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MEMORIES
AND INFORMATION - STAFFORDSHIRE HOME GUARD
(poss.
22nd STAFFORDSHIRE (WOLVERHAMPTON) BATTN.)
HENRY MEADOWS FACTORY
UNIT
and
HORACE DAVIES
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Jon Price of Hereford writes
about his grandfather, Horace Davies of
Knox Road, Wolverhampton
and Newlands, Penn:
Horace Davies was
born 13th June 1916 and lived in
Lime Street, Wolverhampton,
son of Horace and Harriet Davies.
In June
1940 he married Maud Hodson, who (at the age of 98
in March 2014) remembered him living at
Knox Road,
Wolverhampton at the time. They moved to nearby
Penn, where in 1945
their daughter was born.
 On her birth certificate,
Horace is listed as a 'wet grinder' at a motor works
- the Henry Meadows
factory according to Maud. She also said that when
he finished his shift he would go on patrol on
Penn Common with
the Home Guard. Horace died on 10th August 1976. |
There might be a
possibility of Horace having served at
some stage on an anti-aircraft battery.
If this were the case it seems unlikely,
however, that this would have been the
nearby local Battery. As a footnote to the
comments about local Home Guard activity in
the Penn
area, Jon Price quotes from correspondence
with Patrick
Walker, the author of a history of the
R.A. regiment
which manned the anti-aircraft battery on
Penn
Common, who states:
I have had a book published on the
regiment that manned the 3.7" HAA guns on
Penn Common and this is now taken as their
official history for the whole war - there
is no other book on them anywhere.
(See under
acknowledgements below).
At no
time did the Home Guard help with the guns on
the Common. These were in fact Mobile 3.7" and
took some manning, complete with their radar
and ancillary equipment.
The only reference I came across with the
Home Guard and these gunners was when they
were involved in an exercise and the HG played
the enemy paratroopers. Other than this the
Home Guard kept to themselves and had a small
HQ not far away.
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This is an image of
the unit of which Horace was a member.
Back row, extreme left: Horace Davies -
front row (of
seven men), extreme right: Ivan Nutt
Click on the image to
view a magnified, higher definition version
(Ivan Nutt
was born in 1923 and was a skilled toolmaker which meant
that he was in a reserved occupation.
This removed the
possibility of call-up and led to his joining the Home
Guard and the Henry Meadows factory unit). |
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The location of this image, and thus the
likely identity of the unit, has been the
subject of detailed research by Jon Price
and has been established beyond reasonable
doubt. Behind the group there is a main
road out of Wolverhampton, the
Cannock Road
(A460)
and on the other side of that road,
recognisable houses which still exist.
This is in the
Fallings Park area of the city. The
most likely position of the image is at
the entrance to the
Henry Meadows
Ltd. factory site which the houses
overlook. (This company was a major
manufacturer of vehicle engines and
transmisions and was of course heavily
involved at the time of the
photograph in military production. It had
been founded in 1920 and lasted for forty
years until takeover and eventual closure
and demolition).
Bearing in mind
the location and Horace's place of
employment, it is safe to assume that we
are looking at the
Henry Meadows works
unit, almost certainly a full company, as appropriate to a
firm of this size. It has not so far been
possible to establish with complete certainty
the battalion to which this Company
belonged. (No map confirming HG battalion
boundaries in the area appears to exist).
The most likely possibility is the
22nd Staffordshire
(Wolverhampton) Battalion.
Further information about this factory unit and its
many members would be welcomed by staffshomeguard and Jon
Price. Please use the
Feedback
facility if you can help.
In Memory of
HORACE DAVIES
as well as
IVAN NUTT
and
ALL OTHER MEMBERS
of the
HENRY MEADOWS
Ltd.
FACTORY UNIT
FALLINGS PARK,
WOLVERHAMPTON
1940-1944 |
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Grateful acknowledgement is made
to Jon Price for the information about his
grandfather and for generously permitting its publication within this website;
and to the grand-daughter of Ivan Nutt for providing
identification and information.
Similar
acknowledgement is made to the historian and author,
Patrick Walker, for the benefit of his knowledge about the
Penn Common battery. Mr. Walker's acclaimed book is:
6th Heavy Anti Aircraft Regiment Royal
Artillery" by Patrick Walker
(The Choir Press,
2011 - 348 pages, fully illustrated - ISBN-13:
978-0956219046)
Images
©
Jon Price 2023
Website presentation ©
staffshomeguard 2024
x193 - October 2024
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