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MEMORIES
AND INFORMATION - STAFFORDSHIRE HOME GUARD
BILSTON and
ADJOINING AREAS
Bradley, Coseley, Ettingshall,
and the
Bratch Water Pumping Station
34th STAFFORDSHIRE (BILSTON) BATTN.
- THE BILSTON HOME GUARD -
MAIN PAGE
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Associated pages in this
Bilston section of the website:
34th Staffordshire
(Bilston) Battn. (this page)
Major H.G. George
1943 Battn. Parade/Review
1944 Battn. Display
The Coseley
Home Guard
Bilston and adjoining
areas were defended by
the 34th Staffordshire
(Bilston) Battalion and the latter comprised
several Companies which in turn contained various factory
units, including Sankey's,
John Thompson, Cannon and
Stewarts & Lloyds. In
1941 the Battalion was commanded by
Lt.Col. J. Pitkeathley, M.C. and comprised some 30
officers and an unknown further body of NCOs and Other
Ranks.
The Battalion's role was to
defend several areas in and adjoining Bilston: Bilston
itself, Bradley, Coseley, Ettingshall,
and the
Bratch Water Pumping Station
(which provided the water supply for Bilston). Battalion
HQ – and/or at least the HQ of two of the Battalion Companies –
was at the Drill Hall
(on the Bilston-Willenhall Road opposite the
Theatre Royal and now the
Robin 2 Music Venue).
 Part
of the Battalion's role was to guard many Vulnerable
Points within the town, e.g. the
Drill Hall
(right,
located, as it still is, near the junction of Mount
Pleasant and Mountford Lane; and at the time close to the
Theatre Royal, the Globe Inn and the Police Station);
the ARP centre
behind and under the Library;
the Telephone Exchange at the main
GPO; and the pumping station beside the canal at
Bratch.
One memory is
that the sections involved in these duties were normally
of one or two NCOs and a further five men. Each venue was
reached by marching except for Bratch which, because of
the distance, required transport in the form of Johnny
Toole's coal wagon. Duty for each man was normally every eighth night
from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and the shifts were 2 hours on, 2
hours off.
Like almost every Home Guard throughout
the country, members of these sections were often
operating in conditions of low visibility and occasionally
of heightened tension when an invasion alert seemed to
have been sounded (marked by the ringing of Church bells). They were therefore liable to problems
in correctly identifying the threat offered by an object
approaching out of the gloom, especially if it resembled a
parachute and if it failed to respond to a correct
challenge. On one such occasion at
The Bratch when the
ringing of the Church bells could only mean one thing,
imminent attack, the combination of poor visibility and
high tension resulted in a dead cow, an extremely aggrieved farmer and a
compensation bill for the Battalion.
A full list of the membership
of this Battalion may not have survived, although there were certainly
many hundreds of men involved, if not more. Amongst them
will have served those in the following list. Their names have appeared
in various memoirs or records and in several cases are
mentioned in this and other pages in the Bilston section
of the website (if necessary use the site
SEARCH function to check whether and where
they appear).
(Please also view
the
associated Coseley page which gives detailed
information about several men serving in that area).
W Arkinstall,
Lt. DCM
W C Armstrong, Lt.
Joe Baugh
H W B Beasley, 2/Lt.
Jim Beddow
Len Beddow
Ernest Bennett
Jack Bennett
J T Bill,
Lt.
- J. Blackham, 2/Lt.
Bill Bradbury
Victor Bunce
John Cartwright
S W
Chattin, Lt.
Bill Clark
Sam Clift
Alan
Cooke
Harry Cross
H G Dawson, Capt.
J C
Davies, 2/Lt.
W Edge, Lt.
Tom Evans
W.
Evans
G W
Eyres, Lt.
Leonard Fieldhouse
Bob Ford, Lt.
A. Fortnam, 2/Lt.
K. A. Foy, Capt.
-. Gandy, Lt.
H J George,
Maj.
Jim A. Gibbons
E. H. Gilbert, 2/Lt.
Jack Gill
Les Green
Sam
Green
-. Groucutt
Tom Gwinnett
R
Hanstock, Lt.
A E Hayes, Maj.
A Hewlett
Bernard
Higgins
J
Higgs, Lt.
R H Hopton, Maj. |
James (Bill)
Jackson
Bob James, Cpl.
Daniel
Keay
S(?) Leadbeater, 2/Lt.
T
Longmore, Capt.
C
Lovern, Lt.
K C Lowe, Lt.
H Marchant, Maj.
Dennis Martin
E. Meeson, Lt.
Samuel
Joseph Meldon, Sgt.
Len Millard
A F Oatley, Capt.
F
A Pardoe,
2/Lt.
W Parkes, Lt.
W S Peach, Lt.
