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HOME GUARD MEMORIES AND INFORMATION - WARWICKSHIRE, BIRMINGHAM
37th WARWICKSHIRE (B'HAM) BATTN.
SMALL
HEATH
CAPTAIN H. W.
WEBB
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Capt.
Herbert William "Bert" Webb
(1892-1960) was a
member of the 37th Warwickshire (Birmingham)
Battalion under the command of
Lt.-Col. A. L.
Paterson, M.C. This Battalion was responsible
for the Small Heath area of the city.
Bert Webb commanded the HQ Company of
the Battalion, responsible for Signals,
Transport, Ammunition, Intelligence, Gas
Defence, Pioneers, Weapons Training, Catering
and Liaison.
(Further information about this Battalion
contained within this website is listed
here).
CAPT. HERBERT WILLIAM "BERT"
WEBB
Bert was brought up in Birmingham and
became an apprentice paper maker for
Smith, Stone and Knight. He completed
his apprenticeship and volunteered for
military service when in the Smith
Stone and Knight paper mill in
Bristol.
Bert volunteered for the
Somerset
Light Infantry (6th Service Battalion)
and as a Corporal in 1915 won a
DCM at Hooge near to
Ypres for
bringing in many wounded men under
heavy fire from No Man's Land as a
stretcher bearer. He was wounded three
times in WW1 and also served in the
Manchester Regiment as a sergeant and
finally as a Second Lieutenant in the
South Staffordshire Regiment
in 1918
when he was wounded for the third time
and invalided back to the UK.
He
was demobbed in early 1919 and
returned to Smith Stone and Knight and
was based first in Glasgow and then in
Manchester. Whilst in Manchester he
enlisted in the TA as a Second
Lieutenant in the
7th Battalion,
Lancashire Fusiliers in 1921.
In
1925 Bert married and also changed his
career. He became an insurance
agent, based first in Hinckley and
later in Birmingham. where he was area
manager and involved in much
travelling in connection with his job.
One family story which survives tells
of his being on a train between
Hinckley and Birmingham just when
Coventry was being attacked on the
night of 14th November 1940 when the
whole sky was lit up with fires and
the train was attacked with machine
gun fire. His home throughout the war
was 14 Rymond Road, Hodge Hill.
It
was perhaps because of the nature of
his employment that Bert was not in
the first wave of Home Guard
volunteers. But his service
certificate tells us that he signed up
in February 1941. Because of all
his military experience, he would
immediately have been appointed to
commissioned rank, probably initially
as 2/Lt. or full Lieutenant and
eventually as Captain, in recognition
of the weight of his responsibilities.
Fragments of Capt. Webb's Home Guard
experience survive within his family
and especially the story of his
crawling through the city's sewers as
part of an exercise to rehearse
methods of communication with other
Home Guard groups whilst, above ground,
the city was being fought over
following a full-scale invasion or a
localised attack by German paratroops.
It was possibly as a member of
the Home Guard that he rendered a
neighbourly service to the occupant of
the semi next door to his home in
Rymond Road.
An
incendiary had come down her chimney,
fortunately doing no significant
damage. Bert sorted the problem out in
the absence of the lady's husband who
was serving in the RAF.
Happily, in addition to family stories there also survive a number of
group images which show Bert and his
comrades, probably photographed
immediately before the Home Guard was
stood down at the beginning of
December 1944. These tell us that
Bert's responsibilities were for all
the HQ Company's activities including
Signals, Transport, Ammunition,
Intelligence, Gas Defence, Pioneers,
Weapons Training, Catering and
Liaison. Such a breadth of
responsibility would normally bring
with it the rank of Major and there is
no explanation so far for that
omission - the images certainly show
him in charge of the groups in which
he has been photographed.
These images are reproduced
below and also, in magnified form, on
an associated page of this website.
They all appear to have been taken at
the same location, which is likely to
have been
the Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Barracks on Golden
Hillock Road (which
has survived into the 21st century and
is now home to the Royal Signals
Territorials). And
they are all perhaps of the same date
in late November 1944 - one of the
final parades after many years of
unstinting effort and with just the
stand-down parade of Sunday 3rd
December to come. |
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This image
shows all ranks of the Battalion HQ
Company. Bert Webb is front row, centre
stage and clearly in command. The
officer to his right appears to be in
Regular Army uniform: perhaps he is
the Battalion Adjutant, a Training
Officer or even a distinguished
visitor to the Battalion. |
 (Click
on image for a magnified version) |
The next image shows Bert, in
command and photographed with his
brother officers in HQ Coy. On the
reverse of the image he has written
names and functions:
Back Row
Kibbler
(Signals) -
Williams
(Q.M.) -
Newey (Ammunition) -
Shuttleworth
(Pioneer) -
Davies
(Gas) -
Chew
(Intelligence) -
Knowles (Signals)
Front Row
Crudge (Transport) -
Ironmonger (Intelligence) -
Lackenby
(Liaison) -
Webb (O.C.) -
Brown
(Weapons Training) -
Bourne (Signals)
- Hubbard (Catering)
It is dated
20th November 1944, a Monday
(surprisingly - but perhaps this is
an error and it was really the
previous, more likely day, Sunday 19th).
Bert Webb is 52 years of age at the
time of the picture.
 |
|
(Click on image for a
magnified version) |
This shows
the Signals Section, commanded by
Lt.
Bourne, in the centre of the front
row. Capt. Bert Webb is to his left,
present as his superior officer and in
overall command of the Company of
which this section is a part.
 |
(Click on image for a
magnified version)
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The period was not without humour
and like most units there would have
been the odd incident, improved with
the retelling, which would have been
worthy of inclusion in "Dad's Army".
And also satirical references to the
duties of Home Guards. One of the
latter survives within Bert Webb's
papers. Please click on the thumbnail
(left)
to read it.
After
the stand-down Bert Webb received the
King's certificate, offering the
nation's thanks for his dedicated
service.
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In Memory of
Capt.
H. W. "Bert" Webb
and
all his comrades in the
37th Warwickshire (Birmingham)
Battalion
in Small Heath
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Grateful acknowledgement
is made to Adrian Wills for the
information about his grandfather and his
generous permission for its publication in
this website.
Images © Adrian Wills 2017
(Further information about this Battalion
contained within this website is listed
here
under "Birmingham - Small Heath"). |
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