Minesweeper Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Can anybody tell me, please, if serving members of the Home Guard were awarded any kind of medal relating to their service during WW2? Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Can anybody tell me, please, if serving members of the Home Guard were awarded any kind of medal relating to their service during WW2? Tony, My father was in the Home Guard. In the late Eighties he applied and received the the Defence Medal 1939-1945, don't think they were awarded any medal straight after their war service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ford 369 Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 I think they were entitled to apply for defence medal but were automatically given a certificate of recognition for service,not sure if this was after stand down in 1944 or more likely once hostilities had ceased Nigel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 I think they were entitled to apply for defence medal but were automatically given a certificate of recognition for service,not sure if this was after stand down in 1944 or more likely once hostilities had ceasedNigel Hi Nigel, I think my father said that at the time, it was a bit of an insult to have to apply for a medal, he did get a certificate, cannot find it at this moment, might be dated late '44, not sure. It was only in later years there was a campaign to get people to apply for medals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minesweeper Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 Thanks for that information. My father served in the Home Guard in Bristol during the war - he died several years ago and how I regret now not having asked more about what happened during his time there. When the war started, he was moved from Cornwall to Charles Hill's Shipyard in Bristol to return to his old trade of shipbuilding and he spent the war there employed in the building of Frigates and Corvettes. He also belonged to the Home Guard in Bristol and I remember him telling me that he helped man Anti-Aircraft Guns. I just took this as a matter of fact at the time, but when getting older and thinking more about it, I wondered what a member of the Home Guard was doing in an A.A.Battery? I did read somewhere a few years back that in certain places, the Home Guard relieved regular Gunners on occasions in the manning of A.A.Guns and I suppose this is what was happening there. I have no record at all of his service, and hence my original question about medals. As I said earlier, I wished I had asked more whilst he was around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Home Guard volunteers definitely conform to the Defence Medal. Well worth applying for on your relatives behalf. They earned them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minesweeper Posted December 16, 2008 Author Share Posted December 16, 2008 Presumably too late to apply after the Home Guard Member has died? Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Not at all. You have an entitlement. If you have any documentation, you can trace your relative and the medals people will issue it. It takes a while though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ford 369 Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Hi Nigel, I think my father said that at the time, it was a bit of an insult to have to apply for a medal, he did get a certificate, cannot find it at this moment, might be dated late '44, not sure. It was only in later years there was a campaign to get people to apply for medals. I have got several home guard certificates in my collection and will have a look for the date asap,trouble is most stuff is packed away at the moment so I will not be able to check till the weekend Nigel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ford 369 Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Had a quick look at a couple of certificates today and they do not have an issue date,the only dates are the length of service ,the wording is in the years when our country was in mortal danger(recipients name) who served from/togave generously of his time and powers to make himself ready for her defence by force of arms and with his life if need be. It they carries a facsimile of the kings signature and across the bottom in large capital letters THE HOME GUARD regards Nigel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minesweeper Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 Useful advice, Snapper - thank you! You can download a Search Form for a Record of Service from the Veterans UK Website - Home Guard Records are included with the Army ones. I am optimistic that I can obtain my father's records as his surviving next-of-kin - just through giving his date of birth and full names. The Search Fee is £30 and it takes about 40 days to come through. I mentioned earlier that he had said that he was part of a team manning an A.A. Gun in Bristol - and that it puzzled me. I now find that towards the end of the war, a lot of the Regular Army A.A.Gunners were relieved by the Home Guard so that the Regulars could go to Europe to serve there after the invasion. Apparently there were a considerable number of such Home Guard A.A. crews. Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 That is interesting. But by then the UK will have more or less run out of able bodies. It is a fact that always seems so odd. But I guess so many people were working in production of some sort. Hopefully by that time the skies were not so black with Dorniers. Wonder what they did after the HG was disbanded? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ford 369 Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 I think the anti aircraft gunners would of been backed up by the now fairly redundant coastal gunners seeing as the seaborne threat was pretty much over once France had been retaken Nigel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minesweeper Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 The programme on TV Channel 4 tonight about "The Real Dads Army" quite comprehensively covered the use of members of the Home Guard in manning AA Batteries, and it seems that it was very common. That clears that one up! Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 Coastal Gunners were retrained as infantary, called 'Gunfantry' . the majority of Force 135 were such, hence the unit insignia being red and blue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 The programme on TV Channel 4 tonight about "The Real Dads Army" quite comprehensively covered the use of members of the Home Guard in manning AA Batteries, and it seems that it was very common. That clears that one up! That was an interesting programme, although a repeat it was worth a second look. I used to work with a former member of an Auxilliary Unit, back in the Seventies, he did appear on a similar programme on local TV once. The other fascinating thing was at the end, where they would have to have moved the Royal Family to Madresfield Court near Malvern......my Grandfather worked on the estate there, at that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minesweeper Posted July 22, 2009 Author Share Posted July 22, 2009 (edited) I started this link last December with the enquiry on how to find out about a relative's Home Guard service - my father's. Members aimed me in the right direction and I eventually got around to doing it and getting a reply. The Home Guard Records are sparse and my father's consists of just one A4 Sheet -written on front and back. I will try to post photo copies of it for general interest, The front of it is purely the enlistment and confirms that he signed up as a member of the Local Defence Volunteers in Falmouth on the 1st August 1940 and was accepted on the 28th August. The reverse of the form is more interesting and shows that he was assigned to the Penryn Company (Penryn was where he was living at the time) and that he was promoted to Lance Corporal on the 29th July 1941. In 1942, he was sent to Bristol to work at the Charles Hill Shipyard where he spent the remainder of the war building mainly frigates but also corvettes - he had prior to the war been in shipbuilding and had spent time at sea. He left the sea and shipbuilding which he loved in 1929 on his marriage and moved into the family bakery business - which he hated! When he moved to Bristol, he was transferred to the 16th Bn, Gloucestershire H.G. The form is then not very clear, but it does confirm that he moved to H.A.A. and then later from what I read as 71st H.A.A. to Som - the recognised abbreviation for "Somerset". Perhaps members will be more able than me to decipher the form. He ws discharged on the 25th April 1944 after service lasting 3 years and 269 days. To the best of my knowledge, he never had a Defence Medal. If he should be entitled to one, then can anyone please tell me how to apply for it? Tony I'll have to get Tim to post the scans of the form later - beyond my capabilities Edited July 22, 2009 by Minesweeper spelling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great War truck Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minesweeper Posted October 9, 2009 Author Share Posted October 9, 2009 I still have not been able to find out if members of the Home Guard were entitled to the Defence Medal. Has anyone any ideas please? Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugene Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Hi Tony and Tim. Interesting to hear of another Cornish Home Guardsman -my father was in the 11th (Newquay) Bn "the Choughs". He has always been miffed that he didn't receive the Defence Medal. He has the War Medal because he volunteered for the Royal Artillery when old enough. A medal book I have gives the criteria for earning the Defence Medal as being; "Issued for service between 3 September 1939 to 8 May 1945 in Great Britain and to forces overseas until 15 August 1945 (the end of hostilities in the Pacific) and for civil defence services in military areas subject to enemy air attack. The recipients had to have served for three years at home or for six months in territories subjected to air attacks. For bomb disposal squads, the time period was three months." So there you are. He always queried the Queen's entitlement, being of the same age. But she was in London -subject to air attack. Regards, -Roger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minesweeper Posted October 9, 2009 Author Share Posted October 9, 2009 Thanks Roger - that is most interesting! I guess that the Home Guard is treated as part of the Civil Defence - can anyone confirm that ? But whatever, he did enough time for the qualifying period, and was certainly subject to Bomb Raids in Bristol - so I think that there must be a case. Apart from the Defence Medal, he would have also been entitled to the War Medal. So I still need to know to where I have to apply - and perhaps to start off, perhaps the British Legion may be able to aim me in the right direction - unless anybody knows any different or can make another suggestion! Tony (another Cornishman - but in exile!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugene Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Tony, I have a letter from the Public Record Office, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU, from 1988 that dad received after he wrote to the Army Medal Office enquiring about what medals his father was entitled to for service with the RNAS during the Great War (none as it turned out). They said his letter was passed to them "as we hold the relevant material to your enquiry" and they "looked at the Medal Rolls on which your father's name would appear if he were entitled to an award", so this seems the place to contact. It's signed "C. Heather, Search Department". Good luck! -Roger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Tony, My father was in the Home Guard, he applied for the Defence Medal in the 1980's when there was an initative to get those that were applicable to apply. It came for the Army Medals Office at Droitwich.....second time lucky. The first medal was "lost in post", and it was a struggle to get them to send another. They were issued to those on non-active service in the UK. Check these websites; www.mod.uk/defenceinternet/defencefor/veterans/medals/defencemedal.htm www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceFor/Veterans/Medals/ApplyingForMedals.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minesweeper Posted October 9, 2009 Author Share Posted October 9, 2009 Thank you Roger and Richard - I'll let you know how I get on! Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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