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HOME GUARD MEMORIES AND INFORMATION - WARWICKSHIRE, BIRMINGHA
1st WARWICKSHIRE (WARWICK) BATTN.
SUMMARY PAGE
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The
1st Warwickshire (Warwick) Battalion
was a large unit defending the towns of
Warwick,
Leamington
and adjoining areas. In 1941 it was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel J.H. Alexander,
D.S.O., M.C. (late Royal Engineers):
and later by
Lt. Col. E. A. Fielden.
Information
relating to this Battalion which is contained within
this website is shown in the following summary.
 The
Battalion was fortunate in being responsible for
an area which mainly coincided with the
constituency of the
Rt. Hon. Anthony Eden
who was
Churchill's Secretary of State for War. Mr Eden
had made the
famous radio announcement on Tuesday May 14th
1940 concerning the establishment of the Home
Guard and seems to have had a close relationship
with the local unit thereafter.
A great spirit of comradeship developed within many Home
Guard units, fostered by shared adversity, mutual
reliance, humour and the existence of a clear,
unquestioned common cause. Groups of men were reluctant to
see the dissolution of this bond and the result was the
formation of Associations throughout the country.
Sometimes these represented an opportunity to exercise
newly acquired skills such as rifle shooting. Other Home
Guard clubs were formed for purely social purposes. The
1st Warks were no exception and the result was the
Leamington Home Guard Club,
founded in 1944/45 and still active to this day
(2016)
in
Portland Street, Leamington Spa.
Below is the Battalion stucture as far as it is currently
known
(February 2020).
1st WARWICKSHIRE (WARWICK) BATTALION
ORGANISATION
"A" COMPANY
1st
Platoon (HQ + M/G Company)
41 Mobile
Company
********
"B" COMPANY
(Leamington)
No. 2 Platoon
No. 4 Platoon
No. 5
Platoon
No. 6 Platoon
No. 7 Platoon
(Factories Unit)
No. 8 Platoon
No. 9
Platoon
No. 10 Platoon
No. 11
Platoon (Leamington Midland Electric Light
and Power Co. Ltd.)
No. 12 Platoon
(Leamington Priors Gas Co. Ltd.)
No. 13
Platoon (Leamington Great Western Railway)
No. 14 Platoon (Leamington L.M.S.)
No.
15 Platoon (Milverton L.M.S.)
No. 16
Platoon (Flavel’s)
No. 17 Platoon
(Fords Imperial Foundry)
********
"C"
COMPANY (Kenilworth)
********
"D" COMPANY (Lockheed)
********
"E" COMPANY
No. 3 Platoon
(Lillington)
********
N.B. Platoon nos. 1-10 were
responsible for specific geographical
areas; nos. 11-17 for organisations such
as factories, utilities and railways.
(Grateful acknowledgement to David Morse
for the above information)
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Further sources of information about the
1st Warwickshire (Warwick) Battalion are the two
following books, now regrettably long out of print
but occasionally available second-hand:
"We You Salute - Your Local Dad's Army 1940-1944"
by Roy Rowberry, 1990
"The Home Guard of
Royal Leamington Spa"
(other details unknown) |
Acknowledgements
Grateful
acknowledgement is made to an anonymous
collector of Home Guard information and
memorabilia who has generously made his
material available to staffshomeguard and
permitted its publication. This material
is mainly contained in the General Information
section above. Acknowledgement is
also made to "We You Salute" (see above) as
the source whereby it has been possible to
identify certain groups and individuals.
Please Note
This website is wholly non-commercial and is
entirely funded by the Webmaster. Its sole aim
is to commemorate all members of the Home
Guard and, in publishing information about
them, to honour them and their devoted
service. The website is regularly archived by
the British Library and so the service of
individuals and their identities will
theoretically be accessible in perpetuity.
The website does not knowingly publish
copyright material unless permission has been
sought. However, in the case of this and
associated pages, not all the original sources of the
information and images
contained are known. The
material is thought to be mainly in the
public domain; but if this is not the case and
any visitor to this website feels that his/her
rights are not being properly observed, please
could they make contact with staffshomeguard
using the Feedback facility. Appropriate
acknowledgement will then be promptly made on
the page in question; or the item will be
deleted, if that is the wish of the copyright
holder.
x144 - December 2016,
updated 2017, February 2020, December 2021
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