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STAFFORDSHIRE HOME GUARD WEBSITE
GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE HOME GUARD
HOME GUARD DESPATCH RIDERS
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This
is a page of www.staffshomeguard.co.uk.
Please go to Site
Map for complete site contents.
The specialist press - and no doubt many of its readers - took a keen interest in the role of the Despatch Rider (the "Don R") within the Home Guard and made it the subject of many articles. Like every other activity of the Home Guard, the part to be played by the D.R. in the event of invasion was viewed with the utmost seriousness and was subject to much thought, discussion, training and practice.
Five typical articles, from 1942 and 1943, are reproduced in this section of the website and give an impression of the responsibilities which were willingly accepted and of the equipment and skills available at the time.
Also reproduced within this section are a number of interesting images of the DR unit of the 6th Northumberland (Blyth) Battalion.
(Click on the titles to open each page).
If the Home Guard Goes into Action (January 1942)
The motorcyclist D.R.s will constitute a vital link in the chain of defence: on them may depend the entire success of the operation: the training and facilities necessary |
Another Full-scale Home Guard Demonstration (December 1943)
L/Cpl. A. T. Hunt (Ariel) and Pte. Lockett (Norton), of Brooklands fame, tie for best individual performance, and 1st Glos. Home Guard wins team contest in big Surrey training event |
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If you have material or information relating to this aspect of the Home Guard's activities, and feel willing to share it with others who might be informed and entertained by it, please do consider ....
In memoriam: Cpl. Johnny Cooper of Pelsall, a despatch rider with the 32nd Staffordshire (Aldridge) Battalion, who lost his life in a civilian motor cycling accident during his Home Guard service; and L/Cpl. Reg Neville, his comrade and friend, who remembered him for the next 60 years
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Grateful acknowledgement is made:
- to TJD and the Marston Sunbeam Register, owners of the documents reproduced here.
- to the writers and publishers of the original articles, and to their successors, all of whom appear untraceable.
This website is entirely non-commercial. Its sole intent is to commemorate the men who served in the Home Guard throughout WW2 and to inform others who wish to keep these memories alive. Nevertheless, if a visitor with a proprietary interest in the original material feels that ownership rights are not being properly observed, he or she is asked to contact staffshomeguard without delay using the Feedback link below. The material will then be removed from public scrutiny immediately .
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