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MEMORIES and INFORMATION: 32nd Battn. (16)
32nd STAFFORDSHIRE
(ALDRIDGE) BATTN. -"C" COY.
BROWNHILLS
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 Brownhills
was defended by "C" Company of the
32nd
Staffordshire (Aldridge) Battalion whose C.O.
for much of the war was
Lt.-Col.
C. Cartwright, D.S.O., M.C.
(See the
Battalion area map, right - click on it to
enlarge).
Brownhills had fallen within the area of
responsibilty of a different battalion when
the Home Guard was initially formed in
May/June 1940.
Lt.-Col. A.A. Trowell,
C.O. of 10th/11th Staffordshire (Lichfield)
Battalions from 1940 onwards, wrote in January
1945
("Burntwood Home Guard Stand-Down")
that on its formation the 10th comprised three
Companies, Lichfield,
Alrewas and
Brownhills.
In those early weeks, however, the HG
organisation throughout the country quickly
evolved as more men volunteered, local needs
were better identified and more logical
command structures became evident. In this
process Brownhills became part of the 32nd
Staffordshire whilst the 10th Staffordshire
(Lichfield) took over
Burntwood and
Hammerwich.
In his own review of the
role of the Brownhills Company, written
immediately after stand-down in December 1944,
Lt.-Col. Cartwright wrote:
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 .....(The 32nd Staffordshire) began
as part of a much larger unit.
In the weeks immediately following the
enrolment of the L.D.V. we were part
of the Wednesbury Group corresponding
with the Wednesbury Police Division,
and including Bilston, Wednesbury,
Darlaston and Aldridge.
Brownhills, at that time, was in the
Lichfield Group and was not
transferred to the Central Midland
District until July 1940. Shortly
before I took over, on 1st September,
1940, the present battalion was
created.....
.....As I have said, Brownhills
had only just been transferred to this
area when I took over the battalion.
It was a momentous move as far as this
battalion was concerned. Brownhills
then became our "C" Company and, as
such, made a very fine contribution to
the part played by the battalion. It
had numbers, it had grand material in
the ranks, a particularly good
tradition among the N.C.Os , fostered
and maintained by its two C.S.M.s, and
it had splendid officers who took
their jobs very seriously and made
what I have considered to be as
satisfactory a set of company officers
as could be found anywhere in the H.G.
organization.......
......I have touched on "C" Company
in my introductory notes, but without
mentioning the names of those who
contributed to the success achieved by
this company.
Hume-Humphreys, who
assumed command when
Trevor-Jones came
to B.H.Q., was a most efficient
trainer of men, a master of detail,
and an amusing correspondent. Some of
his contributions to B.H.Q. were
certainly not in the orthodox style,
but they were journalistically bright
and often, when they were critical,
dangerously near the truth. I liked
his telegram to the A.A. on the
occasion of the latter's birthday:
"Wishing you very many and moderately
accurate returns."
Then
Wheatley, the genial pipe expert, who
was with the company until lately,
when he was appointed Liaison Officer
between H.G. and H.G.H.A.A. Bty. And
Miller, a born leader and a winner of
competitions.
Chaplin, who delighted
in all the horrible equipment of the
commando, and, incidentally, with his
platoon represented Garrison in the
District Finals Platoon Competition in
1943. Sadler, who served the company
so faithfully in a variety of ways,
Tyrrell, Kendall, Murray, Fletcher,
and not forgetting C.S.M.
Sedgwick,
and names such as
Heath and
Bradley
and many others come to mind.......
(The full article
can be read
elsewhere within this website)
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And a few more names of members of the
Brownhills Home Guard, to be remembered and
honoured:
John (Jack) Benton
(of Walsall
Wood)
Fred Bowen
Sgt. Harry Bradley
Jack Brewe
Harry Cox
(from Shire
Oaks Hill)
David Fullelove
(His son, Reg
Fullelove, recalls that an early HQ was set up in
the warden's post by the
Memorial Hall
in Lichfield Road).
Frederick Haycock
(Keith Regan Haycock, his son,
remembers several stories told to him by
Frederick involving unexploded bombs. In one
of these Frederick had to break into
Brookes shop
in High Street
because a bomb had dropped but not exploded.
