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MEMORIES AND INFORMATION
relating to Home Guard units in
STAFFORDSHIRE
(1940s county boundaries)
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This is a page within the www.staffshomeguard.co.uk website.
To see full contents, go to
SITE MAP.
The most recent addition was on
4 August 2024
This page
includes memories of and miscellaneous information
about Staffordshire units arranged as follows:
(Similar pages are available elsewhere dealing with The 32nd (Aldridge) Battalion and units in
Shropshire,
Warwickshire,
Worcestershire and
All Other Counties.)
1. PLACES
(alphabetically listed, based on the
1940s county boundaries
and thus including Wolverhampton).
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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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ARMITAGE
Richard Ewing has kindly advised
staffshomeguard of the existence, possibly at
Shugborough, of a commemorative ashtray, described
as follows:
White ceramic ashtray, square with
rounded corners.
Inscription: "To Commemorate Service D
Company,12th Staffordshire Battalion, Home
Guard, 1940-1944"
(Black underglaze
transfer.)
Inscription on base:
"Edward Johns & Company Limited , Armitage Ware
, Made In Armitage, Staffordshire, England".
The donor's father,
W.G. Wright,
was in the Armitage Home Guard. This of
course proves that Armitage was the
responsibility of "D"
Coy., 12th Staffordshire (Rugeley) Battalion.
Both the provider of this information and
staffshomeguard would welcome any addition to
the scanty information so far available about
the Armitage unit.
Richard Ewing has
subsequently done further general research
into this area of Staffordshire which
includes valuable Home Guard information. He
has created a website in which it is
contained. Here is a link to the Home Guard
information:
https://armitageops.com/the-home-guard/
That page includes information and images
relating to members of "D" Coy. whose area of
responsibility included Armitage, Longdon and
Ridware.
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BARLASTON
Images of the local
Home Guard appear on the
Staffordshire Past-Track website.
(You will leave this site).
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BARR BEACON
Go to
this page of the site.
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BILSTON
Information about the 34th Staffordshire
(Bilston) Battalion,
the
Bilston Home Guard, Ken Southwick
and Fred Pardoe, two of
its members; and a stand-down dinner at the Pipe Hall
Hotel, Bilston on 14th December 1944.
*******
Within the 34th
Staffordshire (Bilston) Battalion also served men of
The
Coseley Home Guard, to which a page of this
website is devoted. See also
COSELEY below.
*******
A section of this website is
devoted to Major Horace Judge
George, a Company Commander and
second-in-command of the 34th
Staffordshire (Bilston) Battalion, and they
include a number of unique, personal photographs of
the Battalion and its activities. There are three
associated pages:
Maj. H.J. George;
1943 Battalion Parade and Review in Bilston Town
Centre; and
1944 Battalion Display in Hickman Park, Bilston.
*******
The
34th
Battalion adjoined Tipton's
41st Battalion. A
map of the latter's territory indicates the boundary
between the two Battalions' area of responsibility and
can
be viewed here.
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BRAMSHALL
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 Bramshall, 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.
(Please see also
HANLEY below - Frank Herriman)
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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
Lt.
John Francis Smith was a
member of the 8th
Staffordshire (Burton) Battalion
in the latter part of the war.
A wonderful
manuscript History of "R" Battalion of the
11th Gloster (Bristol) Battalion,
written by Major J. H.
Bromhead, has recently
been discovered, transcribed, edited and published by
local historian Ian Smith. The publication also
includes the personal history of the latter's
grandfather, John Francis Smith (a veteran of the
Great War) who rose in rank from Corporal to
Lieutenant in the course of his Home Guard service,
first in Bristol and later as a member of the
8th Staffordshire (Burton)
Battalion.
This History and information
about John Francis Smith's service in the Great War
and later in the Bristol and Burton Home Guard can now
be read within this website -
HERE..
Added July 2023
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).
Images of the local
Home Guard appear on the
Staffordshire Past-Track website.
(You will leave this site).
Please also see
TUTBURY below.
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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
VISITORS' MESSAGES for contact details.
*******
Information on the
13th Staffordshire (Cannock) Battalion is
available within this website.
It includes a detailed 1945 history of the Battalion
which includes the name of many places and
individuals.
