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ALDRIDGE and Adjoining Areas
View a wealth of information about the Aldridge Battalion and the area it defended: Aldridge, Barr Beacon, Brownhills, Little Aston, Pelsall, Pheasey, Rushall, Shelfield, Streetly, Walsall Wood and neighbouring areas.

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BARLASTON
See VARIOUS TOWNS AND VILLAGES below.

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BARR BEACON
Go to this page of the site.

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BRAMHALL
The full weight of 7th Staffordshire (Uttoxeter) Battalion discipline (right), wielded by the O.C. of "C" Coy., Major T.V. Bagshaw, falls upon the unfortunate Private H. of Bramhall, no doubt a reluctant conscript.
(with grateful acknowledgement to Mick Ackrill).

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BREWOOD
The defence of Brewood and the surrounding area was the responsibility of the 25th Staffordshire (Brewood) Battalion.

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BROWNHILLS
Go to this page of the site.

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BURSLEM
Information about Lt.-Col. Reg Brown, C.O. of the 2nd Staffordshire (Burslem) Battalion.

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BURTON-UPON-TRENT
Evelyn Jones describes her role as a phonogram operator in the local unit of which there is also an image. (You will leave this site).

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CANNOCK
Leslie Daniel Vernon served in the Home Guard in Cannock during the war. He was known as Dan and was the manager of Salmon's grocers in Cannock. His grandson, David Cobham of Albrighton, Shropshire, is seeking memories and images to share. Please see GUESTBOOK for contact details.

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CODSALL
See VARIOUS TOWNS AND VILLAGES and WOLVERHAMPTON - 24th Battn. below.

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ELFORD
An image of the local unit, pictured outside Haselour Hall, can be seen towards the bottom of this linked page of the Elfordian Times website. (You will leave this site).

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FAZELEY
See VARIOUS TOWNS AND VILLAGES below.

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FEATHERSTONE and WILLENHALL

An unidentified member of the Home Guard in Staffordshire wrote as follows of his experiences:

".........Not long after this I was directed by the Ministry of Works to report to a firm of Civil Engineers and Building Contractors who had just started work on the Ordnance Factory at Featherstone and known to us as Bransford Lodge. The senior officer of the company decided to form a Home Guard section to cover the site of the works. You had no option but to join, it was an order. It was quite a large force of people and ten of us formed an Engineers Section. We had instructions twice a week after we had finished work by a regular soldier and we also did one night guard duty per week. When the Ordnance Factory was completed in 1942 I was transferred to the Ministry of Fuel and Power, looking out for and boring sites for open cast coal production. I did find two or three sites in Essington and worked these until November 1943.

On leaving the Ordnance Factory I joined Willenhall Home Guard Section and to my surprise they had an engineers section controlled by the friends from the Surveyor's Department. Again we had instructions from a regular soldier every Sunday Morning. Our Headquarters was the old Willenhall Football Club and Greyhound Racing Track in Temple Road. Again we did one night per week guard duty. The section built a rifle range under one of the covered areas and we practised quite often. A Home Guard competition was set up round the area for the rifle range and we managed to get to the final. The final was held at a rifle range set up under the stand of the old Bushbury end of the Molineux ground (Cow shed) and we won the competition.

I left the Home Guard in November 1943 when I was drafted to Southampton to help build the Mulberry Harbour boats...."

© Willenhall History Society 2000     Full acknowledgement is made to the author and to Willenhall History Society. To read this interesting memoir in its entirety which also includes details of ARP activities, please click here. You will leave this site.

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FORSBROOK
See VARIOUS TOWNS AND VILLAGES below.

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HANLEY
Mr. Colin Chesworth remembers aspects of Home Guard life including home-made entertainment. (You will leave this site).

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LICHFIELD
See VARIOUS TOWNS AND VILLAGES below.

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LITTLE ASTON
Go to this page of the site.

