Monthly Meetings

We meet at 2 pm on the fourth Tuesday of the month at the Congregational Church, Kilwardby St, Ashby.
There is normally a guest speaker or, in December, musical entertainment.
This is followed by tea, coffee and biscuits and a chance to meet and talk with other members.

Tea Rota and Reporting Groups

27th January - ‘The real Home Guard’ by Jed Jaggard

Our speaker this month, Jed Jaggard led us through a fascinating tale of the founding and actions of the Home Guard during the second World War. Speaking without notes for over an hour and handing round various props for us to handle, including a rifle, two machine guns and a hand-grenade! we were able to get a better insight of how the Home guard actually operated.

His talk was peppered with anecdotes and quotes and showed that many of the episodes of the TV series ‘Dad’s Army’ were based on fact albeit with added comedic twist.

Britain has always had some form of local militia; in the 13thC Henry III had decreed that all men should have a helmet and padded jacket so that they could be called upon to defend their land from invaders. By the 18thC this had evolved into a paid Militia and Yeomanry cavalry home defence units. By the time of WWI a Volunteer Training Corps was formed for men ineligible for regular service. They were part of local county regiments but they were self-funded including their uniforms which were often very individual. They were disbanded after the end of WWI.

The Home Guard as we know it was formed in May 1940 as the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV) as a last ditch defence against Nazi invasion. PM Anthony Eden announced the formation on radio expecting 500,000 men to join, but they got 250,000 applications in the first week rising to 1.5 million by July. Eden said that they ‘would not get paid but would receive a uniform and will be armed’. The uniform initially was an LDV armband and the weapons not forthcoming for quite a while. Eventually some 50,000 civilian shotguns were issued after people had donated them for LDV use. LDV officers were still volunteers and had no commissioned status or Army rank despite many of them having served in WWI as officers.

As they were not part of the Army, many LDV units created their own structures and operating methods. The Upper Thames Patrol used a private motor launch to patrol their stretch of river, a platoon in Hyde Park decided that they would be prepared to shoot down paratroopers, but so that said paratroops didn’t see their rifles, they patrolled wearing sombreros!

Eventually some weapons started to arrive, mostly from America. Enfield rifles, Tommy guns and hand-grenades being the main weapons. The Tommy gun was considered to expensive, costing £1 to make and so the Sten gun was developed in the UK costing just 7/- (35p in new money) to make. However they were considered more dangerous to the operator than the enemy as they had no safety catch. Dropping one could set it off!

Churchill did not like the name and when he became Prime Minister had it changed to Home Guard despite the fact that 1 million LDV armbands had been issued. Eventually army-style uniforms were issued with HG badges but helmets were in short supply as were overcoats.

From as early as the Battle of Britain, home Guard units manned anti-aircraft guns, and during the Blitz they were tasked with locating unexploded bombs. The Home Guard lost 1206 members to unexploded bombs.

Although they started out as mostly young and old men, by the end of the war their average age was 35, so they could have made an effective fighting force if there had been an invasion.

Jed had so much more to tell us and it was fascinating to hear of the heroic stance taken by the men left at home, who would mostly have been of our fathers’ generation, who were prepared to fight to the last to defend this country.