WARWICKSHIRE
Click above to go to separate
section within this site.
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WESTMORLAND
A list of the twelve Home Guard
Battalions which covered the counties of Cumberland and
Westmorland and a map showing their area of responsilbilty
can be seen by clicking
here. (You
will leave this site).
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WESTMORLAND, LONG
MARTON
A tribute
to Mr. Norreys Weightman and his Home Guard service.
(You will leave this site).
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WILTSHIRE
Further
reading: The History of the
Wiltshire Home Guard
156 pages - Publisher:
published under the auspices of the Wiltshire Regiment Old
Comrades Association (1946) - ASIN: B0000EEDIH
Two Wiltshire Home Guards, Sgts. A.E.S.D. Thomas and I. Young have the questionable pleasure of attending a week's training at Birmingham's Street Fighting School in September 1944.
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WILTSHIRE, BEMERTON
Mr.
Arthur Feltham remembers
his service.
(You will leave this site).
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WILTSHIRE, CHIPPENHAM
An image of and information about
the 1st Wiltshire Home Guard Brass Band can be seen here.
( You
will leave this site).
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WILTSHIRE,
LANDFORD
Within an interesting, illustrated childhood memoir, Mr.
Ivan Winter offers us a glimpse of the local Home Guard:
"...There
were of course special days when the Home Guard turned out
for a Church Parade. Led by Mr Lankford, an ex chief in
the Navy, the impressive group would march past and into
the church. Brian thought this was a good occasion to show
off and would ape the marching steps of Mr Lankford who
I must admit was a bit pompous with his tummy marching before
him. The Home Guard at some time during the war was issued
with a field gun and Mr Lankford informed Gran that her
front room provided an excellent site to cover any Germans
approaching up the A36. She was not amused......"
© Ivan Winter
2006.................To
read the whole of this memoir in its original setting, the
BBC's excellent People's War Archive, please
click here. (You will leave this site.
WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime memories
contributed by members of the public and gathered by the
BBC. The complete archive can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar.)
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WILTSHIRE,
MALMESBURY
The Medical Unit of
the 2nd Wiltshire
(Malmesbury) Battalion,
complete with names, photographed in October 1944 prior to
stand-down.
On the same date, the Battalion
HQ Wing:
Grateful acknowledgement to
David Morse and to the unknown owner of these two prints.
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WILTSHIRE, SALISBURY
The daughter of Mr. Harry Northover
remembers for the BBC People's Archive her father's enthusiatic
involvement with Home Guard weaponry:
"My
father, Harry Northover, was one of the first in the city
to join the Local Defence Volunteers (later the Home Guard).
He threw himself whole-heartedly into preparations for our
defence in the event of 'the Invasion'. He helped to set
up booby-traps and equip pill-boxes and bunkers. One of
the simple devices he made was the 'Molotov Cocktail' -
a beer bottle filled with petrol and an igniter to allow
the fuel to ignite when the bottle was thrown and broken.
He made crates full of these in his builder's yard, loaded
them into the small trailer towed behind his Morris 8 car
and distributed them, rattling in their crates.
I was a child of 8. I sensed that
my mother was anxious. I overheard my father remark on his
return from one of these trips, 'Just as well there were
no breakages!'. It didn't bear thinking about!"
© "daddysladybird" 2005 To
read the memoir in its original setting, the BBC's excellent
People's War Archive,
please click here. (You
will leave this site.
WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime memories
contributed by members of the public and gathered by the
BBC. The complete archive can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar.)
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WILTSHIRE, WILTSHIRE
DOWNS
Mr.
Dick Fulford remembers
a local unit.
(You will leave this site).
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WORCESTERSHIRE
Click above
to go to separate section within this site.
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YORKSHIRE
This page of the website provides information about 21st century Home Guard reenactment groups in this and other counties.
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YORKSHIRE, CARNABY
Mr.
Bernard Steele recalls:
"....In
November 1943 I returned to the Hildersthorp and Fraisthorp
district to work on a farm owned by a Mr Kitching. His brother,
Eric, and I became good friends. Eric was in the Home Guard,
so I lied about my age and joined up too. I was in East
Riding C Company, stationed at Carnaby....."
© Bernard Steele 2005 To
read the whole of this childhood memoir in its original
setting, the BBC's excellent People's War Archive, please
click
here. (You will leave this site.
WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime memories
contributed by members of the public and gathered by the
BBC. The complete archive can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar.)
