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BURLTON (and LOPPINGTON)
The sad story of Pte. Francis Pugh of the 5th Platoon, 3rd Shropshire Battalion.
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CLEE HILL
Mr. Dennis Crowther
relates, in verse,
The Battle of Titterstone Clee. (You
will leave this site).
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FORTON HEATH
In On the Home Front, Forton
Heath, Shropshire Mr. Ken Offland
remembers his Home Guard service:
"......So it
was the Home Guard. We had a local man in charge of us,
Emrys Tudor, who was a director of Shrewsbury Town Football
Club, and I once ‘shot’ our commanding officer
on a manoeuvre.................. In the Home Guard we had
a proper military Sergeant Major training us, so he was
always taking the mickey out of us. He used to shout at
me: ‘Offland, don’t hold that gun like an umbrella!’
I wasn’t a natural army man, not cut out for killing
people, but I’m sure we’d have done our stuff
if we’d had to......."
© Ken Offland
2005 To
read the rest 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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HADLEY
and WELLINGTON: A MEMOIR
Click on the
title above to read Leslie Frost Remembers The War Years,
an excellent illustrated memoir by William
Leslie Frost (1913-1984) who was a designer working
on Spitfire fuselages and a member of a Wellington unit
of the Home Guard where he was Weapons Training Officer.
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HANWOOD and CRUCK MEOLE
Mr. Arthur Jones has contacted staffshomeguard as follows:
My father, Percy Arthur Jones of The Bungalow, Pound Lane, Hanwood, Nr. Shrewsbury served in one of the local H.G. units from near its inception until stand down. He died in 1949. I was 5 at that time. His unit would probably have been Hanwood, or Cruck Meole if they had one. Several requests to the department holding details of those serving in the H.G. have all been ignored. As I can barely remember my father, I would be delighted if anyone can provide me with any information relating to these years of his life. Many thanks.
Any visitor to the site who has information about these units is invited to contact Mr. Jones direct - see Guestbook for contact information - or if preferred through this site using Feedback.
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HINKSAY, HOMER
FARM and STIRCHLEY
Mr.
Albert Grice's memories
of encounters with the local Home Guard.
(You will leave this site).
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LOPPINGTON
Please see BURLTON above.
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MADELEY
The Tyrer family, including
Lt. Harold Norman Tyrer,
were well represented in the
5th and 6th Shropshire Battalions.
Go to this page
for images and other information.
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MAESBROOK
In an interesting memoir, Wartime
Boyhood on a Shropshire Farm, Mr
Edmund Davies remembers the ARP and Home Guard:
"....My memories of the early
years of the war include the work of the village Air Raid
warden, Mr. Harry Ratcliffe, who was responsible for strict
black-out control. Since German bombers flew overhead on
night raids to Manchester, Liverpool and Birkenhead, any
householder showing a chink of light through their curtains
would be reprimanded. On the farm, all our portable paraffin
lanterns had one side of their glass protection painted
black or red, so that little light would be shown to the
night sky. Mr. Ratcliffe also issued gas masks to every
villager.
Maesbrook also had its own Home Guard, whose members practised
using various firing weapons, did field maneouvres, drill
and communication. They were men who knew every wood, brook,
nook and cranny in the village and were not "daft"
as portrayed in TV's 'Dad's Army' series......"
© Edmund Davies 2005 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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ONIBURY
A Home Guard Training School,
No. 3 G.H.Q. School (Home Guard), was located at Onibury, near Craven Arms.
To read the entire
contents of the above Onibury training manual,
please click here.
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OSWESTRY
John Edward Griffiths (Pte. Jack Griffiths) served with the Oswestry Home Guard despite severe disability. His story, together with images of him and his comrades, may be seen here. Jack Griffiths's son is seeking further information about the unit and his father's service in it.
An excellent image of a unit of the Oswestry Home Guard (containing the only identified member, George Cartwright) is shown here.
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SHREWSBURY
Shrewsbury was defended by the
1st
Salop (Shrewsbury) Battalion. At the beginning
Lt.-Col. W.R.H.
Dann D.S.O. was in command but later responsibility
fell to Lt.-Col. F.H.
Liddell, M.C. who was promoted from within the
Battalion where he had previously served as a Company
Commander with the rank of Major.
Memories of Frank Liddell, a remarkable citizen of
Shrewsbury, can be read on associated pages:
-
His
Home Guard career
-
The
Tattoo of August 19th, 1944
-
His
Great War service
**********
Read an informative and entertaining
description of the defence of Shrewsbury by clicking Three
Shells To Save Town, a 2006 article by Toby Neal relating
the experiences of Mr. Glyn Rowlands
in the 1st Battn. Shropshire Home
Guard, first published in the Shropshire Star; and
later additional information.
(Updated
July 2020)
**********
The story of Eric Blain, an employee of Sentinel and a member of a Shrewsbury Home Guard unit.
**********
Within a fascinating memoir of wartime
Shrewsbury seen through the eyes of a very small boy, Mr.
Graham Brown tells how his father worked in a reserved occupation
mainly in Swansea and Cardiff and from time to time would
come home to Shrewsbury to see his family:
"...Sidelined from the ‘real’
armed forces, my father was in the Home Guard, which occupied
him only slightly when home from South Wales. His khaki
uniform hung on the back of the bedroom door. According
to him, duties involved an evening meeting, probably a Friday,
with a number of other blokes out in the Shropshire countryside.
They all put on their uniforms and went off to test a couple
of smoke bombs and produce a report on their effectiveness.
This task probably detained them for about thirty minutes
and they spent the rest of the evening in the nearest village
pub. Sometimes he returned with a locally trapped rabbit
or chicken, often poached, which he then skinned or plucked,
a job my mother wouldn’t touch....."
© Graham Brown 2005 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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WELLINGTON
Captain John Greenwood,
b.1893 in Yorkshire, was a member of the Wellington Battalion
and had served in the Manchester Regiment in the Great War.
Amongst aficionados of the hobby, he is regarded as one
of the true pioneers of model soldier making.
At the time of his Home Guard service
he was making identification models of German troops for
the armed forces.
**********
Lt. Harold Norman Tyrer
was possibly a member of the
5th Salop (Wellington) Battalion.
Go to this page
for images and other information. (See also
MADELEY
above).
**********
And similarly
Arthur Theodore Duckworth
Hartley (b.
1924). In 1939 Theo
Hartley was living at
Wrekin College in Wellington and was a member of
the Officers' Training Corps: this implies that he
was a 15-year-old pupil there at the time. It is no
surprise, therefore, to see from the photograph of him
(right)
that he was by 1942, and at an age of 17 or 18 years, a
member of the Home Guard.
No further details of his life and service have so far
come to light. Does he appear in the parade
(see below) photographed
near to the School in the same year?)
(Grateful acknowledgement
to John Place)
Added
Sept. 2021
**********
WELLINGTON
RAILWAY HOME GUARD PLATOON
Click on the title above to see a captioned picture of this
unit taken in Wellington in August 1942.
**********
WELLINGTON
HOME GUARD PARADE 1942
An image of the Home Guard parading in Wellington.
**********
See also
HADLEY and WELLINGTON above.
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Grateful acknowledgement for badge images to Stanley C. Jenkins.