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KIDSGROVE
Mr. J.W. Colclough's reminiscences of the Kidsgrove unit. (You will leave this site).

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LONGTON
Read how an RAF pilot instructor, Alfred Leslie Jones, supported the local Home Guard unit, "C" Coy. 3rd Staffordshire (Longton) Battalion.
See also Meir below.

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MEIR
Memories of "C" Coy. 3rd Staffordshire (Longton) Battalion and the Goodwin family can be seen here.
See also Longton above.

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NEWBOROUGH
Click above to see information about the HG unit of this Staffordshire village to which Mr. Les Mosedale and his brother belonged . The village is located within about three miles of the Fauld munition explosion of 1944.

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PATTINGHAM
A fascinating description of the organisation, activities and personalities of the Pattingham Home Guard units comprising "D" Company of the 24th Staffordshire (Tettenhall) Battalion can be read by clicking the title above.

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PELSALL
Go to this page of the site for the main stories relating to Pelsall.
To see all the many references to Pelsall in the story of the 32nd (Aldridge) Battalion told elsewhere on this website, please click here.

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PHEASEY
Go to this page of the site.

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ROCESTER
See VARIOUS TOWNS AND VILLAGES below.

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ROWLEY REGIS
Miscellaneous information

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RUSHALL
Go to this page of the site.

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SHELFIELD
Go to this page of the site.

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SHUGBOROUGH
See VARIOUS TOWNS AND VILLAGES below.

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SMETHWICK
A visitor to this site is seeking information about Smethwick Home Guard units, in one of which her father, Mr. William George Bridges, served. Please see GUESTBOOK for further details.

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STAFFORD
See also VARIOUS TOWNS AND VILLAGES below.

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STOKE-ON-TRENT
The memoirs of Ken Green, a member of the Stoke Battalion, can be read here. (You will leave this site).

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SWYNNERTON
Information on the Royal Ordinance Factory, Swinnerton and its Home Guard unit, the 18th Staffordshire Battalion.

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STREETLY
Go to this page of the site for the main stories relating to Streetly.
To see all the many references to Streetly in the story of the 32nd (Aldridge) Battalion told elsewhere on this website, please click here.

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TETTENHALL
See Wolverhampton - Specific Home Guard Units below.

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TUNSTALL
A report in a 1942 military magazine:
North Staffs Home Guard were a little too tough during recent exercises when three police officers were injured, a boy had two fingers of his right hand blown off, and windows and doors at Tunstall police station were smashed.

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UTTOXETER

Stories of the late Mr. Sydney Brookes. And a further page on which an incident involving an unpopular member of the unit is described. (You will leave this site).

See also VARIOUS TOWNS AND VILLAGES below.

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VARIOUS TOWNS AND VILLAGES
The Staffordshire Past-Track website contains a number of excellent photographs of Staffordshire Home Guard units. See the Links page to access that site as a whole. For convenience, direct links to the various images on it are provided below. Please click on the headings. (When you do so, you will leave this, the staffshomeguard website. To return to it and to this list when you have finished with the image, please click your browser's Back arrow).

BARLASTON - Wedgwood Home Guard Platoon
CODSALL - Home Guard group
CODSALL, Wolverhampton Road - Home Guard group
FAZELEY, Memorial Hall - Fazeley Home Guard
FORSBROOK, Cheadle Road - Marching troops
LICHFIELD - Lichfield area Home Guard unit
PATTINGHAM, The Pigot Arms - Home Guard Dinner
ROCESTER - Rocester Home Guard
SHUGBOROUGH PARK - Home Guard unit
STAFFORD - "D" Coy., 14th Battalion North Staffordshire Home Guard
STAFFORD - English Electric Co. Home Guard Platoon
UTTOXETER, Market Place - 3rd Home Guard Anniversary Parade (1)
UTTOXETER, Market Place - 3rd Home Guard Anniversary Parade (2)
UTTOXETER, Holly Road - Mr. E.A. Wilson, Uttoxeter Home Guard (1)
UTTOXETER, Holly Road - Mr. E.A. Wilson, Uttoxeter Home Guard (2)
UTTOXETER - Uttoxeter Home Guard, E. Martin
UTTOXETER - Uttoxeter Home Guard group

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WALSALL

"In a march past before the Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire were professional workers and manual workers, young men and old men, who typified in striking fashion the patriotism of all sections of the community".

