HOME GUARD MEMORIES AND INFORMATION - WARWICKSHIRE, BIRMINGHAM
30th WARWICKSHIRE (B'HAM) BATTN.
and
Vol. ROBERT BERNARD SILK
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On this page of The Home Guard of
Great Britain website we remember
Vol. Robert Bernard Silk
of Henry Street, Ashted,
Birmingham, who volunteered for Home Guard
service in the earliest days; and two further close
family members.
 The
30th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion
came into existence in the late summer
of 1940, having evolved from one of
the first ten Birmingham Battalions of the
Home Guard formed in May/June, the
10th Birmingham
Battalion, Home Guard. The 30th
Warwickshire was commanded initially by
Lt.-Col. R.I.
Scorer, M.C.
(right)
who had also been
C.O. of the 10th Birmingham.
The area
of responsibility of the 30th Warwickshire is
so far unclear. The 10th seems to have
had a Public Utilities role but as the local
organisation of the Home Guard evolved in the
late summer and autumn of 1940, the new
battalions which were emerging in Birmingham
with this sort of role were the
29th (City Utilities such as water,
gas, electricity etc.); and the
31st and 32nd (both Birmingham City
Transport). These specialised battalions
comprised solely employees of the organisation
concerned and had a specific responsibility
for the defence of premises and facilities.
(Those three battalions are
well-documented in this website - please
follow the links to see more).
Like the 29th, 31st and 32nd - and other
battalions with a wider geographical role than
normal - the 30th had its Battalion H.Q. in
the Edgbaston area of Birmingham. But
otherwise no evidence has yet emerged of its
precise role and specific geographical area of
responsibility. (The 33rd was an L.M.S
battalion; could the 30th have been G.W.R?)
The 10th Birmingham/30th Warwickshire
clearly had a significant involvement in the
Birmingham Blitz of 1940 and 1941; and
suffered casualties. Robert Silk, the
main subject of this page, was one.
Another was George
Walter Inwood. He died a few days
earlier, on Tuesday, October 15th 1940 in an
appalling incident in
Bishop Street,
Deritend. A large number of people were
trapped in a gas-filled cellar; only one
survived and the casualties included Section
Leader Inwood himself who was overcome by
fumes. His incredible bravery that night
resulted in the award of a posthumous George
Cross. The incident is related in detail
elsewhere in this website and includes the
remarkable story told by the one survivor, a
sailor on shore leave,
Ernie Humphreys.
And a third 30th Warwickshire man also died
that month:
Section Leader William James Lownes of
Harborne,
on 29th October 1940, again presumably as a
result of enemy action.
Please use the
Search function to reveal other fragments
of information about the 30th Warwickshire
within this website. Just use the phrase
30th Warwickshire. |
| Volunteer
ROBERT BERNARD SILK |
 Robert
Bernard Silk (1923-1940) lived in
Henry Street,
Ashted with his widowed mother,
Rose. His father Harry had died in the
1920s. Robert was the second youngest of
seven children and, at the beginning of
the war, he was employed as a "brass
filer" in one of the local factories or
workshops. He is seen here, probably
attending a family wedding not long before
he lost his life.
At a very
early stage, probably in May or June 1940,
Robert volunteered for service in the Home
Guard and became Volunteer R. B. Silk of
the 10th
Birmingham/30th Warwickshire (Birmingham)
Battalion. He was seventeen. The
night of October 24/25th 1940 saw very
heavy German air raids on Birmingham and
Robert found himself on fire-watch duties
during which he sustained serious
injuries; he died as a result of them two
days later, on October 26th. He now lies
in Yardley
Cemetery.
The official
record states that Robert received his
injuries at 14
Bowyer Road, Alum Rock and family
memory relates that he had entered a
building to rescue a woman who was trapped
and was then injured by falling debris.
That property still stands; but there is
no obvious evidence of its ever having
sustained serious damage. There may of
course have been damage to nearby
buildings but there is no suggestion of
any other casualty on that night in that
location, nor any other information
suggesting a major incident incident which
occurred there.
 On
the other hand, Robert's mother,
Rose Silk,
always maintained that Robert had received
his injuries at the
Marshall &
Snelgrove premises in
New Street,
Birmingham which was completely destroyed
on that night. If anyone should have known
and remembered how a young man received
injuries which he did not survive, it has
to be a mother. And so we have to accept
that, for one reason or another, the
official record is incorrect and that
Robert received his serious injuries
whilst on duty in the centre of Birmingham
on the night of 24th/25th October 1940,
doing what he could to save life and
preserve property.
Robert's
headstone bears the inscription:
HE WAS SO YOUNG
AND YET SO BRAVE
HE GAVE HIS LIFE
US TO SAVE
Yet another
hero of the Birmingham Blitz.
(The
Marshall & Snelgrove premises will remain
a landmark for the rest of the war, and
for several years afterwards, in New
Street - a tall, light coloured building,
wholly burnt out - just a shell, still
standing, but above each of its many
curved windows, now blank and gaping, a
great black smear stretches up the
stonework where smoke and flames erupted
from within on that night. Rose Silk would
have seen it, every time she visited the
city centre, a reminder of her lost boy).
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| OTHER
MEMBERS OF THE SILK FAMILY |
Robert's family was one which suffered several
tragedies as a result of World War II.
Only a few weeks
after Robert's death, on 19th November 1940,
his first cousin
William Silk, who lived only a few
doors away in
Henry Street at no. 108, died in a
nearby part of Birmingham at
117, Francis
Street. William was 23. Nothing is
known of the circumstances, nor whether
William had a role in one of the Civil Defence
services - ARP, fire-watching, rescue - or
even, again, the Home Guard. The official
record descibes him merely as "civilian". The
night of Tuesday 19/20th November was one
which saw one of the heaviest raids on the
city with widespread damage, loss
 of
life and acts of incredible bravery by many
people, including Home Guards. It was on this
night that
Vol. Albert William Bailey (6th Birmingham)
received the George Medal for his heroism
following the direct hit on the
BSA works at
Armoury Road, Small Heath. Other Home
Guards were also recognised.
And later in the
war, on 23rd October 1943 - two years almost
to the day after his own death - Robert's
elder brother, also named William, lost his
life when his cruiser,
HMS
Charybdis,
was torpedoed in the English Channel near to
the Channel Islands. This
William Silk,
a Leading Stoker on Charybdis, was 22
years of age, was married, lived in
Hockley
with his wife (also named Rose) and left an
infant son who had been born in 1942, about 18
months after Robert's death; and so had been
named Robert in his memory. William Silk is
commemorated on the
Plymouth Naval
Memorial.
William's son, the
infant Robert Silk, eventually became
Robert Kilroy-Silk
whose well-known
public career included the roles of college
lecturer, Labour MP, television personality,
European MP and significant contributor to the
Eurosceptic campaign. |
Acknowledgements
We make grateful
acknowledgement to Steve Silk for images and
information about his uncle Robert Silk; to David
Browne, of the private
Remember Britain's Home Guard group, for
bringing Robert to our attention and providing the
headstone image; to Matt Felkin; and to many
members of the excellent
Birmingham History Forum for their
contributions, including particularly significant
ones from Astoness, pjmburns, and Pedrocut.
Family Images ©
Steve Silk 2021
Headstone Image
© David Browne 2021
**********
IN
MEMORY OF THE LIFE AND SERVICE
of
Vol.
Robert Bernard Silk
and other members of the Silk family
and
of
All Robert's comrades in the 10th
Birmingham/30th Warwickshire
(Birmingham) Battalion
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x178 Aug.2021
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