Search results

Members following this thread may be interested to know that harlechjoe has completed the journey which passed through Birmingham by telling the story of the final stretch to Holyhead, a road much used for the carriage of post, goods and politicians/officials on their way to Dublin in the days...

Haven't had any experience of it, Pete, but should be very interested to know how useful it is. In particular, how much additional information they have beyond the basic stuff about Home Guard officers which appears in the (published) Home Guard list of February 1941. The latter is restricted to...

Yes, Alison, happy to do so but shan’t be able to pick this up until late next week. And no, it wasn’t me, I’m afraid! Chris

No, Viv, not Home Guard. Chris

Thanks everyone. Noodles - sorry it doesn’t seem to appear for you. This is the direct link to the page I was talking about: http://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/J9GeneralInformationSearchingforMembers.htm Chris

Noodles and Trob, Tracking down individual Home Guards and their unit affiliation is difficult and it often relies on pure luck and the smallest fragments of information. If you go to my website (link below), Noodles, you will find a section entitled “Searching for HG members“, which will give...

Agree entirely with the question, oldMohawk. The coloured version looks nice but it’s no longer as “right” as the original, even with all the limitations of b/w. Please cling on to the original photograph, aggie - THAT’S the genuine historical record of the scene! Chris

Alison, I am lucky in having two object lessons in my bookcase. I won't go into detail here but I started a discussion in the Forum on this subject many years ago. It's here: https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/when-to-call-a-halt-and-then-what.39109/ If at some stage you...

bigjohnuk - I've taken the liberty of making your image a bit more readily legible. Chris

That ties in nicely, thanks. Didn't realise that the daughter, Joan, was born quite so early. Dimly recall talk of the wedding but pretty sure that I didn't personally have to endure it! Just for the icing on the cake, Janice/MWS, could you possibly tell me Bert's year of birth, please? Chris

And, on the same day, Mary with my mother...

Thank you, Janice. I think the wife Lilian must have been Lilian MARY Ward since the Mrs Ward I knew as Bert's wife of long-standing was always "Mary". The lady to whom probate was granted was possibly their daughter, who would have been born in the mid-1920s. Despite my closeness to the...

Thank you, MWS. Could well be, although I have no means of confirming that. R.W.R. is possibly right, as is his being commissioned (leading to a senior Home Guard rank 20 years later). The Alvechurch and New Oscott addresses do not ring any bells, unfortunately - 15 years before my time! I...

I found myself being driven down Middleton Hall Road in Kings Norton the other day. It sparked off memories for me of the war years. I probably haven't been there for 70 years or more. It has changed a bit since then.... One of my father's oldest friends was a gentleman named Bert Ward (A. F...

Thanks, everyone. Brandwood House looks a much grander and older building than the one shown in my photographs. And less institutional. Unless the latter was part of the later additions, after it had passed out of private hands......Any thoughts, Keyboardpaul? Chris

Welcome to the Forum, Keyboardpaul, and thanks for your comments about Brandwood House. (I assume that you are referring to the images which appear in my Home Guard website page, linked previously in this thread. I'll repost them below). There was some doubt at the time about the identity of...

On the question of long-term archiving, I don’t think anyone can bank on perfect recording. I certainly don’t. But what I would hope for is that the basic data is retained, in some form or another, and is accessible in the future. By “data“ I am fortunately old-fashioned enough to think...

Thanks for that useful link. I wasn't 100 percent sure whether this was the same as the British Library archiving service and so made a further nomination. Within the hour, back came a confirmation that I was already on the list, that there was regular archiving of my material but that they...

I don’t quite know how it happened – perhaps they found it or perhaps someone recommended it to them – but my Home Guard website is regularly archived by the British Library. (When I say “regularly“ I think they are a long way behind at the moment but they have assured me in the past that...

Remarkable! Did it eventually get built? If so, how quickly did it become a white elephant? How long did it survive as a building being used for this or other purposes? And I wonder how they powered the lift – electricity or rope/muscle… Chris