The 13th Staffordshire Battalion was
responsible for Cannock itself and a wide surrounding
area including:
Boney Hay, Bradley, Bridgtown, Calf Heath, Chadsmoor, Chase Terrace,
Chasetown, Cheslyn Hay,
Churchbridge, Coppenhall, Dunston,
Featherstone, Four
Crosses, Gailey, Gentleshaw,
Great Wyrley, Hanley, Hatherton, Hednesford, Huntington, Landywood,
Leacroft Colliery, Levedale, Littleworth, Newtown, Norton Canes, Penkridge, Pillaton, Pottall Pool, Pye Green,
Rawnsley, Shareshill, The
Saredons, Teddesley, Wedges Mills, Whittimoors,
Wilkin, Wimblebury
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CODSALL
See
WOLVERHAMPTON - 24th Battn.
below.
Images of the local
Home Guard appear on the
Staffordshire Past-Track website.
(You will leave this site).
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COSELEY
Coseley was defended
by the 34th
Staffordshire (Bilston) Battalion.
The
Coseley Home Guard, to which a page of this
website is devoted, comprised a Company of that
Battalion within which there was a large unit manned
entirely by Cannon
factory employees.
Please
also see BILSTON
above.
*******
Mention is also made within
The
Coseley Home Guard page
of Pte.
Harold Leonard Lane,
of the 35th
Staffordshire (Sedgley) Battalion and a resident of Coseley, who died in a Home
Guard training accident on 4th April 1944.
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DARLASTON
Images and information
relating to the
Darlaston Home Guard - the
37th Staffordshire
(Darlaston) Battalion, including the
story of the Bliss,
Dowen, North, Pullar
and
Preece families.
*******
 In
1940
Lt.-Col. Hemming,
C.O. of the 37th Darlaston Battalion, must
have felt that the esprit de corps of
his newly assembled men might well be
encouraged by an awareness of the proud
history of the regiment to which the Battalion
was affiliated, the
South Staffordshire
Regiment. And so
a booklet was prepared and issued. It can be
read in its entirety on another page within
this website - click on the thumbnail
(left) to view.
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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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ENVILLE
Information is available
on this page about the
39th Staffordshire
(Enville) Battalion
(whose territory included
Enville, Kinver, Wordsley
and adjacent areas) and one of its members,
Ron Smith.
Added
August 2023
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FAZELEY
Images of the local
Home Guard appear on the
Staffordshire Past-Track website.
(You will leave this site).
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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
Images of the local
Home Guard appear on the
Staffordshire Past-Track website.
(You will leave this site).
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HANLEY
Mr. Colin Chesworth
remembers aspects of Home Guard life including home-made entertainment.
(You will leave this site).
*******
Below is an
image of a North Staffordshire Platoon, No.
15, probably a unit within the
4th
Staffordshire (Hanley) Battalion since the
photographer was the
Hanley Studios in
Percy
Street. We have to assume that the officer in
this image, in the centre of the front row, is
Lt. William Allott and that
Pte. K. Aynsley is
also present - although he remains
unidentified.
A likely
identification is of the man standing second
from the extreme right, with his greatcoat
collar turned up. He is
Frank Herriman (b. 1917) whose home was
588 Leek Road,
Hanley. It is hoped to add
further information about him and his service
at a later date.
The weaponry
suggests a date for this fairly informal image
of 1942 or later; perhaps it was a
commemorative photograph in antipation of
standdown in early December 1944, although the
occasion looks more wintry than autumnal.
N.B.
A visitor to this website, Gareth Ewart, is
researching the Home Guard history of his
grandfather, Frank Herriman. Frank appears to
have spent the war years not only in his home
town of Hanley but also doing forrestry work
in south-west Staffordshire in the area of
High Offley, Woodseaves and Bishops Wood.
Gareth would like to make contact with anyone
who can help with Home Guard history in both
of these areas of Staffordshire. Please
use
FEEDBACK
and the Webmaster will put you in dirct touch.
(Grateful acknowledgement to Jase Allen
for the image and two names; and to Gareth
Ewart, the grandson of Frank Herriman, for
further information.)
Added
July 2019, updated July 2021
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HEDNESFORD
During the evening of Monday, June 29th 1942,
members of the 13th
Staffordshire (Cannock) Battalion were
training with live ammunition on
Cannock Chase.
