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MEMORIES and INFORMATION: 32nd Battn. (19)
32nd STAFFORDSHIRE
(ALDRIDGE) BATTN. -"B" COY.
STREETLY and
LITTLE ASTON
including
MAP of TERRITORY
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Streetly and Little Aston
were defended by
"B" Company of the
32nd
Staffordshire (Aldridge) Battalion whose C.O.
for much of the war was
Lt.-Col.
C. Cartwright, D.S.O., M.C.
The Commanding Officers of "B" Coy. were
Major J. W. Athey
(up to February 1942) and
Major H. R. Yates
(for the rest of the war).
(See one
map of the
Battalion's area of responsibility - left - drawn
light-heartedly by the
Battalion Adjutant, F.H. Timings - click on it to
enlarge).
"B" Company
HQ was The Greylands, a requisitioned house on
the corner of
Middleton and Manor Roads, Streetly.
The Company comprised three Platoons: No. 1
based at Little
Hardwick; No.2 at
Little Aston Hall Stables; and No. 3 at
Mill Green.
(These may have been the very earliest
designations and subject to later change:
"No.2" was known as No. 5 for much of the
war).
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Col. Cartwright reviewed the role of "B" Coy.
in words written immediately after stand-down in December 1944:
 ..... I must
pass on to my old friends at
"The Greylands".
From the beginning, "B" Company
was stiff with potential officers and
N.C.Os. In fact, one is tempted to
call it the battalion O.C.T.U. when
one remembers the number commissioned
from "B" and transferred to B.H.Q. and
elsewhere. In this way came
about the migration of
Myers,
Pitt, Thatcher, Moseley, Mills,
Pepper, Kendall, Chaplin, Murray, Fox,
Dodd, and Hooper. A fair
number to lose from one company, but I
must say that Athey
and, later, Yates always took the
broader view and never stood in the
way of their advancement, although
they were losing such good men. There
are two more names to be added to the
list,
Naylor
and
Farrow,
who transferred to the H.A.A. Bty.
R.A.
What a tower of strength Athey
was in the early days! He was
badly missed when he found it
necessary to retire from the Home
Guard in February 1942, but he left
behind a tradition - "All the help in
our power" - which has been more than
maintained by Yates who succeeded him
as Company Commander.
This glance at "B" would be
incomplete if it did not catch sight
of Ralph,
that lover of the Lewis and devoted
Welsh Fusilier, and
John,
the able and most helpful Q.M., also
of Richards,
whose official appointment was
Intelligence Officer, but whose heart
and soul seemed to be in Bombs and
Bangs if one judges by the very
successful way he ran his "school" at
Mill Green, and
Carr,
who did so much to help with his
cinematograph apparatus.
I cannot leave "B" Company without
mentioning those who transferred to
the H.A.A. Bty. I do not believe
that any one of them really wanted to
go, but, like their O.C., they also
took the broader view and did their
appointed tasks.
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Below is
a much larger, and more official map than the
one above. It shows one
part of the Battalion's area of responsibilty,
that of "B" Coy. It is a battered and clearly
well-used, marked-up print of the 1920
Ordnance Survey map of the area and was
originally the property of Lt., later
Captain Harry Myers,
C.O. of No. 2/5 Platoon. A
magnified, higher definition version is
available for detailed examination.
Click on the map to view a magnified, higher
definition version
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To find references elsewhere within the
site to subjects mentioned above
please see:
-
32nd Battalion Information Summary
Page
(Aldridge, Barr Beacon, Brownhills, Little Aston,
Pelsall, Pheasey,
Rushall,
Shelfield, Streetly,
Walsall Wood)
-
Index of Surnames
and Place Names
relating to the 32nd Battalion
- or use the general website
Search
facility.
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