HOME GUARD MEMORIES AND INFORMATION - WARWICKSHIRE, BIRMINGHAM

27th WARWICKSHIRE (B'HAM) BATTN.
KINGS NORTON
 and

Maj. A. F. WARD

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The 27th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion was commanded in the latter part of the War by Lt-Col. A. Whittaker (right). Col. Whittaker had succeeded Lt.-Col. H. Goodwin, (late of the R.A.F.) at some stage after early 1941.


The territory for which this Battalion was responsible included King's Norton and parts of Bournville (and its Cadbury's factory unit); and Northfield (Kalamazoo) - (see this page for further information).



This page contains two images of this Battalion which are shown below.

The first image shows a group, probably of Platoon strength but with an untypical proliferation of officers; regrettably, there is no indication concerning the location and date of the photograph.


 Click on the image for a magnified version

The second image shows us the Battalion HQ staff, photographed in 1944 at, one assumes, Battalion HQ, somewhere Kings Norton. It is fully captioned.


Click on the image for a magnified version
27th WARWICKS (H.G.) Bn. H.Q. STAFF 1944

(Seated) Left to Right:
Lt. J. T. Smith, Capt. L. Hunt, Maj. J. Radnor (M.O.), Capt. R. Turner (Adjt.), Lt.-Col. A. Whittaker, Maj. A. F. Ward, Capt. D. G. Clarke (A. &.Q.). Lt. T. Grant-Dixon, Lt. J. N. Hyde.
(Middle Row):
C.S.M. Staples, Sgt. V. A. Ashby, Lt. H. W. W. Gumbley. R.S.M. H. P. Sheasby, Lt. N. Bryan-Jones, S/Sgt. S. S. Jones, Lt. W. E. Steatham, Lt. W. E. Wildridge.
(Back Row):
2/Lt. H. Ward, Lt. R. Richardson, Sgt. S. E. Fletcher, Sgt. C. A. V. Brittain, Cpl. A. Banks, Sgt. H. C. Lucas, Cpl. L. A. Daniels


The survival of these two images provides the Webmaster with an opportunity to remember those days which he witnessed as a young boy and to commemorate one of the men who appears in the second photograph: Major A. F. Ward (or Bert Ward as he was known: one of my father's closest friends and, like my father, a fervent Home Guard enthusiast). He was C.O. of the Battalion's HQ Company by 1944. In early 1941 he had been listed as a Captain in another Birmingham unit, the 21st Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion.
Bert Ward and his family, who included a son, Martin, lived in Middleton Hall Road, Kings Norton. We visited them from time to time, travelling from the other side of Birmingham, often by tram which would run at an exciting speed down the middle of one of the modern dual carriageways. (I loved those journeys - especially if I was allowed on the top deck. But I never achieved my ambition of sitting on one of the open balconies which some of the trams still had).

Bert was a good man and always kind to me. We were in his lounge one Sunday morning. I think he had just come off parade but, whether or not that was the case, his Home Guard rifle was very available and within my reach. Unprompted and definitely uninvited, I picked it up, lay down on the lounge carpet and adopted the correct pose for holding and aiming the weapon which my father had taught me – legs well apart, elbows placed evenly on the floor to provide a firm, steady base as I peered down its length and lined up the sights on a distant china ornament. I suppose I was around seven at the time. Bert complimented me in generous terms on my expertise and, I have to say, I was quite proud of it myself! As I say, he was a kind man.

 Possibly on the same occasion – or it might have been another – he demonstrated to my father and me various booby-trap detonators he had in his possession. One was rather like a large bulldog clip which, when the ears were compressed, could be slipped under a door so that, when the latter was moved...... Another was designed to be moored at one end by wire to something static such as a wall, and then, at the other, attached to a door or a piece of equipment or furniture. As soon as the movable object was shifted the two halves of the detonators would be pulled apart and again, disaster for the victim.

 Bert, like so many of his generation, was a veteran of the Great War. I don't know where he served, with whom or what rank he held. But I do know that at some stage he was gassed and he survived for the rest of his life (which was regrettably shortened) with lungs which had been seriously damaged by his experience.

I am happy that I knew Bert and that his life overlapped mine, if only for a relatively short period. I have records of family holidays, one of the earlier ones of which was in around 1934 (before my time) and probably in Devonshire. Bert is standing at the entrance to a large bell tent behind members of his own family and of mine (the latter at the front - my elder sister, my mother and my big brother, all surrounding our beloved mongrel (whose name modern sensibilities prevent me from mentioning here!)

This happy day was before I appeared on that or any other scene. In those days Bert had a reputation for always running very ancient cars. He would say that when he could start seeing traffic through his rear view mirror, he knew that he had run out of oil.

The joint holidays continued and the families even found the opportunity of meeting up at a farm near Tintern for a few days on a couple of occasions in 1943 and 1944 - the opportunity of fresh air, a brief forgetting of worries, unrationed farm food and even some fly-fishing.  And in Devon, a year or so after the end of the war. I was well and truly around by then and am kneeling in the front of the image below as the group raises a glass of cider to the world.  Cheers!

Bert worked as a surveyor for roads for the Birmingham Corporation. He died in the late 1950s or early 1960s, possibly in his sixties.

I am glad to remember and be able honour Bert Ward, for his life and his service of which the two Home Guard images have reminded me and which I witnessed so many years ago.

 (C.M. - Webmaster, November 2019)

Acknowledgements
We make grateful acknowledgement to David Morse and to the unknown owners of the surviving group photographs.
Family Images © staffshomeguard 2019

**********

 IN MEMORY
of
Major A. F. ("Bert") Ward
and
All his comrades in the Kings Norton Home Guard.