Dad's Army

Remember the 1970s when there was actually something decent to watch on the telly? We all used to love Dad's Army then and it seems to have been repeated ever since! I was reading the other day about Arnold Ridley who played Private Godfrey in the show. In Dad's Army, Godrey's character was that of a former conscientious objector but in real life, Ridley fought as a Lance Corporal with the 6th Somerset Light Infantry during the First World War. When war broke out in August 1914, Ridley wanted to enlist straightaway but he was rejected because of a broken toe injury that he had endured while playing rugby. The following year, he tried to enlist again and was accepted and was sent, with other raw recruits, to train at Crownhill in Plymouth. The regimental Sergeant Major told them that they would not be seeing their families for a while because,'you will all be bleeding well dead on the Western Front!' Ridley was lucky to survive the battlefields of the Somme after being rescued by a fellow soldier who was later killed himself. In later life, he had nightmares and suffered terrifying flashbacks. After the war, Ridley became a successful playwright but then experienced financial ruin until he regained fame in the classic sitcom. Arthur Ridley's story made me think about the real Dad's Army who protected Plymouth in the Second World War. The Home Guard, originally called the Local Defence Volunteers or LDV, was made up of members of the public who were told by Anthony Eden and his government to register, if they were interested in joining the LDV, with their local police station and when they were needed, they would be called up. Police stations found themselves deluged with volunteers and in just 24 hours, 250,000 people from all over Britain had registered their names. Although the age limit was supposed to be 65, many older members, some in there 80s, managed to enrol. Numbers grew and eventually one and a half million people registered their names. Eden promised them uniforms and weapons but they ended up with armbands and had to use whatever they could as weapons. These included pitchforks, brooms,umbrellas. golf clubs, pikes and catapults. Eventually, they were fitted out with denim uniforms and some rifles arrived. Churchill changed the name of the LDV to the Home Guard in 1940 and he saw that they received proper military training. The Home Guard contributed to civil defence by helping to put out fires, clearing rubble, guarding damaged banks and shops and preventing looting. They also captured stray German parachutists and showed that they were ready to fight the enemy if they landed on British soil. By 1943, the fear of German invasion was fading and the Home Guard found that they had lost most of their purpose in the war and numbers started dwindling. In October 1944, the government announced that the Home Guard would be disbanded the next month. There were no medals awarded and in total, 1,206 members of the Home Guard had either been killed on duty or died from their wounds, and 557 more sustained serious injuries. In December 1944, King George VI, the Home Guard's Colonel-in-Chief, stated, 'History will say that your share in the greatest of all our struggles for freedom was a vitally important one.'