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British Timken Home Guard
- Thread starter Bostin
- Start date
Thanks very much for those interesting pictures, Bostin (and a belated welcome to the Forum).
You are asking for further information which anyone has about the British Timken factory Home Guard unit. Let's hope that other members, either now or in the future, can provide some specific information. For my part, I can only give you some broader comments which may perhaps help you in your further research.
The background of a factory unit like this is probably useful to know. In WW2 every single square inch of the UK was the responsibility of one Home Guard unit or another. Areas of cities, or larger areas of the countryside, were covered by Home Guard Battalions of between 1000 and 2000 men (and a few women). Each Battalion was in turn subdivided into Companies of perhaps 100/200 men and those companies were divided further into Platoons of, say, 30/50. All battalions had a very specific area to cover. However, in cities with many factories (obviously including Birmingham) there were specialist battalions whose whole membership consisted of various factory units located over a wider geographical area. Members of each factory unit (the latter sometimes being of Platoon strength, sometimes of Company, depending on the size of the works) were all employees and were responsible for the defence of the works in all its aspects.
The Aston and Nechells area of Birmingham had a number of factory units of this type. I'm aware of at least two battalions (amongst quite a number throughout the city) to which they belonged and the responsibility of these extended into adjacent areas of Birmingham. I'm sorry to bang on about this but knowledge of the particular Battalion to which a works unit belonged can be of great help in further research.
I can make just two comments on the possible affiliation of the British Timken unit. The first is that the latter was NOT a member of one of these two battalions, namely the 45th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion - even though several factory units in Aston and nearby were at various times part of it.. These included: JB Brooks, Buck and Hickman, WW Greener, H P Sauce, Newey and Taylor, Norton Motors, RT Shelley, Tubular Furniture, Benton and Stone, Webley and Scott, Ansells, Atkinson's Brewery, GEC, Sanbra, Wolseley Sheep Shearing and W J Whittall. Anyone researching one of those factory units is in luck because in 1945 the C.O. produced a very detailed book entitled "The History of the 45th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion Home Guard". Until recently this book was as rare as hen's teeth and was extremely expensive to acquire but, fortunately, in recent years it has been reprinted by The Naval and Military Press and so is readily available at a reasonable price. Its value to those with a specific interest in any of the companies is of course that it mentions many names and places; but more generally, it gives a very good idea of what factory units of this type and in this part of Birmingham were up to between 1940 and 1944.
There is just a chance of identifying which Battalion the British Timken unit belonged to. One of the images shows an officer by the name of Lt. Payne. I have a record of a 2/Lt. AJF Payne serving in the 25th Warwickshire in 1941 and I think it's a reasonable bet to suppose that these two men are one and the same. That would make British Timken part of the 25th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion and opens up the possibility of researching further into the background of these images.
It might be worthwhile consulting the Central Library to see if they have any specific information about British Timken. I have a number of fragments about the 25th in my Home Guard website (see the second, "Birmingham Home Guard pages", link below which will take you to the Warwickshire section) about specific factories, including MB Wild and Newton - some of it contributed by members of this Forum – and these give further information about typical activities and the experience of individual Home Guards. Use the search facility (go to the Site Map page to find it) to find all references to 25th Warwickshire; and/or stay on the Warwickshire index page and delve through it, especially Birmingham, Aston and Birmingham, Nechells.
Thanks again for posting these pictures. It sounds as though you have a family member who was involved in that unit and if so, and if you would like his name commemorated, I should be more than happy to include a mention of him in the website. These men and their service shouldn't be forgotten. And if you feel that it would be good to give the images wider coverage – especially amongst Home Guard historians - I could help you with that as well.
Hope this is all of some help to you.
Chris
You are asking for further information which anyone has about the British Timken factory Home Guard unit. Let's hope that other members, either now or in the future, can provide some specific information. For my part, I can only give you some broader comments which may perhaps help you in your further research.
The background of a factory unit like this is probably useful to know. In WW2 every single square inch of the UK was the responsibility of one Home Guard unit or another. Areas of cities, or larger areas of the countryside, were covered by Home Guard Battalions of between 1000 and 2000 men (and a few women). Each Battalion was in turn subdivided into Companies of perhaps 100/200 men and those companies were divided further into Platoons of, say, 30/50. All battalions had a very specific area to cover. However, in cities with many factories (obviously including Birmingham) there were specialist battalions whose whole membership consisted of various factory units located over a wider geographical area. Members of each factory unit (the latter sometimes being of Platoon strength, sometimes of Company, depending on the size of the works) were all employees and were responsible for the defence of the works in all its aspects.
The Aston and Nechells area of Birmingham had a number of factory units of this type. I'm aware of at least two battalions (amongst quite a number throughout the city) to which they belonged and the responsibility of these extended into adjacent areas of Birmingham. I'm sorry to bang on about this but knowledge of the particular Battalion to which a works unit belonged can be of great help in further research.
I can make just two comments on the possible affiliation of the British Timken unit. The first is that the latter was NOT a member of one of these two battalions, namely the 45th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion - even though several factory units in Aston and nearby were at various times part of it.. These included: JB Brooks, Buck and Hickman, WW Greener, H P Sauce, Newey and Taylor, Norton Motors, RT Shelley, Tubular Furniture, Benton and Stone, Webley and Scott, Ansells, Atkinson's Brewery, GEC, Sanbra, Wolseley Sheep Shearing and W J Whittall. Anyone researching one of those factory units is in luck because in 1945 the C.O. produced a very detailed book entitled "The History of the 45th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion Home Guard". Until recently this book was as rare as hen's teeth and was extremely expensive to acquire but, fortunately, in recent years it has been reprinted by The Naval and Military Press and so is readily available at a reasonable price. Its value to those with a specific interest in any of the companies is of course that it mentions many names and places; but more generally, it gives a very good idea of what factory units of this type and in this part of Birmingham were up to between 1940 and 1944.
There is just a chance of identifying which Battalion the British Timken unit belonged to. One of the images shows an officer by the name of Lt. Payne. I have a record of a 2/Lt. AJF Payne serving in the 25th Warwickshire in 1941 and I think it's a reasonable bet to suppose that these two men are one and the same. That would make British Timken part of the 25th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion and opens up the possibility of researching further into the background of these images.
It might be worthwhile consulting the Central Library to see if they have any specific information about British Timken. I have a number of fragments about the 25th in my Home Guard website (see the second, "Birmingham Home Guard pages", link below which will take you to the Warwickshire section) about specific factories, including MB Wild and Newton - some of it contributed by members of this Forum – and these give further information about typical activities and the experience of individual Home Guards. Use the search facility (go to the Site Map page to find it) to find all references to 25th Warwickshire; and/or stay on the Warwickshire index page and delve through it, especially Birmingham, Aston and Birmingham, Nechells.
Thanks again for posting these pictures. It sounds as though you have a family member who was involved in that unit and if so, and if you would like his name commemorated, I should be more than happy to include a mention of him in the website. These men and their service shouldn't be forgotten. And if you feel that it would be good to give the images wider coverage – especially amongst Home Guard historians - I could help you with that as well.
Hope this is all of some help to you.
Chris
There are many, absolutely legitimate reasons why a new member is unable or reluctant to access the Forum again, after the day of joining. And it's really welcome when interesting information is provided with a first post, but.....
Bostin, a number of members did their best to provide help when you posted and asked for information and assistance. It would be good to know that you have at least seen what has been posted since your last post on April 15th.
Chris
Bostin, a number of members did their best to provide help when you posted and asked for information and assistance. It would be good to know that you have at least seen what has been posted since your last post on April 15th.
Chris