At some stage a rifle grenade was fired but
exploded prematurely. There were several casualties
of whom the following were regrettably fatal:
Pte. Kenneth Blastock, Pte. John
William Borton and
Lt. William Morris.
A page of this website, which contains
further information, is dedicated to
their memory. See also
Cannock above.
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KIDSGROVE
Mr. J.W. Colclough's
reminiscences of the Kidsgrove unit.
(You will leave this site).
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LEEK
A pewter tankard has come into the possession of staffshomeguard through the generosity of a visitor to this website, Richard Sinkins of Radstock. Both he and we are anxious to see this item back in the hands of someone to whom the event which it commemorates has some significance.It is not, strictly speaking, a piece of WW2 Home Guard memorabilia. The inscription reads:
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Western Command Weapon Meeting
Altcar 2/4th September 1949
Home Guard Falling Plates Match
Winners
5th Staffs H.G.R.C. Team
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The competition was clearly a peacetime one and was won by a team of past members of the 5th Staffordshire (Leek) Battalion Home Guard. These men, like many other Home Guards throughout the country, had elected to continue the comradeship of their wartime years and at the same time to exercise their shooting skills by forming a rifle club. It is interesting that Altcar, a Home Guard training establishment in the north-west which had hosted thousands of HG trainees during the war, was still the venue for HG events almost five years after stand-down.
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And what, we wonder, was a Home Guard Falling Plates Match? A visitor to this site, D.M. of Leamington Spa, provides an answer:
I believe this is a rifle competition where when you hit the target which is a disc or "plate"; the target which is white on a black background "falls", exposing the black background thus indicating which ones have been hit. I may be wrong on some of the technicality but I believe I have the principal idea right.
If any visitor to this site can suggest an appropriate resting place for this item, could they please contact staffshomeguard using
FEEDBACK:
or, if they wish to contact Richard direct, ask the Webmaster for his email address.
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LICHFIELD
Images of the local
Home Guard appear on the
Staffordshire Past-Track website.
(You will leave this site).
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LITTLE ASTON
Go to
this page of the site.
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LONGTON and MEIR
Read how an RAF pilot instructor,
Alfred Leslie Jones, supported the local Home Guard unit,
"C" Coy. 3rd Staffordshire (Longton) Battalion.
******************
Memories of "C" Coy.
3rd Staffordshire (Longton) Battalion in Meir and the Goodwin family can be seen
here.
******************
An attractive memento of the
3rd Staffordshire (Longton) Battalion which bears the name of the Battalion's C.O., Lt.-Col. V.B. Shelley, is shown on
this page.
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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.
Images of the local
Home Guard appear on the
Staffordshire Past-Track website.
(You will leave this site).
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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
Images of the local
Home Guard appear on the
Staffordshire Past-Track website.
(You will leave this site).
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ROWLEY REGIS
Miscellaneous information about the local unit, part of the
40th Staffordshire (Rowley Regis) Battalion including references to several men who served in it:
George Baker,
Claude Crump, Mostyn Lucas, Frank Phipps and
John Scannell.
*******
The
40th
Battalion adjoined Tipton's
41st Battalion. A
map of the latter's territory indicates the boundary
between the two Battalions' area of responsibility and
can
be viewed here.
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RUSHALL
Go to
this page of the site.
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SEDGELEY
Please
see
WOLVERHAMPTON - SPECIFIC HOME GUARD UNITS
below.
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SHELFIELD
Go to
this page of the site.
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SHUGBOROUGH
Images of the local
Home Guard appear on the
Staffordshire Past-Track website.
(You will leave this site).
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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.
 Another visitor is seeking
similar information relating to Edward Boylin. See
GUESTBOOK.
*******
Vol. T.
L. Brown of the 30th
Staffordshire (Smethwick) Battalion lost his
life on Friday, 25th October 1940 whilst on duty. He
was aged 49 and now lies in Uplands Cemetery
(right). The circumstances of his death are
so far unknown.
( Acknowledgement to
Maggie Laity).
*******
Keith Grice writes (January 2018):
I am
writing an article on my father
Sgt. Edwin Grice
(1902-1964) for the Smethwick Heritage Centre Magazine
and want to include as much detail as possible about
his WW2 Home Guard service in Smethwick.
