HOME GUARD

Beginning as veteran volunteers in Britain's 'Darkest Hour', the nation's defence forces grew to take on a range of dangerous and secretive roles

- ANDREW CHATTERTON

“They would have killed without compunction.” This quotation is taken from Mr Bunting at War. Written in 1942, Robert Greenwood’s novel describes the wartime experience of an ‘ordinary’ British civilian. It stems from a journey Mr Bunting has on a train where he is surrounded by people who have volunteered for various civilian organisations. A majority, though, are members of the Home Guard, who Bunting considers are “preparing grimly to defend things they had cherished all their lives and meant to stick to”.

This represents the reality of the Home Guard, much more so than the BBC series Dad’s Army, which too many people see as an accurate ‘documentary’ rather than the comedy it actually is. The Home Guard was not made up of ill-equipped ‘Corporal Jones’ types, but well-armed men, many of whom had combat experience from the First World War and were still in their 30s or 40s, with many others under 30 years old in reserved occupations that were vital to the nation’s war effort.

Their roles have also been misunderstood and underepresented over the past 80 years, with many aspects almost completely forgotten. Even the origins of the Home Guard have largely been misunderstood. Before Churchill had got his feet under the table at 10 Downing Street, he was writing to the Lord Privy Seal Sir Samuel Hoare about creating a civilian defensive force, even using the term ‘Home Guard’. Just a month into the war, before the threat of invasion had raised its head, he wrote:

“Why do we not form a Home Guard of half-a-million men over 40 (if they like to volunteer) and put all our elder stars at the head and in the structure of these new formations? Let these 500,000 men come along and push the young and active out of their home billets. If uniforms are lacking, a brassard would suffice, and I am assured there are plenty of rifles at any rate.”