Jack
Perkins
W. (Bill) Perkins
Alfred
George Phillips
George Philpot
G M Pickard, Lt.
J
Pitkeathley, Lt.-Col., M.C.
- Potts
TorJ.
H. Powell, Lt.
E Probert, Lt.
E E Richards, Lt.
D A Richmond, Capt.
A
Robbins
William Robinson
W
Rogers, Lt.
Sid Routely
Robert Rowley
G
Salter, Capt.
A E Seedhouse, Capt.
J Shelley
J Sidebotham,
Lt.
J McE Sinton, Lt.
A E Smart, Lt.
Fred
Smith
W H Smith, Maj.
Ken Southwick
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Alf
Taylor
J Taylor
W (Bill) Taylor, Sgt.
F Thomas
F J Timmins, Capt.
A Turner,
Lt. MM
Jim Turner
-. Turpin, Sgt.
J E Ward, Lt.-Col.
Bert Wassell
D E Wells,
Maj. (M.O.)
Bill
Whitehouse, Cpl.
Frank Willis
-. Ted Wilson, L/Cpl.
.....amongst these names are those of
Coseley men about whom there is detailed
information on this page:
The Men of the Coseley Home Guard
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(Ranks may or
not represent those held at stand-down in December 1944. Further
possible Battalion names are included at the bottom of this
page - those whose signatures cannot be deciphered with
any certainty - and also the
Coseley Home
Guard page mentioned above.)
We have more information about
some of these members:
SEVERAL COSELEY MEN
Please see the
Coseley Home Guard page to read about them.
JOHN CARTWRIGHT
Pte. John Cartwright
(b.
1902)
who was a member of the
Thompson Bros.
factory unit. |
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LT. CHATTIN
Remembered by
Ken Southwick,
below.
BOB FORD
Remembered by
Ken Southwick, below.
WILLIAM "BILL" PEACH
Remembered by
Ken Southwick, below.
FRED PARDOE
See "The Home Guard
Winds Down" section below.
JOB SHELLEY
(1909 - 1951)
worked at
Sankey's, was
thus likely to have been in a reserved occupation
and was a member either of the Sankeys Home Guard
Works Unit or of a platoon fairly close to his
home. He died suddenly at the age of 42 whilst
still an employee.
KEN SOUTHWICK
Ken
Southwick was a young man who was employed at
Bradley & Foster in
Darlaston, producers of pig iron and other products. He
has generously provided
(2016) information
about how the unit was organised and operated and also his
personal memories
of those times, 75 years ago. The information he has
provided forms the basis of this web page.
Ken had left school in 1938 at the age of 15 and well
remembers William "Bill" Peach who was his
Headmaster at Bilston Boys Central School, Fraser Street.
Bill had served as an officer in the Great War.
Lt. Chattin was another officer in the Battalion - he is
remembered by Ken as a member of a family who had a bakery
business in Bilston. (Just as in "Dad's Army" many members
of the Bilston Home Guard had links with local
businesses). Bob Ford is also remembered as one of Ken's
comrades.
Ken
left the unit in 1943 to serve in the RAF.
We are also indebted to
Ken for details of the dead cow mishap. (This may have
occurred on the night of 7/8th September 1940 when the
code word "Cromwell" indicating that invasion was imminent
- i.e. within 12 hours - was incorrectly signalled to Home
Guard units).
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Click on image to view higher definition version
Second row from the back, second from left (in glasses):
Robert Rowley of
Bank Street, Bilston
"D" Company- Thompson Bros. Factory Unit 1941
Click on image to view higher definition version
Front row, extreme left:
John Cartwright
See more group images in the further,
associated pages relating to the Bilston Home Guard,
including The
Cannon Works Company and
some
Platoons
THE HOME GUARD WINDS DOWN
34th
BATTALION OFFICERS CELEBRATE |
By the summer of 1944 many of those still serving
in the Bilston Home Guard had given four years of their
life to their duties; and the end was still some way off.
D-Day had taken place at the beginning of June.
There followed the anxious weeks whilst the Normandy
beachhead was being reinforced and the break-out was
awaited. Eventually that occurred and the Allied forces
surged eastwards across France. Every member of the Home
Guard knew that the end of the war was in sight; but
equally that nothing could be taken for granted: nobody
knew what surprises the Germans could still provide - a
feeling reinforced when, out of the blue as far as the
British population was concerned, a rain of new,
unimaginable weapons started to pour down on London and
the south-east in the form of the V1 and V2 rockets.
Nevertheless it was increasingly obvious that outright
invasion was no longer a possibility and other forms of
incursion were becoming ever more unlikely.