What I know is that my
father was a Sergeant, a hand grenade instructor, he trained at the
Drill Hall, Smethwick
and he worked at Scribbans
Kemp Bakery, Smethwick who had their own Home
Guard unit, part of the
30th Staffordshire (Smethwick) Battalion.
But further research efforts have revealed little
more. Can anybody help me with this problem please?
*******
This early image almost
certainly shows a 1940 parade of the
30th Staffordshire
(Smethwick) Battalion outside the
Mitchells & Butlers Cape
Hill Brewery:
Click on image for magnified
version
*******
L/Cpl. Charles Adie had been an engineer for
the Coal Board and then became a foreman for South
Staffs Waterworks. After working at Slitting Mill
Waterworks he then moved with his family to the newly
built Sandhills Pumping
Station in 1939 until he died aged 55 in 1954.
It was whilst he was at Sandhills that he joined the
Home Guard and became a member of of the
30th Staffordshire
(Smethwick) Battalion.
Charles Adie's daughter,
Patricia, to whom staffshomeguard is grateful for
supplying this information, recalls that many years
ago a Mr. Hoole told her that her father was a member
of his group and that they used to meet - presumably
for training purposes - at his home,
Lynn Hall, Lynn Lane,
near Lichfield. Patricia is seeking further
information about this unit and her father's service
in it.
Please see
VISITORS' MESSAGES for further details.
The
only memento of Charles Adie's service which survives
is his Certificate of Proficiency from 1944.
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STAFFORD
Images of the local
Home Guard appear on the
Staffordshire Past-Track website.
(You will leave this site).
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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).
*******
(See also Burslem, Hanley,
Longton, Meir and Tunstall on this page).
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 STONE
This elegant vegetable dish
(designed to keep its contents warm with the help
of hot water) was presented to an officer of the
17th Staffordshire
(Stone) Battalion.
Its inscription reads as
follows:
Presented to Lieut. S. L. Greaves
by the NCOs
and Men of
No.17. Pl. "D" Coy. 17th Staffs
(Stone) Bn. Home Guard
25th March 1944.
Nothing is
known of this officer, nor of the occasion which
prompted the presentation: perhaps his transfer to
other duties, a birthday or even just a mark of
respect from members of his platoon. Lt. Greaves
had been commissioned some time after 1941 which
suggests that he was either a younger man, or
previously a senior NCO with Great War experience
and, in either case, being marked out as a man of
special personal qualities and skills.
Nor
is anything known of the Platoon of which he was
the C.O. It would have been responsible for the
defence of a very specific area of the town or the
area immediately adjoining it. Staffshomeguard
would welcome any further information. Please use
the Feedback link at the foot of this page.
(Grateful
acknowledgement is made to the owner of this dish,
Mrs Valerie Lusby).
Images of the local
Home Guard appear on the
Staffordshire Past-Track website.
(You will leave this site).
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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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SWYNNERTON
Information on the Royal Ordinance Factory, Swinnerton and its Home Guard unit, the
18th Staffordshire Battalion.
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At about 3.30 a.m. on the
morning of Wednesday, 13th May 1942, two pals took
over the last guard duty shift of the night at
Tamworth Drill Hall
in Staffordshire. They were
Victor Delanois,
aged 16, and his friend
Geoffrey A., 17. Geoffrey had been in the
local Home Guard platoon for several months and
Victor, a Belgian refugee, a matter of weeks. They
took over the weapons of the outgoing guard and
assumed that the rifles were at that stage not
loaded. A bit of fooling about ensued, first of
all aiming the weapons at a target in the Hall and
then, at each other. The accident waiting to
happen then happened. Victor fell dead, killed
instantly by a shot from Geoffrey's rifle.
 The
incident of course resulted in a forensic
examination of what had happened and how safety
procedures had fallen so short. (It was a lesson
learned earlier that year or in 1941 by the
Webmaster when, at the age of about six, he was
severely admonished by his father and brother for,
far too nonchalantly, swinging the latter's Home
Guard rifle in their direction. Never to be
forgotten were the apprehension in their faces and
the raised hands as the lecture was delivered:
"Never, EVER, point a rifle...."). Somehow,
whatever training these lads had had in the
10th/11th Staffordshire
(Lichfield and Tamworth) Battalion, that
lesson seems not to have registered sufficiently
and tragedy ensued. Perhaps inevitably, Geoffrey
was prosecuted for manslaughter. At the local
Assizes he was eventually acquitted which was
undoubtedly a sensible and merciful outcome.