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Please click here to see an image of a unit of the 27th (Walsall) Battalion and information about three of its members, Pte. David Reay, Cpl. William Bate Cobb and Capt. T.E. Mayo.

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There are many references to Walsall in the story of the 32nd (Aldridge) Battalion told elsewhere on this website. Click here to find them.

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WALSALL WOOD
Go to this page of the site.

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WEDNESBURY

L/Cpl. George Ernest Wagg (Ernie Wagg) was a member of the 36th Staffordshire (Wednesbury) Battalion. Read his story on this page of the website. (Recent addition)

Mr. George Fellows remembers an incident in Wednesbury for the BBC People's War Archive:

".....During a dark December night in 1942 and whilst on duty for the home guard manning an ack-ack ant-aircraft gun outside a factory called the Patent Shaft in Wednesbury (they made tank parts for the war effort).

A German bomber raid took place. The target was obviously the factory and bombs reigned down - and we fired on approx 10 aircraft. All but one of the bombs dropped missed the target, the bomb which hit, narrowly missed the tank track assembly line.

One of the bombers was hit with flak, fired by a unit some 2 miles away from our position. The bomber started to decend and eventually crashed in a field not far from Tipton. At the time I had heard that the German crew had all been captured without injury.

Years later - in 1958, whilst doing some building work, I happened to do a contract for a person called Boris Stein. It later turned out that he was a crew member of the very aircraft which had crashed and that he had been taken prisoner held in Cannock until after the war - he stayed in the UK and married an Englishwoman.

© George Fellows 2003     (To read this memoir in its original setting, the excellent BBC People's War Archive, please click here. 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. You will leave this site).

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WEDNESFIELD
See WOLVERHAMPTON - SPECIFIC HOME GUARD UNITS below.

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WEST BROMWICH
West Bromwich was defended by the 28th and 29th Staffordshire (West Bromwich) Battalions.
(An Australian visitor to this website is trying to establish whether a man with the surname LEE was a member of either unit. Please use Feedback if you can help).

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WILLENHALL

The 26th Battalion, South Staffordshire Home Guard was responsible for the area of Willenhall and Wednesfield. See WOLVERHAMPTON - SPECIFIC HOME GUARD UNITS below.

There are some interesting memories of the war years in Willenhall written by people who were children or young adults at the time and collected by Willenhall History Society. They contain several references to Home Guard activities in the area. Click here to view.  (You will leave this site).

