Now scanned and online!

Quick update - the local archives centre has now digitised the book, and it can be viewed (and browsed) at http://www.herefordshirehistory.org.uk/archive/pamphlets-leaflets-and-logbooks/withington-home-guard-log-book

Introduction

I’m very fortunate to have been given a notebook listing the members of the Withington Home Guard during WW2.

I grew up in Withington, Herefordshire and my grandfather, a Great War veteran, served in this Home Guard platoon.

The list was compiled by Percy Andrews, who commanded the Withington Home Guard. Later on he passed the notebook on to the headmaster of the local primary school, Bryan Davies (my old headmaster in fact).

Upon hearing of my interest in local history (especially my family’s role in WW1), Bryan very kindly gave the book to me, for which he has my sincere thanks.

About the book

This alphabetically tabbed notebook labelled 'Local Defence Corps' which contains a roughly alphabetical list of 79 members of the Home Guard for the village of Withington, Herefordshire, and environs. I will attempt to tabulate this information, remaining as close to the original wording as possible.

Most, but not all member’s entries consist of four fields:-

1: Name (and occasionally address),

2: Age – actually date of birth (written in various formats, so I will default to dd/mm/yyyy)

3: Military experience,

4: Next of kin (occasionally listing their address)

A handful of entries have additionally information written across the entry, e.g. ‘resigned’. I have noted these down in the ‘Notes’ field. I will also add any extra information I uncover about each individual in this column.

Each entry usually has a letter in the left-hand margin, mainly B, S or N. To date I have yet to ascertain the meaning of these letters.

There are approximately 20 of each letter, so this could be an indication of how the platoon was divided into sections, a geographical sub-area, or possibly some kind of role within the unit (on one occasion a member’s trade is listed in the margin).

The style of handwriting shows that most entries were probably written at the same time, but it is evident that other entries were added or annotated later on.

I have no idea when the list was compiled. However on the top right-hand corner of the first page, what appears to be the phrase ‘Drawing! 20.3.40(or 46).’ is written (no drawing accompanied this book when I was given it).

The Home Guard came into being on 14 May 1940, stood down on 3 December 1944 and finally disbanded on 31 December 1945, so obviously it was in use during this time!

Withington and Environs