The reports on this incident emphasised the
tragedy of the whole thing: the funeral with full
military honours, attended by Geoffrey and his
parents; the grief of both families; and the
gratitude expressed by Geoffrey's parents at the
kindness of the police, Home Guard and individuals
towards them in the community. They remind us that
when we talk about 1206 men having lost their
lives in Home Guard service, we need to remember
that each case represented an unspeakable tragedy
for every single one of those families, the Home
Guard units who were involved and the broader
local communities.
Victor Delanois now lies
in Tamworth Cemetery.
(With grateful
acknowledgement to John Trotter, the Find a Grave
website and the British Newspaper Archive).
New addition - 4th February
2024
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TETTENHALL
See Wolverhampton - Specific Home Guard Units below.
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TIPTON
The 41st Staffordshire
(Tipton) Battalion was responsible for Tipton
and the adjacent area. This website contains a number
of pages giving significant information about
Battalion members (a complete list as at 1st April
1944, with HG number,
rank, sub-unit membership, specialist
function and personal weapon, as well as information
on individual members, especially
Albert E. Barratt and
William (Bill) Duncan); Battalion organisation; images of
groups and individuals; inventories of ammunition and
weaponry; Battalion transport (from
motor-cycles to buses); and a Territory Map
(Added March 2019, updated May
2022).
To see these
pages, start with the
Battalion Summary and General Information page.
Added Jan 2018
(major addition) and further
updated March 2019, May 2022
*******
The Staffordshire Regimental Museum at Lichfield
(see
Links page for contact details) holds records for the 41st Staffordhire (Tipton) Battalion.
(Information from Roy Bates)
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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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TUTBURY
Tutbury, together with Burton-upon-Trent, was defended by a unit described in February 1941 as the
8th and 9th Staffordshire (Burton/Tutbury) Battalion. (This Battalion is later named elsewhere merely as the 8th and may have been an amalgamation of two earlier battalions as the structure of the Home Guard evolved in the first year of its existence).
In 1941 the C.O. was
Lt.-Col. S.R. Sharp, M.M., with another officer of the same rank as 2 i/c,
Lt.-Col. H.L. Newton, D.S.O., (late Maj., T.A.)
Henry Leigh Newton
(the gt.-grandfather of the contributor of this information) was a resident of Tutbury as a young man where the family home was "The Cliffe". He was one of the two sons of a local cement manufacturer. He was commissioned as lieutenant in 1911 and later served in the Royal Field Artillery during the Great War when attached to 1/6 Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment. He had recently been promoted to the rank of Major when he was gravely wounded on 1st July 1916 at Gommecourt Wood. He was subsequently awarded the D.S.O. for what he did that day.
His brother
William Trafford Newton, a lieutenant in "B" Coy., 6th Battn., The Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire) Regiment was killed on the same day, the first day of the Somme, 1st July 1916, again at Gommecourt Wood. He is commemorated by a magnificent altar in St. Mary's Priory Church, Tutbury, donated by the family and made from alabaster mined at nearby Fauld.
In WW2 Henry Leigh Newton was deemed too old to serve in the Regular Army and thus he made his contribution via the Home Guard.
A volunteer at the Tutbury Museum provides some
information about his service:
"There is a book in the
Tutbury Museum about the setting up of the Burton
and District LDV (Local Defence Volunteers) that became
known as the Home Guard. I know there is reference
to H. L . Newton included. It is “The 8th
(Burton) Battalion of the Staffordshire Home Guard”.
This was formed on 22nd May
1940 in Stafford. Major H. L. Newton had the task
of forming the Burton-on-Trent & District LDV with the
rank of Group Commander. There was the 9th
Staffordshire (Tutbury) Battalion under Major Newton".
If Henry Newton was regarded
as too old to serve in the Army in 1939, no such standards had been applied 25 years earlier, however, when
Charles Slingsby Chaplin
(the contributor's gt. gt.-grandfather) lost his life in 1915 at the First Battle of Ypres: he was 51 years of age.
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 Volunteer
William Henry Brown, a very early
member of the Tutbury Home Guard, died on
3rd August, 1940 (when the service was
still known by its original title of
L.D.V.) He is said to have died after a
short illness: the extent, if any, to
which his death was associated with his
L.D.V. service is unknown (even if it is
implied by his having a CWGC headstone on
his grave). His funeral at
St. Mary's Priory
Church, Tutbury took place
on the 6th and was reported two days later
in the Burton Chronicle.
