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What a great picture! Someone's mothers, grandmothers...... It's such a shame that, despite the power of social media, so many subjects of images like this never ever get spotted and identified. Chris

Thank you, MWS. I think we can say with certainty that there is no connection between the two young men. Chris

Thanks for all that. I suppose the final question is, then, the background of George's Dad, Henry/Harry Belcher, married to Rose, died late 1920s. If he was born a Brummie, rather than with a Wigan connection like Alfred, that would be the proof of no link. (Sorry if someone has already looked...

It looks to me as though The Kynoch Press might merely have been contracted to be the printers of this, Viv, and the real instigators, in addition to the creators, were the publishers, someone called "Cornish Bros, Birmingham". But, as you say, was there a specific reason? (The Prince of Wales...

Without asking anyone to spend too much time on this, I'm wondering if any of our wonderful family history experts could tell me whether there is any obvious family connection between this George Belcher (b.1923) who was living in 1939 at 76 Hillfield Road, Sparkhill and Thomas Belcher of 75...

Back to that group photograph of a Home Guard unit on an anti-aircraft battery site (and thanks again for the help given by members here). A member of the unit was George Belcher (below), an apprentice toolmaker who lived in Hillfield Road, Sparkhill. I have some information about that young...

Yes, senior moment, thanks, MWS. Lownes, not Knowles! Chris

Two of Robert's comrades in the 30th Warwickshire also died that month: George Walter Inwood G.C. whose remarkable actions are well-known; and a man who has only just come to light, Section Leader William James Knowles (correction: LOWNES) of Harborne on 29th October 1940. That's three men...

I am very grateful to several members of this Forum for help in delving into the history of Robert Silk whose very existence has been brought back into general awareness by a chance finding of his headstone in Yardley Cemetery a few days ago. And especially to Steve Silk for his insight into...

This is a real mystery and, I think, possibly something we may not get to the bottom of. I believe we've established that Robert actually being injured at 14 Bowyer Road is unlikely because of the lack of any evidence of damage to that property - as far as we can tell, 80 years later. So my...

Thanks, blairallan, that's an interesting cutting. In the latter half of the 1940s, and later, I used to travel to school every day upstairs on the Midland Red double-decker from Streetly to Sutton (the no. 101). I was interested in cars and looked every morning down on a large modern house in...

Thanks again, Lyn. The problem is that all the other mentions of Bowyer Road relate to other dates. There seems to be nothing else for 24 October 1940. Chris

Thanks, Lyn. The strange thing is that the only casualty in Bowyer Road on the night in question seems to be Robert himself. The other thing is that no. 14 doesn’t seem to show evidence, as far as you can see, of having suffered major damage. If that were in fact the case, I suspect that...

Thank you, Steve. The efforts of this brave lad were apparently successful as there is no report of other injury in Bowyer Road. Unless the record is incomplete, of course. Does anyone know if any other record/memory survives of that night in Bowyer Road or the immediate vicinity? Chris

(Discussion on Robert Bernard Silk, 30th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion, now in a dedicated thread, here).

Viv, yes, I agree. Apart from anything else, there is so much detailed discussion about Robert - and it's not finished yet - that it's going to distort the main Home Guard thread. As the expert "tidier-upper", could you do the honours, please? (Would like to see "Home Guard" appear somewhere...

Thank you Janice - and Steve. Robert looks a very mature 17-year-old (and presumably dressed up for an occasion - a wedding, perhaps?) Chris

The wonderful information which is emerging – and thanks to everyone for that – is going to be invaluable in creating a little memory of this Birmingham Home Guard lad, Robert Bernard Silk, who gave his life almost before he had started to live it. Steve – really great to have this first-hand...

Yes, Lyn, we crossed. Still a case of a mother losing two of her boys, three years apart almost to the day. CWGC confirms the 1943 Ancestry information about William. Chris

Has to be related, surely? An elder brother of Robert? Living a few doors away in the same street - Henry Street - as their mother? (And dying less than a month after Robert - what tragedies). CWGC surprisingly gives no next of kin, just the Henry Street home address. Chris PS Posted...