November - December 1940

On Saturday, November 2nd, “T” Company (BBC) gave a Battalion Concert in the Colston Hall starting at 3pm. This must have been an absolutely unique occasion, and it is doubtful if a collection of such Stars and eminent personages has ever before, or since, been collected together into one programme. Alas, I have lost my programme and shall have to rely on memory to record this event. Sir Adrian Boult was there with a section of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, (all members of the Battalion); Henry Hall with his Dance Band. Who will forget when Sir Adrian Boult took the Dance Band through the Tiger Rag, and Henry Hall conducted the Symphony Orchestra with Paul Beard leading as usual. Cyril Fletcher and his wife were both in the programme, but both then unknown to each other - I believe it is here that this was their first meeting. Jack Warner and his little gal Joan Winters.

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Recollections of the White Tree Garage contain a lasting impression of the cold and smoke, of the lack of space and congestion, of the death trap stairs. The keenness of Inchboard who had undertaken to give everyone in the Company a working knowledge of the Lewis Gun - having taken his classes Sunday mornings he ran voluntary classes Sunday afternoons and as far as I remember must have been instructing very nearly every night of the week as well.

On Sunday the 24th of November 1940, [General] Auchinleck, the Army Commander, paid a visit to this district and honoured the Battalion by visiting “R” Company during their normal Sunday training. He arrived at 10.40am; it was a glorious sunny day, and he expressed himself as interested and pleased at what he had seen on the Westbury ground.

Air Raids on Bristol were also in full swing during our period there - and the old No.1 Platoon was the first to suffer badly. Many of the men in this Platoon were involved in one way or another, their homes or their jobs, and as a result this Platoon started to lose a number of its original members. Some transferred to other towns, some to other districts, and I think this is the first occasion on which instead of gaining new recruits we lost some members.

Although our Headquarters were now the White Tree, we were still using the Westbury Cricket Ground on Sundays. This I believe was quite unofficial and eventually we were compelled to give it up. This made the White Tree hopelessly and completely inadequate, and agitation was commenced to obtain better accommodation. These applications were not kindly received, and it was only with the greatest of difficulty that eventually my pressure achieved the desired results. But more of this soon.

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The next great alteration was the formation of the new “S” Company. The original “S” Company had left us and had formed a battalion of their own. “R” Company had grown to such at an extent it was far too large and unwieldy, while their operational commitments approximated more to those of a Battalion than a Company. It was decided that the new “S” Company should be formed by dividing “R” Company, and the official date of its formation was the 1st of December 1940. The command of the new “S” Company was given to A.A. Greenslade, and the Platoon Leaders who went with him with their Platoons were: F.P. Clee, C.W. Blackwell, and H.S. Bethell. They were given Headquarters at Eastfield Lodge, which appeared palatial to us at the White Tree, but the decision as to how “R” Company should be split was not arrived at easily or without many conferences.

“S” Company was not in existence to exert any pull and naturally no Platoon wanted to leave their original Company. By virtue of the area in which the new Headquarters was situated, and the operational role they were to undertake at Charlton, Mr. Blackwell, and Mr. Bethell’s Platoons automatically went to “S”. Mr. Greenslade naturally took his Platoon, and the difficulty was to decide which should be the final Platoon to transfer to complete the Company. Mr. Clee finally offered to take his Platoon, and after a Platoon meeting, to talk the matter over, they finally went just as happily as the others. We in “R” Company were desperately sorry to lose them, and this severance, although obviously necessary, felt very much an amputation in cold blood with no thought or provision of an anaesthetic. The final parade of “R” Company as a whole, was held on Westbury Cricket Ground on Sunday 1st of Dec. Mr. Chamberlain addressed the Company using the sandbag Cathedral as a rostrum, and a photograph was taken of the Company from the same place; in which Mr. Davies achieved a somewhat exaggerated distorted shape owing to his nearness to the edge of the plate and the wide lens used to include the whole Company. After the address, Mr. Greenslade produced a scratch band which his son led using a billiard cue as a baton. With this band at their lead, the new “S” Company marched off the ground, while the remainder of “R” Company gave them a good send-off to start them on their new venture. It was a great tragedy that the next night this young Greenslade should have met his death by enemy action, and so commenced the series of tragedies which broke up the Greenslade family so badly. Having lost their son, Greenslade lost a brother, and only a short while later died himself.

While at the White Tree, Dennis Foot collected his scouts together and put them through a progressive period of training. This was undoubtedly a result of the Osterley Park Course where Foot had been greatly impressed by the suggestions offered in this direction. I think two volunteers, all young and active, from each Platoon formed this scouting or patrolling class under Foot. They trained seriously by runs in all weathers, and all their work was done out of doors at night. Rain and snow did not interfere with their training. They provided themselves with camouflaged suits and blackened their faces, and certainly turned themselves into most useful members of the Company.