There was a
large attendance including
Major H. L.
Newton and members of the L.D.V. Bearers were serving service personnel and
comrades in the L.D.V: Messrs.
A. Taylor, E.
Coxon, H. Reynolds, J. Russell, J. Hinds
and L.
C. Smith.
William Brown is
thought to have served in the South
Staffordshire Regiment from 1915 and he
later worked at Truman, Hanbury &
Buxton’s brewery. He
left a widow and two daughters. He
now lies in the graveyard at St. Mary's
at which Parish Church he had for many years been a
sidesman.
|
The story of Trafford
Newton and many other Tutbury men who fell in the
Great War is told in a well-researched and
presented local publication entitled "Tutbury Book
of Remembrance". This publication is still
evolving and there is information about it online. It is written by Jane
Nuth who also contributed the passage about Henry Newton
quoted above.
We are most grateful to Jeremy Manners for providing the above information about his gt.-grandfather H.L. Newton, gt.gt.-uncle W.T. Newton and gt.gt.-grandfather C.S. Chaplin. Mr Manners notes that amongst his ancestors five were killed in the Great War and two further men wounded; none of the seven fought beyond July 1916. As family history research continues this number is likely to rise.
Grateful acknowledgement too to Rick and Jane Nuth
for creating the original information and also for information about William Henry Brown.
**************************************************************************
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).
Images of the local
Home Guard appear on the
Staffordshire Past-Track website.
(You will leave this site).
**************************************************************************
WALSALL
Walsall was defended by the
27th Staffordshire (Walsall) Battalion of the Home Guard. The first ceremonial parade of the Battalion took place in the centre of the town on July 27th, 1940, only 10 weeks after its founding, and was reported as follows
"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".
**********
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.
**********
There are many references to Walsall in the story of the
32nd (Aldridge) Battalion told elsewhere on this website.
Click here to find them.
*************************************************************************
WALSALL WOOD
Go to
this page of the site.
**************************************************************************
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.
************
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 anti-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 rained 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).
*******
The
36th
Battalion adjoined Tipton's
41st Battalion. A
map of the latter's territory indicates the boundary
between the two Battalions' area of responsibility and
can
be viewed here.
**************************************************************************
WEDNESFIELD
Please see
WOLVERHAMPTON - SPECIFIC HOME GUARD UNITS
below.
**************************************************************************
WEST BROMWICH
West Bromwich was defended by the
28th and 29th Staffordshire (West Bromwich) Battalions. Please see the
WOLVERHAMPTON - SPECIFIC HOME GUARD UNITS
section below.
(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).
**********
Norman
Barratt and Stanley Hunt were members of one of the
two West Bromwich Battalions. An image of members of a
Company within one of these battalions can be seen
here.Barratt and Stanley Hunt and Stanley Hunt
were members of one of the two West Bromwich
Battalions. An image of members of a Company
within one of these battalions can be seen
here.
**********
The inquest into the unfortunate
death of Derek Stanley Stokes
was reported in a local newspaper
(right).
(Acknowledgement to
Matt Felkin.)
*******
The
28th and
29th
Battalions adjoined Tipton's
41st Battalion. A
map of the latter's territory indicates the boundary
between the two Battalions' area of responsibility and
can
be viewed here.
**************************************************************************
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
**************************************************************************
|
WOLVERHAMPTON
(See also
WOLVERHAMPTON and
nearby
- SPECIFIC HOME GUARD UNITS
below)
The Wolverhampton Council 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.)
*****
 A
MEMORY of HORACE DAVIES
of Knox Road,
Wolverhampton and Newlands, Penn
Jon Price of Hereford writes
about his grandfather:
Horace Davies was
born 13th June 1916 and lived at
Lime Street, Wolverhampton,
son of Horace and Harriet Davies.
In June
1940 he married Maud Hodson, who (at the age of 98
in March 2014) remembers him living at
Knox Road,
Wolverhampton at the time. They moved to nearby
Penn, where in 1945
their daughter was born. On her birth certificate,
Horace is listed as a 'wet grinder' at a motor works
- the Henry Meadows
factory according to Maud. She also said that when
he finished his shift he would go on patrol on
Penn Common with
the Home Guard, possibly manning an anti aircraft
battery.