The Home Guard plodded on throughout the autumn
with those in authority doing their best to maintain
motivation and the standards of proficiency which had been
achieved with so much effort. Training continued - for
example in September men from the Midlands and elsewhere
were still learning about house-to-house
 fighting on
courses at the
Birmingham Street Fighting School. But,
quite suddenly, it all came to an end. An announcement of
stand-down was announced and on Sunday, 3rd December 1944
every Battalion held its final parade, including the men
of Bilston.
Four-and-a-half years of comradeship and common
endeavour were now at an end. Many units marked the
occasion by social gatherings of varying degrees of
formality. In Bilston, the record of one such celebration
has happily survived. 2/Lt. Fred A. Pardoe
(seen right, then a
sergeant, leading a section of the Coseley Home Guard
through the centre of Bilston in the summer of 1943)
preserved his copy of the programme for an officers'
dinner held on Thursday 14th December 1944 at the
Pipe
Hall Hotel, Bilston.
Fred Pardoe (d.
1990) was a toolmaker at the
Cannon and met
his wife there. She was canteen manageress and later they
became Steward and Stewardess of the Sports Club. From a
difficult early start, Fred clearly made a success of his
life: with regard to his Home Guard service, appointment
to senior NCO rank and eventually the granting of a
commission - all without the Great War military experience
which most of his senior comrades would have shared -
suggest very special personal qualities.
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Their signatures can be
interpreted - with varying degrees of certainty - as
follows:
W. C.
Armstrong, Lt....H. W. B.
Beasley, 2/Lt....A.
Berklaw (?), 2/Lt....E.
Biggs (?).... - J.
Blackham, 2/Lt.....-
Causer (?)...J. C.
Davies, 2/Lt....H. G.
Dawson, Capt....W.
Evans...R.
Ford...A.
Fortnam,
2/Lt....K. A. Foy,
Capt.... - Gandy....H.
J. George, Major...E. H.
Gilbert, 2/Lt....A. E.
Hayes, Major...A.
Hewlett...J.
Higgs, Lt....R. H.
Hopton, Major...S.(?)
Leadbeater, 2/Lt.... D
or W. G. Leido/Ludo,
Lt....T. Longmore,
Capt....-. Massey/Hussey
(?), 2/Lt....E. Meeson,
Lt....F. Pardoe ,
2/Lt....W. S. Peach,
Lt....T/J. H. Powell,
Lt....E. Probert,
Lt....W. Rogers,
Lt....H. A .S. Shree
(?), 2/Lt....Arthur Smart,
Lt....W. H. Smith,
Major...F. Thomas...J.
Timmins, Capt....J. E.
Ward, Lt.-Col.
A
few of the signatures are wholly undecipherable. Also known to be present were:
Supt. F. W. Orland...Capt.
H. Marchant...J.
Pitkeathley, Lt.-Col., M.C.
It was no doubt a jolly evening and one of quiet
satisfaction and even relief. But it was probably tinged
with a little sadness as well as they contemplated a
parting of the ways and the loss of that feeling of
comradeship in a common cause whose intensity they were
unlikely to experience again for the rest of their lives.
Fragments of those days still resurface 80 years
later. In July 2023 there was sold online this part of the
kit of Lt. G.M. Pickard of
H.Q. Coy. who had volunteered for service in the earliest
days.
In Memory of
All
Members of the
34th Staffordshire
(Bilston) Battalion
Home Guard
1940-1944
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FURTHER
INFORMATION ON THE 34th BATTALION
Several pages of this website contain
many
images of, and information about, the 34th Battalion:
34th Staffordshire
(Bilston) Battn. (this page) -
Maj. H.G. George -
1943 Battn. Parade/Review
-
1944 Battn. Display
-
The Coseley
Home Guard.
Also....
Issues 956, 957 and 960 of the
Black
Country Bugle include much original material about
the Battalion.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Grateful
acknowledgement is made to: Ken Southwick, John
Ashmore and Paul Fieldhouse; Anne Southall (for images of the Dinner programme
preserved by her father
and generous permission for their publication); Steven
Rowley (for the C/A Coy. image); Brian Cartwright
(for the "D" Coy. image); members of the
Coseley pre-1970 Facebook page, the
History of Bradley and Bilston Facebook page, the
Wolverhampton History and Heritage Website;
Black
Country Bugle: and Home Guard List 1941 Western
Command, by Jon Mills (Savannah Publications): the unkown
seller and buyer of Lt. Pickard's gas mask case and Will
of CART
(The British Resistance Archive) for bringing it to the
attention of staffshomeguard.
Text and images, unless
otherwise stated © staffshomeguard 2024
(Please see
higher-definition image page for specific image copyright
information)
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x142 - October 2016, additions Feb 2017, September
2017, March 2018, April 2021, January 2022; July 2023;
October 2024 |
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