See the entry above under Featherstone and Willenhall

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WOLVERHAMPTON The Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies website contains interesting information about Wolverhampton Home Guard units, including contemporary "Express & Star" cuttings on the subject. There is an image of the 22nd Staffordshire Battalion and mention of the 24th and 34th Battalions as well as of various factory units. An image of the Boulton Paul and Goodyear factory units is also included. To see all of this information, click here . (You will leave this site). ***** Mr. J. Ford remembers his Home Guard service in the areas of Hordern Road and Dunstall Park where there was an anti-aircraft rocket battery. There is also interesting mention of various Wolverhampton companies of the time. (You will leave this site). ***** In the Wolverhampton Borough Cemetery there is a memorial to: Denham, Alfred Albert, Sergeant, 6th Warwickshire (BSA Birmingham) Bn. Home Guard. Husband of Katie Winifred Denham, of Springfields, Wolverhampton. Died - 12 January, 1941. Aged - 31. ***** In German Parachutists at Wolverhampton Mr. Syd Bailey demonstrates that sometimes it was the police rather than the Home Guard who were first to meet a perceived threat: "In 1940 I was a Probationary Police Constable in Wolverhampton. One evening I was instructed to meet a police car, and I was then driven with 3 other officers towards Penn - where German parachutists were reported to have landed. Heavily armed with truncheons and whistles ( plus handcuffs ) we then set out to search for the enemy. What we were supposed to do when we found them was not made clear to us. What a heavily-armed German force would make of a welcoming committee of 4 policemen looking like the chorus in "The Pirates of Penzance" was anybody's guess - but the whole business turned out to be a false alarm so the problem never had to be resolved." © Syd Bailey 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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WOLVERHAMPTON - SPECIFIC HOME GUARD UNITS 21st STAFFORDSHIRE (WOLVERHAMPTON) BATTALION The Wolverhampton Roll of Honour, commemorating those who fell in the two wars, includes the following member of the Home Guard: Private Henry Evans, 21st Staffordshire (Wolverhampton) Bn. Home Guard, husband of Mary Evans, of Wolverhampton. Died 28 May, 1944. Age unknown. Memorial - Wolverhampton Borough Cemetery - Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. Plot H. Grave 54. (With acknowledgement to Wolverhampton War Memorials website). In St Mary's Church, Bushbury there is a commemorative tablet placed there by surviving members of the 21st Battalion. (With acknowledgement to the Wolverhampton Remembers website).       *********** 22nd STAFFORDSHIRE (WOLVERHAMPTON) BATTALION See above comments on Wolverhampton Archives website. An image of one of the units within the 22nd Battn. may be seen here. (You will leave this site). *********** 23rd STAFFORDSHIRE (WOLVERHAMPTON) BATTALION A unit of the 23rd Battalion at Bayliss, Jones and Bayliss, Commercial Road (unknown date): Images, including group photographs, and other memorabilia relating to the 23rd Battalion and to one of its officers, 2/Lt. C.N. Wood can be seen here. Click here to read a fascinating memoir by an old member of this Battalion especially written for staffshomeguard.co.uk. And read a further interesting memory of the Battalion here. An image of a Company of the 23rd (Wolverhampton) Battalion, commanded by Major Heyhoe and photographed at Chillington Works, can be seen here.     (You will leave this site). *********** 24th STAFFORDSHIRE (TETTENHALL) BATTALION This Battalion covered a great swathe of land from the north-west to the south-west of Wolverhampton. Its final area stretched roughly from Codsall Wood in the north to Swindon in the south; and from Tettenhall village in the east to Burnhill Green in the west. It was one of the handful of Staffordshire units which decided to record its activities after the war and published in 1946 "24 Home Guard - The Record of the 24th Staffs. (Tettenhall) Bn. HG." This rare book is full of images and factual information and means that the Battalion must be one of the best documented in the country. A copy is lodged in Wolverhampton Library. The Battalion was commanded throughout its existence by Lt. Col. A.J. Parkes M.C. (pictured right, at Patshull in 1944) who was also the author of its above record. There is available online detailed information on Lt. Col. Parkes's life and military service which can be read by clicking here. (You will leave this site). The Battalion's various HQ locations are listed here. See also: - "C" Coy., 24th Staffs. (Tettenhall) Battn. and JOHN WILLIAM GREEN - comments above on Wolverhampton Archives website - the Codsall images within the Various Towns and Villages section above - the section above under "Pattingham" In Hadley Cemetery, Shropshire, there lies ARTHUR DENNIS BROWN, Private, 24th Staffordshire (Tettenhall) Battalion, husband of Winifred May Brown of Oxley, Staffordshire, who died in the course of his Home Guard duties on January 17th 1943 at the age of 39. He was originally from Hadley. *********** 26th STAFFORDSHIRE (WILLENHALL and WEDNESFIELD) BATTALION An image of a unit of this Battalion at the Jenks & Cattell works, unknown date: For more information about this Battalion, click here. *********** 34th STAFFORDSHIRE (BILSTON) BATTALION See above comments on Wolverhampton Archives website. *********** 35th STAFFORDSHIRE (SEDGLEY) BATTALION A visitor to this site is seeking information about this unit of which her father, Pte. Ronald Withers, was a member. See GUEST BOOK. *********** 'G' (WOLVERHAMPTON) SECTOR, SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE ZONE: a description from 1942/43 of the sector comprising 20th-26th Staffordshire Battalions.