Horace died on 10th August 1976.
This is an image of the unit of which Horace
was a member. He is located in the back row,
extreme left.
The location of this image, and thus the
likely identity of the unit, has been the
subject of detailed research by Jon Price
and has been established beyond reasonable
doubt. Behind the group there is a main
road out of Wolverhampton, the
Cannock Road
(A460) and on the other side of that road,
recognisable houses which still exist.
This is in the
Fallings Park area of the city. The
most likely position of the image is at
the entrance to the
Henry Meadows
Ltd. factory site which the houses
overlook. (This company was a major
manufacturer of vehicle engines and
transmisions and was of course heavily
involved at the time of the
photograph in military production. It had
been founded in 1920 and lasted for forty
years until takeover and eventual closure
and demolition).
Bearing in mind
the location and Horace's place of
employment, it is safe to assume that we
are looking at the Henry Meadows works
unit, almost certainly a full company, as appropriate to a
firm of this size. It has not so far been
possible to establish with complete certainty
the battalion to which this Company
belonged. (No map confirming HG battalion
boundaries in the area appears to exist).
The most likely possibility is the
20th Staffordshire
(Wolverhampton) Battalion although
the 25th is just
possible.
It is hoped to publish a
higher definition version of this image in
due course.
*****
A MEMORY of RONALD JOSEPH WILSON
Ronald
Joseph Wilson
was about 19 years of age in 1940. He lived in
Wednesfield
and
was a member of the
Wolverhampton Home Guard.
Within his family there are memories of his
being on duty on a rooftop at night and that
someone on another shift had been accidentally
shot whilst performing the same duty. Pte.
Wilson worked at the Redwing
factory at the time, as an engineer,
manufacturing aircraft components.
The
roof memory presumably refers to fire watching
and observation duties, probably on the roof
of the Redwing
factory at Heath Town.
There is also a memory of training taking
place at
Dunstall Park
where, later, there was also an anti-aircraft
rocket battery. It is not possible to be sure
of the Battalion to which Pte. Wilson
belonged: the
26th Staffordahire
(Willenhall and Wednesfield) Battalion
is one of several possibilities.
(Grateful acknowledgement to
Marion McCullough for information about her father).
**************************************************************************
OTHER
STAFFORDSHIRE TOWNS AND VILLAGES
The Staffordshire Past-Track website contains a number of excellent photographs of Staffordshire Home Guard units.
In addition to those mentioned in connection with
individual towns and villages above, there are images
there relating to Cheddleton, Eccleshall, Milford
Common, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Rugeley.
|
**************************************************************************
|
WOLVERHAMPTON and
nearby
- SPECIFIC HOME GUARD UNITS
20th
STAFFORDSHIRE (WOLVERHAMPTON) BATTALION
I mages
of men of "D" Company of this Battalion appear
on
this page within the website.
************
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
(left) placed there by surviving members of the 21st Battalion.
(With acknowledgement to the
Wolverhampton Remembers website).
************
Cpl. Stanley
Jacques of
the 21st Battalion was awarded the B.E.M. in
the 1944 Birthday Honours. The
recommendation for this award reads as
follows:
Cpl. S. Jacques
enrolled in the L.D.V. in the early days and
from the start was noticeable for his keenness
and willingness to turn out at any and all
times. He has zealously performed his early
training and many arduous duties with an
enthusiasm that is an inspiration. He is
solely responsible for Company Transport and
in his own lorry has turned out at all hours
of the day and night.
For two years or
more on two nights every week, he used his own
lorry to take weapons, ammunition and stores
for the Power Station Guard from Company HQ to
the Power Station and collected them again at
6 o'clock on the following morning. His
services have been invaluable both to his
Company and to the Battalion and I have no
hesitation whatever in recommending him for
the award of the B.E.M.
***********
22nd STAFFORDSHIRE (WOLVERHAMPTON) BATTALION
Many of the men of the
22nd Staffordshire
(Wolverhampton) Battalion can be seen
in a number of magnified, high definition
photographs
on this page of the website. Most of the
officers are identified.
