Hello, I'm hoping someone here can help me.
My Grandfather (Michael Henry Harrison) was born on December 7th 1922 and died January 28th 2016. He never really spoke about his service apart from the Home Guard, although he would talk about the war in general.
We applied for his war records with the government (We don't have a service number for him though) and they couldn't find anything for him. Not even his Home Guard records. My mother phoned up to ask if there was anything we could do. She got a very curt return phone call from a woman who said there was no point in continuing this.
Here's what we know:
- He joined the LDV/Home guard early on in the war. He mentioned getting knocked off his feet by a German bomb while on patrol. We have a photo of him in uniform and still have his home guard overcoat.
- He was very knowledgable about the Lewis gun, having trained other people about it and manned one for anti aircraft measures.
- He was extremely knowledgeable about Allied and Axis aeroplanes and easily recognised all their outlines.
- Towards the end of his life he claimed to be a member of an Auxiliary Unit. We checked with a local museum and they couldn't find his name in any of their records. He did seem quite knowledgeable about their operations and fighting methods though.
- After the war he would periodically go into a bad state and spend days at a time in bed and would not talk to anyone.
- He claimed to have taken part in some raids of the French coast prior to D-Day.
- I asked him directly if he went to Germany and he said yes. I asked him if he encountered German soldiers and he said "Unfortunately, yes".
- There was a Military Cross ribbon in his possessions and he claimed it was his, this can't be true as he was never an officer.
- We have his battledress with sergeants stripes on, he removed most of the insignia but the outlines of them remain. He told me that he was due to be promoted to Second Lieutenant just as the war ended.
- We don't have any of his medals from the war.
- At one point he claimed to have been rejected by the army for flat feet.
- A few years prior to his death he borrowed a shredder and we believe he shredded anything related to his service.
- If asked he said he was in the army, in the Royal Norfolk Regiment.
- A lot of what he told us is contradictory. We think this was deliberate. Occam's razor would suggest to me that he was in the Home guard and was rejected from the army for one reason or another and was deeply ashamed about it, so possibly was not being truthful about the later service. Personally, I wouldn't think any less of him as he was a fantastic person and very kind, I'd just like to know one way or the other.
Is there anything more we can do to find out? If he was exempted from service would there be a record of it?
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27-02-2018, 10:34 AM #1
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Gov don't have Grandpas WW2 service record
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27-02-2018, 10:56 AM #2
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My Grandfather (Michael Henry Harrison) was born on December 7th 1922
Have you found him in the 1939 register?
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27-02-2018, 11:44 AM #3
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I have often heard the MOD do not have HG service details in the past -although they clearly do in the majority of cases as I've seen many examples over the years.
You've already covered the first suggestion I would always make -the local archives and unless I found something at either/both I would probably assume there's nothing to discover I am afraid.
Auxiliary units are pretty well definitively documented -FWR certainly has lists of these as does the very knowledgable Aux units page here:
https://www.coleshillhouse.com/
You are correct about the MC entitlement, most HG men had at least the Defence Medal and 1939-45 War Medal, and no HG unit however well trained would have been on active service on foreign soil at any time, the MOD medals office do however keep very complete records of medal awards, so if he is unknown to them also this is fairly damning.
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27-02-2018, 11:48 AM #4
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Hello Peter,
I got that date from the announcement of his death in the local paper, so that would be his DOB as my family know it.
I've found his household in the 1939 register, but it seems we need to notify the national archives of his death to unlock his record. What information could we get from this register?Last edited by Pam Downes; 27-02-2018 at 12:46 PM. Reason: Hyperlink to FMP web page removed as it breaches our T&Cs
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27-02-2018, 11:57 AM #5
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Just for information:
The Only person named Harrison in that area that was an HG auxiliary according to FWRs records was F Harrison, from Lincoln.
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27-02-2018, 1:06 PM #6
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That will cost you money. Do it for free by sending a copy of his death certificate to FMP. (Though if you don't have a sub or free trial to FMP you will have to pay to access the image.)
Information in the register is usually address, name, male or female, date of birth, married/single/widowed/divorced, personal occupation as well as reference numbers, and national identity number. (The latter two being in the full transcription.) Plus if you scroll down the transcription page, maps, newspaper articles, photos and statistics. Scroll down this page a little. https://www.
findmypast.co.uk/1939register
There's also one more column on the schedule page but I couldn't remember what the five letters stood for. https://www.
findmypast.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/answer/what-information-is-listed-in-the--register
PamVulcan XH558 - “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”
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27-02-2018, 2:24 PM #7
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It might well be worth "unlocking" the 1939 Register to see what his occupation was in 1939, as possibly there could be a clue there.
There were many and varied reasons why young men were not called up. For instance my father who was about a year younger was a science student in University, and each year the Ministry of Labour would take one third of the students for the forces, one third for industry and one third, the brightest, stayed on and studied. He was in the latter group. But I know he was embarrassed when he met new people even 30 or 40 years later and they would start swapping war stories, and he would have to say "what he didn't do". On V.E. night the college authorities told them all to stay in doors because they would be in civvies and might be target for people who had lost loved ones, or might accuse them of cowardice.
He served in the Auxiliary Services and knew all sorts of things about aircraft and weapons, and shocked us when he was bought a scenic flight over Snowdonia for Christmas in his late 70s and he said something to the effect that he done that before during the war as a training exercise.
I am guessing that your Grandfather was from East Anglia, and of course during the War that area was saturated with airfields, so he would have been very familiar with both allied and German aircraft, so his familiarity with all types of aircraft would not be surprising.
Have you thought of looking in local newspapers to see if there are any reports of Home Guard activities?
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27-02-2018, 4:07 PM #8
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I also drew a blank when requesting my father's HG service record. All I received was a brief record of him being placed on the RASC reserve for 6 years, post-war.
Luckily, I found a link to some records of his HG Battalion at Bromley Central Library. What a goldmine! They had an album, which had been produced to celebrate the standing-down of the HG at the end of WW2. It was filled with photos, letters, lists of personnel, press cuttings, etc., even references to my father's own efforts.
I can't promise that you will be as fortunate but it is worth checking with the relevant library. If you can pin down which HG Battalion your father belonged to, it may help you to determine which library is likely to have some records. The following site might help; if not Suffolk, just click the back button and choose the appropriate county:
https://www.home-guard.org.uk/hg/cty-suffolk.html
Peter
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27-02-2018, 5:30 PM #9
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28-02-2018, 1:48 AM #10
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Well, if it is the 16th Battalion, it's headquarters were in Norwich. Sadly, Norwich Central Library suffered a catastrophic fire in 1994 which destroyed many of the collections.
Either the new Millennium Library, or the Heritage Centre within it, should be able to tell you if they have any surviving records relating to HG.
Peter
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