My Grandfathers Home Guard Service.

[graham]

My maternal grandfather Harold Ebert served in the Home Guard from 15th Sept 1942 until 31st December 1944. Prior to this we believe he was in the ARP. He tried to join up but was turned down because of a heart murmur caused by a childhood disease. He was a plumber and was sent to work at Burks chemicals in London.
My mother recalls he was on an anti aircraft gun at low Hall farm Walthamstow. A short walk from where they lived in Cedars Ave. I have my Grandfather's certificate for service in the H.G. and his civilian I.D. card which interestingly is marked on the back....

71st ??? H.G. H.A.A. BTY. 'B' Troop. And embossed with the words Battalion and HOME GUARD.

I am interested to discover what the ??? could be and to what battalion he would have belonged before transfer to the Heavy Anti Aircraft Battery. And what cap badge would he have worn ?

Graham.

[High Wood]

It appears to read 71st S.W.L. H.G. H.A.A ---?

'B' Troop

S.W.L South West Lewisham? London?

[graham]

I recently visited the Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow as they have a large photo album relating to the Home Guard in that area. The Album covered the H.G. zone 'J'. This includes photographs of various Essex Battalions and the 8th C.O.L [Hackney] Battalion.
I did not find anything directly relating to my Grandfather or the 71st ??? H.G. H.A.A. Battery. But this has got me thinking.
I am not sure if Low Hall Farm falls within zone 'J'. or the neighboring zone to the west, whatever that is ? But Low Hall farm is near the Hackney marshes.

I am left wondering if he would have been cap badged......

Essex Regt, county distinguishing letters ESX.
Royal Fusiliers, county distinguishing letters COL [City of London]
KRR, county distinguishing letters LON [County of London]

Then there is the possibility he may have been badged RA.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Graham.

[Postwarden]

Not likely to be South West if he lived in Walthamstow. An interesting query.

Those serving in HG AA Batteries had not always served previously in the Home Guard. It was possible to enrol direct as the cutting from the South London Press shows.

I'll have a further dig.

Jon

[graham]

The album at Vestry house was also a scrap book There was a document that a stated that from May 1943 men were transferred from Battalions to the H.A.A units causing some bad feeling at the time. As my Grandfather served from 1942 I am guessing this is what happened in his case.

Thank you for the replies so far.

It does look like SWL. But Lewisham is in south London.

Graham.

[Postwarden]

The late Len Whittaker's excellent book Stand Down provides the answer to your mystery. The 71st City of London Home Guard HAA battery - the illegible ??? being CofL - was based at Chingford in Essex. A 72nd CoL Battery was based at Walthamstow.

As a battalion with City of London in its title its Home Guardsmen should have worn the Royal Fusiliers cap badge allocated to all City HG battalions but there is quite a lot of evidence that HG Gunners did wear RA cap badges unofficially. They should definitely have worn the AA Command bow and arrow sign.

The number 71 was allocated to all HG gunners serving the Heavy AA guns as opposed to the 101 onwards numbers worn by the more numerous HG Z AA Rocket Batteries. The photo shows Bristol HAA HG gunners

The "Battalion" stamped into the identity card was a standard addition to the civilian cards carried by Home Guards. There was no standard HG identity card although some units, especially in the early days issued identity documents and all HG officers were eventually issued Military identity cards. In most cases identity cards were stamped "Battalion" but details were rarely included.

Hope that helps.

Jon

[graham]

Thanks for the information Jon. I will have to look out for a copy of that book.
Odd that it states 71st at Chingford and 72nd at Walthamstow as my Grandfather's ID card is marked 71st and he was at Low Hall farm Walthamstow. Unless it was an outlying battery with HQ in Chingford.
If all HG HAA are 71st then what would the 72nd COL battery have been ?

Graham.

[graham]

I think 72nd would be LAA, Light Anti Aircraft.

Graham

[Postwarden]

The 72nd were also HAA. My original posting was slightly misleading in that the HAA units were numbered 71 and 72, the latter confined to the larger urban areas such as London/Middlesex, Glasgow and Swansea.

Len's Stand Down is long out of print and quite hard to find.

Jon

[Mike B]

Ex library book - but available here
https://www.biblio.com/book/stand-do...133?aid=aa&t=1

Similar here
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...SIN=1871167140

I hope this helps
Mike

[graham]

Thanks Mike.
The price has scared me off for a while, due to working a three day week for a the last few weeks.

Thanks Jon for the information.

Graham