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Somewhere around the end of October, or the beginning of November, Serge Battle Dress commenced to make its appearance. The first sample I saw was Blackwell, who certainly was a good advance agent. His suit fitted to perfection and generally created a desire in everyone to obtain an issue and get rid of the denim. The denim was not given up readily - many had altered their suits to fit and did not like handing them back to store. It was also felt a mistake that these suits should be stored all in one place when the risk would be run of all being lost should this store be involved in a raid incident.

While at the White Tree, the first instructions were received to provide a squad to look after the destruction of petrol pumps, in case the district might be involved in invasion, and so deny the use of petrol to the invading enemy. Those first placed in charge of this duty were C.D. Wright, B.R. Curry, and J. A. Pearce. A little later the instructions were amplified, and it appeared desirable that someone should be put onto this with no other duties to occupy their attention. Volunteer Tucker was given the job and put in a lot of work sorting things out and organising the duty. This always difficult job continued with periods of somnolence and activity. Eventually, Milton Taylor and Lambert Smith took it on, made it one of their primary occupations, and looked after it right up to the very end. I feel sure they would have many tales to tell of their numerous adventures while carrying on with this difficult routine work.

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Before leaving Westbury Cricket ground entirely behind as the “R” Company training centre and Headquarters, there are several other memories that are worthy of being recorded.

The Zone Gas officer and his gas room, through which the Company were passed on several occasions. The alluring Pin-up type or Daily Mirror “Jane” type girl, who used to sit in a bedroom window framed to perfection in one of the houses overlooking the ground. Her interest may have been to watch the training, the result, to very much upset the training.

On the 9th of December 1940, the Regional Commissioner asked all Home Guard to change into uniform on return from daily work. It was considered that in uniform we should be better able to help the Civil population during this period of intense Air Raids.

The 16th of December marks two momentous happenings. Two medium Browning Guns were delivered to “R” Company, and our Company Commander Mr. Chamberlain was granted indefinite leave of absence to the great loss of the Company; because his business took him away from Bristol throughout the week.

With regard to the Machine Guns first of all. A Headquarters Company had been formed by Battalion, and most useful Headquarters had been secured for them at the Registered General Nurse peacetime Headquarters, Colston Fort, in the St. Michaels Hill area. This Headquarters received a direct hit by a heavy bomb of at least 500lbs, and little was left of the building but debris. There was unfortunately loss of life, but by a peculiar sequence of odd circumstances, there were no Home Guard on the premises at the time. All the Machine Guns had been concentrated in the Headquarters Company and it was thought all the guns had been lost. This was not so however, and the guns were salvaged little the worse for being buried. It was thought better to disperse the guns after this, and accordingly two came to “R” Company. They were followed on 12th of Jan 1941 by the transfer of MG trained personnel - the following joined the Company and were attached to various Platoons:

 -  Sergeant Rowe G.L.
 -  Corporal Bruce J.D.
 -  Volunteer Deer
 -  Densley
 -  Watts
 -  Griffey

Additional men were persuaded to volunteer to train on the machine guns; but only agreed on the gentlemen’s agreement that they would not be transferred away from their Platoons.

Two circumstances affected the Company very intimately. Mr. Chamberlains’s house in Brean Down Avenue was involved in a bomb incident and he moved out of Bristol to Yatton or Yatton district. Thus, his business took him away from Bristol and then his weekends were spent at Yatton. When these alterations came into force Jack Chamberlain continued to carry on his Home Guard duties with “R” Company, but it was obvious that the strain of doing this could not be kept up indefinitely, especially as he was frequently bombed while driving back to, and from Bristol. He therefore felt compelled to make an alteration; he put in duty with the Yatton section of the Home Guard during his weekends at home, while he also put in what time he was able with us, although on this date of the 16th of December I had assumed command of the Company.

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Somewhere in December 1940 or Jan 1941, the training problem at White Tree had assumed such difficulties that we had been compelled to look around and had obtained the use of St. Alban’s Church Hall for two evenings a week. An agitation had also been started by Mr. Chamberlain to secure better and more suitable Headquarters than the Garage.

It was a job we carried out several times each week. To inspect some property that was offered to us or some property we had found ourselves or had been recommended by someone in the Company. We applied for the St. Alban’s Club, but this was turned down as being inadequate and unsuitable. The composition of the Company was then 16th of December 1940:

 -  Company Commander - M. Chamberlain
    (On indefinite leave of absence)
 -  Administrative Officer - H. C. Gregory
 -  Company Quartermaster Sergeant - A. N. Fitzgerald
 -  Platoon Leaders
        -  G.R. Bryant
        -  H.B. Davis
        -  J.K. Podd
        -  J.L. Hunter

About this time also Mr. Gregory moved to Weston-Super-Mare, but continued to visit Bristol each day, and carried on with his duties as Admin Officer.

End of 1940