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YORKSHIRE, CLAYTON
and THORNTON, WEST RIDING
Click here
to read Son of a Home Guard Company Commander by
Rob M. Brown, a memoir of the Home Guard service of his
father, Major George Leonard Brown. (You
will leave this site).
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YORKSHIRE, CUDWORTH
Mr.
Henry Arch, a miner, found much to interest him in the Home
Guard, as he describes in I
was in the Home Guard .
(You will leave this site).
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YORKSHIRE, DINNINGTON
Further
reading: Dinnington - Home Guard and Pit - by
Eric Brotherton
(Paperback: 58 pages - Publisher: Rotherham
Central Library, Archives & Local Studies Section (July
1994) - ISBN: 0903666650
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YORKSHIRE, EAST
ARDSLEY
Mr.
John Hall remembers
his joining of the local Home Guard unit as a thirteen-year-old
and his fascination with its weaponry.
(You will leave this site).
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YORKSHIRE, EAST
BIRLEY COLLIERY
The
Home Guard at Birley East Colliery describes Home
Guard activities at this colliery located between Woodhouse
and Thackenthorpe near Sheffield and includes a captioned
photograph of the unit. (You will leave this
site).
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YORKSHIRE, EDLINGTON
Mr.
Alwyn Carlin remembers an
incident from the local unit.
(You will leave this site).
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YORKSHIRE, FEATHERSTONE
Mr. Leslie Cross, then a miner, relates
his
experiences of the Featherstone Home Guard, mentioning
many names and places.
(You will leave this site).
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YORKSHIRE, HALIFAX
Halifax was defended by the 23rd
and 24th West Riding Battalions and the
102 Anti-Aircraft Rocket Battery.
There is available for viewing online
an excellent film recording the stand-down parade of
these units, including a number of
Civil Defence men
associated with the Home Guard, which took place on Sunday
December 3rd, 1944 through the streets of the town.
*******
Memories
of the Home Guard and ARP in Halifax.
(You will leave this site
by following the above links).
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YORKSHIRE, HARROGATE
The
20th Century Re-visited - WR5 Harrogate Home Guard
re-enactment group commemorates the Home Guard in that area. Go to the Re-enactment Groups page of this website for further information.
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YORKSHIRE, HAWORTH
'C'
Coy., West Riding 28th Battalion re-enactment group commemorates the Haworth
Home Guard. Go to the Re-enactment Groups page of this website for further information.
The unit has created an
excellent training film dealing with the Northover
Projector. It is filmed in the style of the time and
includes a sequence where the weapon is used in connection
with the recapture of escaped POWs. It can be viewed
here:
https://youtu.be/hBFDYQ49doM
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YORKSHIRE, HUDDERSFIELD
The town was the responsibility of the
25th and 26th West Riding
Battalions, commanded by,
respectively,
Lt.-Col. P. Moxon, T.D.
and
Lt.-Col. R. Rippon, T.D.
Captain
Eric Selby was a senior member of the 25th's HQ Company,
possibly its 2 i/c. His page in this website includes two
high quality images of the Battalion officers and of HQ
Coy., both taken almost certainly just before the stand-down
parade on the morning of Sunday, December 3rd 1944 (and
before a rainy day had taken the shine off the boots!).
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YORKSHIRE, KILDWICK and FARNHILL
Go to this page to see a remarkable Home Guard map showing the arrangements for the defence of these two North Yorkshire villages.
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YORKSHIRE, INGLETON
The Ingleton Home Guard re-enactment group commemorates the EL4 (East Lancashire, Morecambe) Battalion who trained at Ingleton and nearby. Go to the Re-enactment Groups page of this website for further information.
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 |
|
Battery
Sergeant-Major Dawson,
Yorkshire Home
Guard
by
Eric Kennington, 1943
|
YORKSHIRE, LINDLEY
The
very first memory
in Mr. David Eastwood's life, as a two-year-old, is of a
Home Guard exercise in 1940.
(You will leave this site).
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YORKSHIRE, OSWALDKIRK
For memories of the unit defending this
village, which include a platoon image, click
here (You will leave
this site).
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YORKSHIRE, PONTEFRACT
Mr.
Herbert Chester, an employee of the Prince of Wales Colliery
and a Home Guard, is remembered in Guarding
the Coal.
(You will leave this site).
The Pontefract Home Guard Living History Group commemorates the local Home Guard, the 48th West Riding Battalion. Go to the Re-enactment Groups page of this website for further information.
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YORKSHIRE, SHEFFIELD
An
image
of a local Home Guard unit photographed on Spion Cop at
Hillsborough.
(You will leave this site).
