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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: gobbitt on Tuesday 28 November 17 11:48 GMT (UK)

Title: 1942-1944 Home Guard group photo (East Anglia?)
Post by: gobbitt on Tuesday 28 November 17 11:48 GMT (UK)
I presume the building in this photograph was used as a Home Guard training site. Does anyone recognize it?

With the possible exception of the commanding officer seated in the middle, who looks rather like James Andrew Harcourt Gammell (1892-1975), the only man I can identify is my mother's uncle Philip Sturgeon Fulcher (at the end of the back row, on the right).

Philip served in the Home Guard from 30 July 1942 to 31 Dec. 1944, probably in his home county of Suffolk. He was born at Hoo in 1899 and died at Ufford in 1972, but at the time of his marriage at Kesgrave in 1953 he was living closer to Ipswich, at Witnesham (perhaps lodging with his brother Samuel, who had been there in 1939, when Philip's whereabouts are not apparent in the National Register).

David Gobbitt
Title: Re: 1942-1944 Home Guard group photo (East Anglia?)
Post by: haliared on Sunday 25 February 18 00:17 GMT (UK)
This link tells about the Home Guard training in Suffolk.
http://civildefence-suffolk.webeden.co.uk/#/training-the-home-guard/4587813862

I'm afraid I cannot read it very easily as the background and font color used seem to be difficult for me to view.

Maybe if you join and contact the site they might be know where that place is or could possibly assist you?
Title: Re: 1942-1944 Home Guard group photo (East Anglia?)
Post by: gobbitt on Sunday 25 February 18 18:52 GMT (UK)
Thanks haliared.

I signed up this morning and hope to be in touch with the webmaster before long.

This afternoon I found the attached illustration of various Dutch-style gables in C. L. Cudworth's article, "Dutch Influence in East Anglian Architecture (http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-1895-1/dissemination/pdf/PCAS/1937_XXXVII/PCAS_XXXVII_1937_024-042_Cudworth.pdf)", from the Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, vol. 37 (1937).

The little we can see of the gables in my photo suggests they may be more typical of buildings in Norwich or north Norfolk rather than Suffolk.

David
Title: Re: 1942-1944 Home Guard group photo (East Anglia?)
Post by: haliared on Sunday 25 February 18 20:03 GMT (UK)
This is a wonderful amateur film of the Home Guard in King's Lynn, Norfolk that you might find interesting.

http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/419

I don't know if these files might help you?
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F118516

Title: Re: 1942-1944 Home Guard group photo (East Anglia?)
Post by: gobbitt on Sunday 04 March 18 21:06 GMT (UK)
Thank you haliared.

I still have nothing to report from the creator of the "Training The Home Guard" website but I don't want to keep you waiting any longer for this response.

The Suffolk Record Office archives could well be worth looking into someday if the building remains unidentified.

Thanks again

David