2/Lt. John H. Penrose was a member of "D" Coy., 22nd Staffordshire (Wolverhampton) Battalion. Part of this Company was responsible for the defence of the Marston Excelsior Ltd. factories at Paul Street and Fordhouses. Read
the story of his service elsewhere in this website.
Sgt. Geoffrey Hanley
of Uplands Road,
Wolverhampton was a further member of
this Battalion, the 22nd Staffordshire. His
service in the Home Guard had much more to it
than that of an ordinary member: it involved,
night after night
in his radio shack,
the secret monitoring of German military
broadcasts and the transmission of the results
to Bletchley Park.
His
remarkable story can be read elsewhere
within this website.
Pte. Jack Higgs
of Regent Road, Penn
was a member of the Battalion band. His
story is
here.
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
by L/Cpl. A. R. Banbury.
And read a further interesting memory of the Battalion
by Mr. David Dulson
here.
(An image of a Company of
the 23rd (Wolverhampton) Battalion, commanded by
Major Heyhoe and photographed at
Chillington Works,
was once available elsewhere online but
regrettably had disappeared by 2019).
***********
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
- Codsall above
-
Pattingham above
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.
***********
25th STAFFORDSHIRE (BREWOOD) BATTALION
This Battalion was commanded (in 1941) by
Lt.-Col. C. Hatton supported by Majors
The Earl of Bradford, W.R. Hodson and
A.G. Odgers; and 17 other officers -
Allen, Bell, Binckes, Biddle, Bould, Brookes, Cheshire, Freeman, Gower, Jones, Hawkins, Pearson, Prior, Thornton, Twigg, Walker, Wilson. (Capt. A.H. Cheshire was the Dr. Cheshire affectionately remembered by several generations of Brewood residents).
Another
member of this Battalion was
Herbert Anderson.
Memories of his service in Brewood can be seen
on
this page of the website.
***********
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.
***********
29th STAFFORDSHIRE (WEST BROMWICH) BATTALION
 |
 |
Recruiting material for the 9th Staffordshire Battalion, before it was renamed the 29th. This item probably dates from 1941.
|
***********
34th STAFFORDSHIRE (BILSTON) BATTALION
See above comments on
Wolverhampton Archives website.
***********
35th STAFFORDSHIRE (SEDGLEY) BATTALION
 The Battalion organised a major sporting event on 3rd August 1943. A report on this appeared in the magazine "Defence" of September 1943.
(Acknowledgement to "Defence" magazine and Mick Ackrill).
A visitor to this site is seeking information about this unit of which her father,
Pte. Ronald Withers, was a member. See
GUEST BOOK
and also his
Qualification Record
dated 11th September 1944.
There is an image of a 1942 Church Parade on the Tenscore to be seen halfway down
this page of the Gornal and Sedgley website.
(You will leave this website).
***********
101st STAFFORDSHIRE (WOLVERHAMPTON) BATTALION
ANTI-AIRCRAFT "Z" ROCKET BATTERY
Capt. John Black was a member of this Battalion, commanding one of the sub-units at a battery on Dunstall Racecourse. His story which includes a group image showing officers and NCOs of his "Relief 7" sub-unit can be read
here.
***********
'G' (WOLVERHAMPTON) SECTOR,
SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE ZONE: a description from 1942/43 of the sector comprising 20th-26th Staffordshire Battalions.
|
*************************************************************************
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)
**************************************************************************
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).
**************************************************************************
ORGANISATION OF THE SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE HOME GUARD
Click above to view the page.
**************************************************************************
HOME GUARD TRAINING COURSES
The linked page summarises the many training courses available to Battalions in Staffordshire in the Spring of 1943: their location and content; and the names of those commanding them. Almost every subject is covered and the locations are diverse in the extreme, including: Onibury (Shropshire), Bishops Tachbrook (Warks.), Altcar (Liverpool), Umberslade Park (Hockley, Birmingham), Burnhill Green (nr. Wolverhampton), Birmingham Town Fighting School (Bristol Street), Aldridge, Redditch, Doddington (Cheshire), Burscough (Lancs.), Stoke, Ullswater, Salisbury, Blacon (Cheshire), Denbies (Surrey), Birmingham University and Warwick.
(Further information about several of these training establishments is contained elsewhere within this website. Please use the
SEARCH function to find it).
**************************************************************************
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 and to Mick Ackrill for the 9th Battn. bookmarker images.
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