THREE BIRMINGHAM HOME GUARDS had much in common: 

They were all born in the last years of the 19th century: they all worked initially on the railways - probably the L.N.W.R.; they all served in the Great War and survived it; they were all members of the same extended family - half-brothers or brothers-in-law, in fact; they were always the closest of friends - "as thick as thieves and never apart much, a mini band of brothers, so to speak"; and they all became members of the Birmingham Home Guard in the country’s later hour of need. 

The three Birmingham Home Guards were:
   - Frank Herbert Carter - 37th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion
   - Mark Feeney - 33rd Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion
   - Arthur James Taylor - 40th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion
      (Mark, Arthur and Frank at the rear of the above photograph)

With the help of David Wakefield of Little Bromwich, who is related to all three and has generously provided the following information, we are able to commemorate each of them on this page:
Frank Carter - Mark Feeney - Arthur Taylor

FRANK HERBERT CARTER (1895-1968)

   EARLIEST LIFE

Frank Herbert Carter was born on November 9th 1895 in Deritend, Aston to William (a coal carter) and Elizabeth Carter of 274 Lawley Street, Aston.

(Elizabeth Carter was previously Elizabeth Feeney, wife of John Feeney (ca.1854-1893) and mother of Mark Feeney (b.1889 - see below). Frank Carter and Mark Feeney were thus half-brothers. Elizabeth had suffered not only the loss of her first husband but also that of two children, siblings of Mark, over a six month period in 1893).

After leaving school Frank worked on the railways. He was of a good stature,  5' 10" tall with blue eyes and light brown hair.

   THE GREAT WAR

Frank Carter enlisted in 1915 in Birmingham and saw service as a Private in the Army Service Corps and later as a Serjeant in the Machine Gun Corps.

The following image shows him in a group of Machine Gun Corps comrades. 

Frank Carter is fourth from the left, fourth row back (i.e. between nos. 2 and 3 from the left in the back row).

   FRANCE 1919 - 1940

At the end of his Great War service, Frank's life took a remarkable turn in a small town on the southern outskirts of Rouen, Amfreville-la-Mi-Voie.

Translation

Madame Denape (widow), Monsieur and Madame Charles Denape have the honour of inviting you to the marriage of their daughter, Mademoiselle Germaine Denape, to Monsieur Frank Carter.

Monsieur and Madame William Carter have the honour of inviting you to the marriage of Monsieur Frank Carter, their son, to Mademoiselle Germaine Denape.

This is Frank with his bride, Mlle. Germaine Denape. 

The couple made their home in France with Frank employed in some sort of clerical capacity. In 1920, a son was born, named William. We can only assume that life proceeded in a satisfactory and normal manner for the next almost twenty years. But the threat of war grew from the mid-thirties onwards and it is perhaps significant that Frank acquired a new passport from the British Consul in Rouen on 3rd August 1939. He was of course still a British citizen but the protection of that document may not have extended to his wife and son. We have to assume that Germaine and William had their own travel documentation but, at that point, war had not broken out and, anyway, the possibility of France being overrun must have seemed unthinkable. 

Ten months later, however, the impossible was happening. The German Army had penetrated into vast areas of France since their invasion of 10th May, the British had completed the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force and several French divisions from Dunkirk on 4th June and the remaining 60 French divisions, with the support of two British, were being forced inexorably westwards. Paris was occupied on 14th June. It was clearly just a matter of time until defeat was total.

It seems that Frank left it as late as he could possibly could. His intention was to flee, with his wife and son. But something went wrong - and that has to be hardly surprising in the midst of all that panic and confusion - and we find Frank, alone and with just one suitcase and a few photographs and documents, arriving at Plymouth with other refugees on 28th June (here is the Immigration Officer's stamp - see right). The ship is the Baron Nairn which is shown in this newspaper cutting from The Birmingham Mail or Post of Wednesday, 3rd July 1940. Frank must have reached Birmingham by then.

The above cutting and the following image show the ship which took Frank back home, the cargo boat Baron Nairn.

The caption states that the ship had departed from Saint-Jean-de-Luz. This is a port on the southern coast of the Bay of Biscay. We believe Frank was living in Rouen in 1940 ; and therefore he must have travelled to the south-west where he caught the boat. Whether Germaine and William were with him or not on this journey to the coast and safety, is not known - but William was twenty by then and could even have been a soldier. The Baron Nairn left the port on Thursday 25th June and headed for Falmouth at a speed of 8 knots. 1200 Polish troops and a number of other refugees were aboard, including Frank. It was escorted by HMS Wren. In the course of the voyage the destination changed: Wren was instructed at 10.12 on the Saturday night to detach Baron Nairn from its convoy and the ship eventually reached Plymouth at 07.35 on the morning of Sunday 28th June, three days after having set off. It was the last significant ship to reach that port.

And so Frank survived all these dangers and eventually stepped ashore in Plymouth - alone. (Is any part of the official record significant in indicating why Germaine and William were absent?)  Amongst the few photographs he brought with him were the portraits above.  And also a glimpse of his life in the 1930s: a visit, perhaps, to the battlefields where he had fought and one of the cemetries:
Frank is standing next to Germaine (with her remarkable hat), fourth from the right, in beret, sporting a row of medals and, perhaps, a Gauloise.

And again on the same sunny 1930s day:

There is evidence that Frank returned to England occasionally during the 1920s and 1930s, perhaps for family visits and military reunions.

The events of June 1940 were of course a family tragedy. It appears that the intention had been for his family to escape with him but, for one reason or another, this had not been possible. There was never further contact with Germaine or William of any sort. She is known to have survived the war but sought the support of a Frenchman to do so, and that was the end of the marriage. There was some contact with members of her family in the late 1950s and early 1960s but that lapsed shortly afterwards. And never any contact with Germaine and William. 

   ENGLAND, WW2 AND LATER

Only the barest outline survives of Frank's Home Guard service, with less documentation than that covering his earlier life.

He volunteered on 25th September 1941 and joined the 37th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion. This Battalion's area of responsibility was the Small Heath part of Birmingham. It is reasonably well documented within this website - go to this page: Birmingham, Small Heath for a summary of contents. Frank has not so far been identified in any of the images but they show many of the men who would have been his comrades.

He later transferred to 103 Warwickshire Home Guard AA Rocket Battery under the command of Maj. G.E.G Assinder which was located at Stechford. (Information about this fearsome weaponry - the "Z-Battery" - is available elsewhere within this website. Use the site Search function to find it). Frank would have either volunteered or "been volunteered" for these different duties: in late 1942 and early 1943 a large number of Home Guards in or near heavily populated areas transferred from their normal infantry role to man various types of anti-aircraft units in their area. Frank was clearly one of them. Another of the 37th Battn. men was Bert Webb, but he joined another Birmingham Rocket Battery, the 107th at Billesley Common. This transfer policy released regular Royal Artillery men for other duties in the build up to D-Day.

Frank continued to serve until the Home Guard stand-down at the beginning of December 1944.

The image (right) is of him during the postwar years.

Whilst there was never any contact with Germaine and William after June 1940, a later image of them exists in the family archive, almost certainly provided by those members of her family who visited England in the 1950s/60s. This was taken somewhere in France in 1946 and proves their survival despite all the risks of war and occupation which threatened them between 1940 and 1944. Frank must have seen this image. One can only guess at the emotions to which it gave rise.       In 1955 Frank Carter was living with his half-brother, Mark Feeney, at 84 Treaford Lane, Alum Rock and may well have originally sought refuge there on his return from France in 1940. He was a Progress Clerk. Frank died in Birmingham on 24th July 1968 at the age of 72.