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MEMORIES
AND INFORMATION - STAFFORDSHIRE HOME GUARD
41st STAFFORDSHIRE (TIPTON) BATTN.
and
Pte.
ALBERT E. BARRATT
|
Pte.
Albert Edward Barrett
(1916-1965) served
in No. 1 Field and "A" Coys. of the
41st Staffordshire (Tipton)
Battalion between 1941 and 1943. He is seen
(right) in his
Home Guard uniform in 1942, at the age of 26.
Albert Barratt was unmarried and lived at that
time at 35 High Street, Princes
End, Tipton.
Fragmentary details of his Home Guard service
survive and are lodged in the Tipton Library archive. They
are reproduced below.
An order dated 11th May 1942, signed by
Maj. A. Naylor, O/C of
No. 1 Field Company, directs Pte Barrett
(sic) to serve in
No. 1 Section of No. 8 Platoon of Maj. Naylor's Company.
This order refers to "compulsory service in the Home
Guard" and reflects the situation from early 1942 when
conscription into the Home Guard (and other Home Defence
services) was introduced. Whether or not Pte. Barratt's
service pre-dates that development and started when
enlistment - and resignation - were voluntary
decisions by the individual, is unknown although within
his family it is thought that it began in 1941. But
whether a volunteer or a conscript, he would in 1942 have
had little personal choice in any detail of his service.
The above Order tells us that Battalion HQ was at
that time located at Bedford
House, Tipton.
Associated with this Order is a summary of the
military discipline to which Albert Barratt, in common
with every other Home Guard, was subject:
Within Albert's papers are notes he made during
trainining, showing a Battle Order for a Platoon in
attack.
We do not know the circumstances whereby Albert
Barratt's service appears to have ended before 1944. He
was definitely involved in a parade to celebrate the Third
Anniversary of the establishment of the Home Guard, held
at Highfield Estate,
adjoining Jubilee Park
on Sunday afternoon, 16th May 1943 (a copy of the
Public Notice of this event survives within his papers and
can be seen on
this page
of the website); but his name does not appear in the
April 1944 reorganisation. It seems that he had left
the Battalion by then: this could have been for a number
of reasons such as change in his daytime working patterns,
relocation, call-up or even ill-health.
He did not enjoy a long life span and died in
1965 at the age of 48. He now lies in
Tipton Cemetery. We are
grateful that he left us these fragments of his service
and that they were further preserved by a family member
who eventually donated them to Tipton Library.
**********
In Memory of
Pte.
ALBERT E. BARRATT
and
ALL HIS COMRADES IN
THE TIPTON HOME GUARD
41st Staffordshire
(Tipton) Battalion
Home Guard
1940-1944
|
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the many sources of
the information included on this and associated pages of
the Tipton section of this website:
- J, an anonymous Tipton historian; Tipton
Library (Robert Hazel); The Friends of Tipton Library; Sandwell Archives Service (Ian
Gray); Tipton Civic Society (Keith Hodgkins);
"Home Guard List 1941 Western Command" by Jon Mills
(Savannah Publications); "Black Country Bugle";
Tipton in the 50s and 60s Facebook page and its
members; and several individuals including Hazel Jones
(daughter of Sgt. David Blackford), David Barratt
(nephew of Pte. Albert Barratt); Joan Keeling; Kevin
Partridge; and Nicky Stokes (grand-daughter of William
Duncan).
- and any original sources of this material
whose identity is so far unknown to staffshomeguard.
