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Interview with Margaret Givens
Margaret Givens grew up in Coventry and witnessed the bombing of the city. She and other children sat on the bricks of the destroyed cathedral to attend a service. Her house was bombed and while she and her brother was staying with her grandmother…
Interview with Richard Heath
Richard Heath remembers watching Lancaster aeroplanes flying in the skies above him from his back yard and listening to the sound of them fade into the night. One morning he could see red flares exploding in fields nearby where a Lancaster from…
Letter from Ian Wynn to his wife
![EWynnIAWynnK[Date]-110001.jpg](https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/square_thumbnails/1018/11636/EWynnIAWynnK[Date]-110001.jpg "EWynnIAWynnK[Date]-110001.jpg")
Writes of frustration over mail and catches up with family and acquaintances. Mentions mock invasion and attacks by commandos, paratroops and home guard. Talks of life in camp.
Interview with Arthur Pocklington
Arthur Pocklington grew up in Hull and was hoping to join the RAF as aircrew but failed the medical. He trained as a mechanic servicing the radar equipment on the aircraft. He served at RAF Scampton, RAF Dunholme Lodge and RAF Strubby before being…
Interview with Harrison Stanley Cammish
Harrison Cammish was born in Scarborough in 1923, and when he was fourteen, he became an apprentice carpenter and joiner, and when war broke out, he joined the Air Training Corps, and the Home Guard, who gave him a rifle and forty rounds of…
Interview with Ernest Davenport
Ernest Davenport was born in Tattenhall, Cheshire in 1923. He joined the Local Defence Volunteers in 1940 and after witnessing the bombing of Merseyside he decided to join the RAF as a pilot. He was accepted into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve…
Interview with Charles Philip Blackham
Philip Blackham became an apprentice engineer at Diesel engine company Mirrlees, Bickerton & Day, of which he became a sales manager post war. He served in the Home Guard becoming a driver, then he enrolled in summer 1940 with initial training at…
Interview with Rupert Noye
Rupert Noye completed two tours of operatoins as a rear gunner with 166 and 156 Squadrons.
Interview with Peter Swallow
Peter Swallow was born in Sheffield in 1929, one of three children. He recalls hearing Mr Chamberlain’s declaration of war broadcast as a schoolchild. His father, a plumber, volunteered as a member of the Local Defence Volunteers, eventually…
Two National Service Leaflets
Two leaflets, the first referring to members of the Home Guard and what they should do and the second instructions when attending a medical.
Letter to David Donaldson from Norman
Written from school; wishes David happy birthday and congratulations on expecting a baby. Offers some banter about prospective child. Commiserates over David's health and writes about what Norman's plans and ambitions for service in the air force.…
Interview with Frank Colenso
Frank Colenso grew up in Cornwall and worked for a local newspaper and served in the Home Guard before volunteering for the Royal Air Force. After training he served as a flight mechanic and fitter with 83 operational training unit.
Interview with Ernie Tillbrook
Ernest Hector Angelo Pedrazzini was the son of an Italian father and an English mother. After the war he changed his name to Tillbrook. Ernie’s father escaped from a prison camp during the First World War and finding his way to Russia and…
Aviation Memory
A detailed account of Reg Payne's service in the RAF. He starts with a list of 18 RAF bases where he served in his 5 years of service. He was 16 when war was declared but volunteered for the RAF at 17. After tests he was selected for training as a…
Before I was in the RAF by Reg Payne
An account by Reg Payne of his wartime experiences. Too young to sign up at the start of the war he spent two years in the Home Guard. Training started at age 18 and lasted for two years. He served at RAF Skellingthorpe and his brother served at RAF…
Interview with Thomas Aiden Davidson
Born in Gateshead, Thomas was an apprentice railroad engineer. With the war beginning three days after his 16th birthday, Thomas feels very passionately about the British experience of the Second World War, as his only brother was killed. He claims…
Interview with Owen Cox
Owen Cox went to a grammar school in York and joined the Home Guard when the war started. At 18 he joined the Royal Air Force, although his parents were not keen. His initial trade was ground wireless operator (Morse), waiting to attend a gunnery…
Interview with Laurence Sidney Fisher
Laurence Fisher grew up in Peterborough and served in the Home Guard before joining the Royal Air Force. He served as ground personnel before remustering as aircrew. He flew operations from Italy before his aircraft was shot down and he became a…
Interview with Jack Robson
Jack Robson was in the Home Guard until he was called up by the army. He trained as a radar mechanic and worked at various batteries. He was then posted overseas and served in India and Singapore. His return home was on the record breaking run on the…
Interview with Cyril Gosling
Cyril Gosling trained as an armourer at Kirby in Blackpool and was first posted to 49 Squadron where he worked on the guns and turrets. As part of his role he would go on flights in the bombers to check the guns accuracy by firing at drogues. On…
Interview with Margaret Hodgin
Margaret’s family lived in Fiskerton and her first memory of war time, when she was seven and her brother four, was of her father digging a shelter in the garden. The children would walk or cycle to Reepham school.
Margaret was about eleven when…
Margaret was about eleven when…
Home Guard troop
28 Home Guard personnel sitting front row and standing in two rows behind. Troops are all wearing battledress with side caps. In the background a brick building. Captioned ‘Lance Cpl, Lance Cpl, Cpl, Sgt, Major, Captain, Cpl, Cpl’. Basil…
George Bubb's Royal Air Force and Local Defence Volunteers documents
At the top a postponement of calling up for service document with G Bubb service number name and address. Dated 21 MAy 1941. States that recipient should report when ordered, In the meantime will remain in the reserve without pay or allowances and…
They were a fine body of men
Photograph shows a group of home guard men on parade on a road in front of several stone buildings. At the front are two officers behind are three rows of men in uniform with side caps. Three men stand in front of the first row, the two outside men…
Three members of the Home Guard
Three quarters portrait of three soldiers standing by a railing in front of a brick building. Tom Jones is in the centre. On the reverse 'Homeguard '40 Birmingham'.