been expecting only men.

Their involvement was strictly unofficial: despite pressure from various sources to include women formally within the Home Guard, this was not done until 1943 when the Government finally bowed to pressure and permitted the recruitment of Women Auxiliaries but strictly in a non-combatant role. Prior to that, in 1941 an announcement had even been made whereby female involvement was specifically prohibited. But there seems little doubt that the assistance of women was accepted and even welcomed in many Home Guard units throughout the country for the entire period of the Home Guard's existence. The roles were varied but mainly supportive: administrative, cooking, communications and so on. Nevertheless many women were trained to handle weaponry.

I have a nice description of the experiences of one lady, Maud Arden, who was a Women Auxiliary in a South Staffordshire Battalion based in Aldridge. She had herself served in the Women's Army in the Great War and now trained as a signaller in her local Home Guard. She must therefore have been in her forties by then. Most of her comrades were younger than she: they are named and come from Aldridge, Walsall Wood, Pelsall, Great Barr and elsewhere. Worth reading as an insight into those times (and into contemporary female attitudes). It's here: https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/HomeGuardingPages/63staffshg.htm

Chris

PS If these two posts later disappear from this thread they will have been transferred to the main Home Guard thread.



Hi ChrisM, I had no idea about this. My Father-in -Law, who is nearing his 94th Birthday, was in the Home Guard in Redditch and has told a little about his days in the outfit, but he has never mentioned ladies being involved. He was not allowed to join the Army as he was "reserved occupation". I thoroughly enjoyed the article written by Maud Arden, definately a case of early girl power!!! One of the ladies was in her 70's!! Thanks for the information. CHINCH
 
A higher definition version of the Marston Green HG image is now available here.

(CHINCH - I have quite a bit about HG units in the Redditch area elsewhere in my linked website. Your father might be interested if you dig them out and show them to him).

Chris
 
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A higher definition version of the Marston Green HG image is now available here.

(CHINCH - I have quite a bit about HG units in the Redditch area elsewhere in my linked website. Your father might be interested if you dig them out and show them to him).

Chris

Hi Chris, thanks for this, I will take a look. We spend quite a bit of time lately talking about the war and the home guard so my Father-in-Law will enjoy this.

CHINCH
 
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Do we know which factory or other building this poor lad was helping to guard? And where he was buried?

The date of his death was 6th November 1940 and he was almost certainly up aloft on firewatching duties. Pitch black and full of unknown hazards, quite apart from the Luftwaffe's efforts.

Chris
 
Do we know which factory or other building this poor lad was helping to guard? And where he was buried?

The date of his death was 6th November 1940 and he was almost certainly up aloft on firewatching duties. Pitch black and full of unknown hazards, quite apart from the Luftwaffe's efforts.

Chris

I am sorry Chris but I have no other info with this article.
 
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A longer account of the sad tale...

Do we know which factory or other building this poor lad was helping to guard? And where he was buried?

The date of his death was 6th November 1940 and he was almost certainly up aloft on firewatching duties. Pitch black and full of unknown hazards, quite apart from the Luftwaffe's efforts.

Chris
 
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