Home Guard In N Ireland

[bigalni]

Has anyone any information on the Home Guard in N Ireland?
I need any info available on Battalions,Commanding and other Officers..numbers involved,locations used.Ideally Unit nominal rolls would be great.
In particular im interested in the Cookstown and Dungannon areas but all and any information on the subject is welcome!

Alan

[angie999]

I know nothing about this subject, so can't help, but if you already have some information I would be very pleased to read it.

My father was in the Army in Northern Ireland up to the end of 1943 and it was where he met my mother, who was managing the NAAFI at the time where he was based.

[BeppoSapone]

Originally posted by angie999@Sep 22 2004, 01:24 PM
I know nothing about this subject, so can't help, but if you already have some information I would be very pleased to read it.

My father was in the Army in Northern Ireland up to the end of 1943 and it was where he met my mother, who was managing the NAAFI at the time where he was based.

Quoted post

Angie

Over in the "Baker Pals" I posted two or three times in reply to this query. If you need me to I will condense the information down into one post and add it here.

Cheers

"Joe Soap"

[BeppoSapone]

I found that I had a bit of spare time this morning, so here is the promised information on the Northern Ireland Home Guard, which comes from the late Len Whittaker's book on the Home Guard, entitled "Stand Down".

"Like so much else in Northern Ireland, its Home Guard was a special case and its recruitment was quite different from that in the rest of the United Kingdom. On the mainland no fifth column group existed but in Northern Ireland there was the Irish Republican Army, ever ready to exploit any advantage to its cause that the war might bring. Indiscreet issues of arms and ammunition might easily become very acceptable free gifts to the IRA. It was deemed safest to raise a Local Defence Volunteer force for the province by organising it as a wing of the Special Constabulary. Thus, the Specials took on the responsibility for home defence until the new force could be trained and equipped. Starting with 12,500 Specials, enrolments increased the strength to 26,000 by August 1940.

The men were issued with denim uniforms that were meant to be green but, by some incompatibility of the dyeing process with the cloth, they came out black. When they were combined with khaki greatcoats, Republican elements were not slow to make propagandist comment on the 'return of the Black and Tans' - a British force hated and reviled during the Troubles. This spectre was not exorcised until April 1941 when matching khaki battledress became available.

In 1942, to bring it into line with the rest of Britain, the force was renamed the Ulster Home Guard. Which was when a technical difficulty was discovered regarding these Ulster 'soldiers'; they had all been enrolled as auxiliary constables and had not in fact attested for military service. So new regulations were hurriedly introduced in March 1942, requiring them to reattest and declare their willingness to serve under military law,

The Ulster Home Guard at the end of March 1944 totalled 29 battalions with a strength of more than 30,000 men. Although it did not include any rocket batteries it did have artillery units, but they were organised differently from their mainland counterparts. Ulster's seven HAA troops remained sub-units of companies within the GS battalions, which is why the majors commanding those companies appear in the order of battle as HAA troop commanders; an HAA troop commander usually being a captain. An MT company and a motor boat patrol, whose vessells patrolled the whole coast of Northern Ireland, were raised as sub-units of Belfast battalions."


Ulster Home Guard

1 Antrim (Ballymoney) Bn - Lt Col V Unsworth MC
2 Antrim (Ballymena) Bn - Lt Col A O Chichester OBE MC
3 Antrim (Carrickfergus) Bn - Lt Col J A McFerran
4 Antrim (Antrim) Bn - Lt Col A C Herdman OBE

1 Armagh (Lurgan) Bn - Lt Col J Morton
2 Armagh (Portadown) Bn - Lt Col A Walls
3 Armagh (Bessbrook) Bn - Lt Col H A Whiteside
4 Armagh (Armagh) Bn - Lt Col R J Tamplin DSO

2 Belfast (East) Bn - Lt Col J D Nichol OBE MC
3 Belfast Bn - Lt Col R S Drean MC
4 Belfast Bn - Lt Col J N Fulton OBE
5 Belfast Bn - Lt Col The Rt Hon H G H Mulholland MP

1 Down (Newtownards) Bn - Lt Col J Bagwell MVO MC
2 Down (Downpatrick) Bn - Lt Col J A Jaye
3 Down (Newry) Bn - Lt Col A Turkington
4 Down (Banbridge) Bn - Lt Col M W Edmunds OBE TD

1 Fermanagh (Irvinestown) Bn - Lt Col R J Clifford
2 Fermanagh (Linaskea) Bn - Lt Col H C Butler MBE
3 Fermanagh (Enniskillen) Bn - Lt Col G E Liddle OBE

1 County Londonderry (Limavady) Bn - Lt Col F S N Macrory DSO
2 County Londonderry (Garvagh) Bn - Lt Col W Murland
3 County Londonderry (Magherafelt) Bn - Lt Col W L Lennox-Conyngham HML
1 Londonderry City Bn - Lt Col R B W Irwin OBE MC
2 Londonderry City Bn - Lt Col J I Mclaughlin

1 Tyrone (Castlederg) Bn - Lt Col R H Todd MBE
2 Tyrone (Omagh) Bn - Lt Col W H Fyffe MBE
3 Tyrone (Cookstown) Bn - Lt Col R R A Darling
4 Tyrone (Dungannon) Bn - Lt Col W J Hall MM
5 Tyrone (Augher) Bn - Lt Col W A McKay

Ulster Home Guard HAA Troops - Parent Unit in Brackets

N Troop (B Coy, 2 Belfast Bn) - Major J Kerr MBE
O Troop (A Coy, 4 Belfast Bn) - Major S P Beggs
P Troop (D Coy, 1 Down Bn) - Major A P McConnell
Q Troop (C Coy, 2 Belfast Bn) - Major W R White MC
R Troop (E Coy, 3 Belfast Bn) - Major G E Wainwright
S Troop (E Coy, 5 Belfast Bn) - Major T J Marshall
T Troop (F Coy, 3 Antrim Bn) - Major A E Holmes

Maybe some people have come across the names of these Lt. Cols and Majors in their studies? If so, it would be interesting to learn some more about them.

[angie999]

Thanks for the info.

My father told the story of being at a local dance when he was stationed at Limavady.

A small group of men with rifles in strange looking uniforms came in, sat at the back, had a couple of pints and left. They didn't look like police or soldiers, so he asked someone who they were. "Oh, its only the Specials out on patrol".

Sounds like the early version of the Home Guard you referred to, but I know this was later than 1941, probably 1942. Perhaps some of the units were still wearing the old uniform and perhaps the name "Specials" had stuck after the army took them over.

[bigalni]

Angie......
there are still pubs near Limavady where on occasions you can still find strange men with rifles sitting at the back drinking beer! Ha! Ha!

( I live just down the road from Limavady)

Although a place most of the world will never have heard of... Limavady......a small country town about 1/2 hr from Londonderry in N Ireland......was a busy place during WW2 with Limavady airfield seeing much activity aswell as nearby Ballykelly airfield,Eglinton airfield,Maydown airfield aswell as Lisahally and Londonderry naval bases extremely busy with convoys,surrendering German U Boats etc etc.
Even the infamous Maze prison about an hour or so away was in its previous life a wartime airfield.
Looks like it could soon be the site of a new N Ireland international sports stadium.
(You would think they had enough fun and games in that place in recent years!}

Alan

[BeppoSapone]

Alan

I am not being allowed to post some scans of the backs of photos once owned by a British soldier who was based near you in WW2, interesting unit stamps etc.

Send me your email address and I will send them to you.