STUDIO HISTORIA - 28MM "ARMY REGULARS"

 A very nice 28mm BEF Command Group from a relatively new manufacturer - Studio Historia

Studio Historia BEF Command Group. Lovely figures, lovely painting - and a lovely cup of tea!

Studio Historia are running a BEF Kickstarter called "For King and Country", which is already substantially oversubscribed - see HERE. This promises lots of BEF goodies by way of STL files for printing, but the figures themselves will no doubt make their way in to Studio Historia's Online Shop in due time - see HERE. Excellent stuff for anyone gaming 1940, or putting together a VBCW "Regular" Platoon in 1938....

Already in the Online Shop - Studio Historia's MMG Support Weapon and crewmen

HEREFORDSHIRE HOME GUARD WW2 (2) - A REDOUBTABLE LADY

Following the previous post on the Home Guard in Herefordshire during WW2, a little more:

“One of the more unusual units of home defence in Herefordshire was known as the ‘Much Marcle Watchers’. Formed before Eden’s speech, the unit came about when Lady Helena Gleichen, a distinguished artist and relative of King George VI, walked into the Headquarters of the Shropshire Light Infantry at Ross-on-Wye and asked for 80 rifles together with ammunition. She added that she could do with some machine guns as well in order to form a defence force. Stunned by this outrageous request, the officers stuttered that no guns were available and even if this were not the case they would not let her have any. Undefeated, Lady Helena went ahead and gathered together a force of men armed with an armoury of shotguns including Austrian rifles and bayonets taken from her own collection of guns. That same night the ‘Much Marcle Watchers’ were on duty ready to defend their beloved Herefordshire, the forerunners of the yet to be formed Home Guard.” (note 1)

Lady Helena Gleichen in her WW1 Uniform.

Lady Helena, an aristocratic and clearly redoubtable lady (note 2) lived at Hellens Manor, an ancient house and estate situated close to Much Marcle, seven miles north east of Ross on Wye and some two miles south west of Ledbury (note 3). In VBCW terms, this clearly places the estate at the very limit of Anglican influence (centred, in the south, upon Ross on Wye in the charge of Captain "Teddy" Jermingham) yet, at the same time, vulnerable to the increasing BUF build up in Ledbury itself. Quite what position Lady Helena took upon Edward VIII's intended marriage to Wallis Simpson is unknown, but it is unlikely that such a strong County personality would have passively stood aside, even from civil conflict, should it have swept uninvited towards her estate....

Notes:

(1)  Source - Herefordshire & Worcestershire Airfields in the Second World War by Robin J. Brooks pub. Countryside Books, Newbury (2006) pps. 226

(2). See Lady Helena's WIKI entry HERE

(3). Hellens still stands, and is open to visitors on escorted tours. See HERE for the history of the house (going back to at least the 12th century) and HERE for the Manor's modern web page.

(4). Lady Helena's memoirs, "Contacts and Contrasts", going up only to the end of WW1 but containing such charming chapter titles as "Yachting with Princess Eugenie", "About Horses" and "Dogs" can be found on the Internet Archive HERE

HEREFORDSHIRE HOME GUARD WW2 (1)

If any VBCW researchers care (or dare) to "cross the time streams", some basic information on the organisation of the Home Guard in Herefordshire during WW2, abstracted from an information leaflet produced by the Herefordshire Light Infantry Museum. According to the leaflet, Herefordshire had six Battalions of Home Guard, with perhaps as many as 10,000 men serving throughout the war, distributed as follows:

1st Bn.   (Leominster) - Lt Col A J Mellor ("HFD 1")

2nd Bn.  (Bromyard) - Lt Col J Knott CMG, DSO ("HFD 2")

3rd Bn.   (Hereford City) - Lt Col FP Loder-Symonds CMG (late RN) ("HFD 3")

4th Bn.   (Hereford Rural) - Lt Col RNH Verdin TD ("HFD 4")

5th Bn.   (Ledbury)  Lt Col JL Pearson CMG (Late RN) ("HFD 5")

6th Bn.   (Harewood End)  Lt Col BF Murray DSO ("HFD 6")

Clehonger & Allensmore Home Guard (Hereford Times). This is likely to have been
taken relatively late on in WW2 (post 1943), as the section is well uniformed,
all have rifles, and two have Sten Guns.

The Herefordshire Home Guard's duties were many and varied. According to the leaflet:

"There were detachments throughout the County, including a mounted patrol in the west of the County. In Ledbury duties included mounting a road block on the Gloucester Road at Underdown, providing guards at both ends of Ledbury Tunnel and the viaduct, and manning an observation post in Churchill’s Meadow (now the Churchill Meadow estate – then a field!). There were also ‘works’ units at Baroni Metals (making aircraft components) in Hereford, [together with the Royal Ordnance Factory at Rotherwas] and the Great Western Railway, these units carried out specifically local security duties."

GWR Home Guard, Hereford, on "local security duties" (Hereford Times).
This was probably taken much earlier in WW2 - sidecaps rather than helmets,
and only three HG have rifles.