Mr.
Charles Dracup remembers
his Home Guard service.
(You will leave this site).
In
an interesting
memoir, Life
in Upperthorpe, Mr Gordon Murfin remembers amongst
much else his father's Home Guard service and the unit's
rescue of the Australian crew of a crash-landed Wellington
at Redmires. (You will leave this site).
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YORKSHIRE, SHERRIFF HUTTON (North Riding)
This page of the website provides interesting information about Capt. Bramwell Harry Bonning and his comrades in "C" Coy. of the 9th North Riding (Middlesborough) Battalion.
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YORKSHIRE, SHIPLEY
Muriel
B. provides a brief memory
of her father's H.G. service.
(You will leave this site).
***********
Harry
Lee Strickland Ransom
(1898-1982),
despite being a Lewisham man, served in Durham and
Yorkshire regiments during the Great War and both the
"C" (Shipley) Company, 3rd West Riding Battalion
and "B" (Chislehurst) Company, 54th Kent
Battalion, Home Guard, in WW2. Glimpses into his
life and military service can be had
on this
page.
NEW! Added 29 November
2023
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YORKSHIRE, SLAIDBURN
For memories of this unit, click
here (You will leave
this site).
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YORKSHIRE, STEETON
Mr.
Alec Lovell remembers the Royal Ordinance Factory at Steeton
and its Home Guard unit:"........The main purpose of
ROF 22 was to produce 20 mm cannon shells, Hispano-Suiza
and Oerlikon, and projectiles for the RAF. The empty cases
were filled at specialized explosives plants. The success
of the plant was vital to the war effort and operated round
the clock for almost four years.The plant was designed to be defended
and there was a system of Block Houses at strategic points
around the perimeter. At the centre of the site there was
an armoury and a secure store for rifles and grenades. This
was under the control of a Company Sergeant Major from the
West Riding Regiment (Duke of Wellington’s) Halifax
headquarters.Soon after arriving, volunteers were
invited to join the Home Guard and to be trained. I do not
remember the total complement of the unit but it was quite
large - 60 to 100 soldiers. Initial training started with
foot drill, marching and handling rifles and bayonets. Then
followed training in the arming and preparing hand grenades,
and actually throwing live ones on a range under the supervision
of experienced men. We had experience in the use of wire-reinforced
303 calibre rifles as cup projectors for grenades. Bayonet
practice was part of the training. After
attending a course on poison gas identification at Leeds
University, my colleague and I were appointed Gas Identification
Officers for the plant. This resulted in my promotion to
the rank of sergeant having the same responsibility for
the Home Guard unit........."
© Alec Lovell
2006 To
read the whole of this interesting memoir in its original
setting, the BBC's excellent People's War Archive, please
click here. (You will leave this site.
WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime memories
contributed by members of the public and gathered by the
BBC. The complete archive can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar.)
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YORKSHIRE, SWALLOWFIELD
Within an interesting memoir about the Home Front is a Home Guard anecdote:"...Like most villages, we had our own Home Guard, presided over by a rather officious ex-Army Officer - probably an early Captain Mainwaring! I don't think, however, that he was too pleased with his commonly used nickname, FUMF (a character in ITMA). On one occasion, an exercise was being held with regular soldiers attacking the village which was to be defended by the Home Guard. My father had his Invasion Chairman's HQ in the local school but needed to get a message elsewhere so entrusted it to my brother. He was told to keep off the roads but go down the fields behind the hedges etc. When he got to the crossroads, he heard voices and saw through the hedge that the Army had already arrived but, there being no sign of the defenders, had sat down for a smoke, leaving the umpire standing in the road. Then, there appeared a small Home Guard pushing a wheelbarrow up the main road towards the attackers who immediately simulated concentrated small arms fire on him. But he kept on coming.When he was eye to eye with the umpire, the latter pointed out that he'd been dead as soon as he appeared. His reply was "Dunt tha recognise a tank when tha sees one ?"© Jon Layne 2005 To read the whole of this memoir in its original setting, the BBC's excellent People's War Archive, please click here. (You will leave this site. WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The complete archive can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar.) *************************************************************
YORKSHIRE, THORNE
MOORS
A young James Dickinson helps the
local Home Guard in Dad's
Army Memories.
(You will leave this site).
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YORKSHIRE, WHARFEDALE
In
The
Phantom Paratroopers Constance Galilee (nee Broadley)
remembers helping the Home Guard during a parachute scare.
(You will leave this site).
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Grateful acknowledgement for badge images to Stanley C. Jenkins.