He put it in a bucket of water. When the
owners got to the shop they thought that he
had broken in and they called the police).
Fred Heath
-. Maddox
-. Mason,
Edgar Pritchard
Len Sadler
Arthur Wadey
Norman Waine
-. Yewall
One or two images of the Brownhills unit
survive and they show most of the men listed
immediately above.
The following group
photograph
shows one of the units within the Company:
IDENTIFICATIONS
From the left:
Front row: Mr. Maddox, Mr. Mason, Len Sadler,
Norman Waine, Fred Bowen, Mr. Yewall, A.N.
Other.
Second row: Harry Cox (from Shire
Oaks Hill, David Fullelove, - , - , - , -
Back row: Edgar Pritchard, - ,
Jack Brewe, Fred Heath, - , - , - , - .
Part of the interest of this image comes from
the unusual dress of the men. They are wearing
Home Guard issue forage caps, greatcoats and
possibly, in some cases, boots; but otherwise
they are in civilian clothes. This suggests
that the photograph was taken in the late autumn of 1940,
at a moment when some parts of the kit had
been issued but some was yet to arrive. Even
within a single Battalion it seems that the
issue of kit was patchy, with different units
receiving different items in different
quantities at different
times.
 Two pieces of very early kit, perhaps even
the first, belonging to David Fullelove,
survive. They are his LDV armband, quickly
superseded on Churchill's instruction by a
similar one bearing the title "Home Guard".
These armbands, in the earliest days, would
have been the sole obvious confirmation of his
status as a member of the Local Defence
Volunteers/Home Guard. They might - or more
probably might not - have saved him from being
summarily shot as a
franc tireur in the event
of the Germans arriving.
Below is
a march-past by the unit with the
Chester Road
North Fire Station just visible to the right.
Sgt. Harry Bradley is on the extreme right.
The date is unknown but it is clearly summer
and the occasion may well have been one of the
anniversaries of the foundation of the Home
Guard which were celebrated each May, from
1941 to 1944.
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There was a road
block at the Shire Oak junction and its
manning and operation would almost certainly
have been the responsibility of the local Home
Guard unit.
This obstruction, consisting of concrete
blocks, formed a chicane for traffic coming along the
Chester
Road (A452) from the
Streetly direction. It
was removed for convoys. We have to assume
that this road block was established as soon
as the threat of invasion appeared and lasted
until all risk had clearly vanished. This road
block was outside Goodings Garage, as it then
was. There were further road blocks to the
north-west, near to the
Rising Sun, adjacent
to the junction with
Watling Street (A5), and
further south-east, along the Chester Road to
Streetly and beyond.
The commemorative
book on the 32nd Staffordshire Battalion,
"Home Guarding", makes a brief reference to
training and the siting of strong points
and machine gun posts on the fern-covered
slopes which were once
Knaves Castle and the
Old Fort at Upper Stonnall. All in order to
keep the vital Chester Road under close
scrutiny and if necessary attack what was
trying to pass along it. The suggestion is that such
measures were merely a repetition of similar
precautions over the previous two millennia.
To find references
elsewhere within the
site to subjects mentioned above
please see:
-
32nd Battalion Information Summary
Page
(Aldridge, Barr Beacon, Brownhills, Little Aston,
Pelsall, Pheasey,
Rushall,
Shelfield, Streetly,
Walsall Wood)
-
Index of Surnames
and Place Names
relating to the 32nd Battalion
- or use the general website
Search
facility.
Staffshomeguard would welcome any further
information which visitors to the page may
have; to help us add to the story of the
Brownhills Home Guard, please use
FEEDBACK
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Much of the above
information first appeared in the excellent
BrownhillsBob's Brownhills Blog website.
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the
contributors including "Bob", Reg Fullelove
B.E.M.,
Peter Cutler, David Evans, "goodcuppa", Michael Cox
and Keith Regan Haycroft; and to Lynn Lynk.
(The HG group and
armband images are
© Reg Fullelove
2015)
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D16 April 2015, updated
Jan 2017, March 2019, April, July 2020
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