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2.   OTHER INFORMATION

COMMEMORATIVE BOOKS FOR STAFFORDSHIRE UNITS

"Home Guarding" on which this website is partly based was a commemorative booklet produced by members of a particular unit at the end of Home Guard activities, the 32nd (Aldridge) Battalion. Other similar books were produced throughout the country. Those for the county of Staffordshire as a whole include the following, copies of which are held in the Imperial War Museum:

The Record of the 24th Staffordshire (Tettenhall) Battalion Home Guard, 14th May 1940 - 3rd December 1944
by A.J. Parkes.
Published Steens, Wolverhampton, 1946.

"Home Guarding" May 1940-December 1944, by the 32nd (Aldridge) Battalion, South Staffordshire Home Guard
by Capt. F.H. Timings.
Published Walsall Lithographic Co, Walsall, 1945.

The History of No 7 Platoon, Milford, Brockton & Walton Home Guard, May 1940-December 1944
by Capt. J.H. Pharo & Lt. S. Duke.
Published Hourd & Son Ltd, Stafford, 1945.

The 13th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment Home Guard
by A.N. Other.
Published Whitehead Bros, Wolverhampton..

(with acknowledgement to genuki.org.uk and Mike Harbach)

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HONOURS AWARDED TO STAFFORDSHIRE H.G. MEMBERS

Cpl. H. Kitson of the 27th Staffordshire (Walsall) Battalion received the King's Commendation for Brave Conduct as a result of his actions during the night of 30th/31st July 1942 when a number of incendiary bombs fell on the Walsall Corporation bus depot at Birchills.

Following the Home Guard stand-down, the following men of various Staffordshire Home Guard units were honoured on 15th December 1944 as follows:

O.B.E.
Lieutenant-Colonel A. G. Lane, 23rd Bn.

M.B.E.
Major N. J. Cochran, 8th Bn.
Major F. C. Ducie, 3rd Bn.
Major P. W. Edwards, 16th Bn.
Captain S. H. Elkes, 7th Bn.
Major L. Hales-Finch, 27th Bn.
Major C. H. Shaw, 22nd Bn.

B.E.M. (M)
Sergeant J. E. Allsopp, 34th Bn.
Sergeant S. C. Arblaster, 32nd Bn.
Sergeant A. Blyde, 37th Bn.
Corporal C. Charles, 31st Bn.
Sergeant A. Lyons, 27th Bn.
Sergeant J. Pointon, 1st Bn.
Sergeant A. Rudge, 13th Bn.
Sergeant G. T. Shuker, 36th Bn.
Sergeant W. Thomson, 40th Bn.
Sergeant S. Whittingham, 16th Bn.

Previously on 8th June 1944 the B.E.M. (M) had been awarded to Sergeant Samuel Elwell, Corporal Stanley Jacques and Sergeant William King of unspecified Staffordshire units

(with acknowledgement to www.home-guard.org.uk where a complete list of all the awards earned by Home Guard members, including those for outstanding bravery, can be viewed. CLICK HERE. You will leave this site).

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ORGANISATION OF THE SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE HOME GUARD
Click above to view the page.

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Contributions from visitors are warmly welcomed - and, please, an alert on any non-functioning link. Use FEEDBACK if you have material you would like to appear here.

Grateful acknowledgement for badge images to Stanley C. Jenkins.

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SITE MAP "H.G." CONTENTS MEMORIES - 32nd Bttn