The Home Guard, initially called the Local Defence Volunteers, were deployed in all the local villages – and feature in some of the stories on the website.
This photograph, from early on in the war, was taken at Great Easton – the description and context were provided by Alf Wright.
Mr. George Bennett of Great Easton, on horseback, talking to Postmaster, Captain Clive Steele on the Village Green at Great Easton.
Mr. Bennett was groom for Mr. George Gibson at “Battailles” (now Great Easton Manor), and later joined the RAF. George Bennett and Clive Steele are both in Home Guard uniform. The church and War Memorial are in the background; in the foreground is a heap of old metal – saucepans, pots, pans, iron bedsteads, etc. – anything, in fact, in answer to an appeal for scrap to help the war effort.
Date of photograph: Late 1939, or early 1940 (supplied by Jeanette Bradbury, née Bennett)
The photograph below is of the Home Guard at Broxted (supplied by Alf Wright):
Broxted Home Guards 1940-1944
Back Row, L-R: Will Bush, Bob Wallis, Dudley Smith, _____
Middle Row, L-R: ____, Bill Monk, ? Burgess, _____, Duke H. Payne, Sergeant
Front Row, L-R: Tom Graham, Tom Monk, _____, Tommy Davies, Corporal
