Home Guard (United Kingdom)
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The Home Guard was an unpaid armed citizen militia supporting the 'Home Forces' of the British Army during the Second World War. Operational from 1940 to 1944, the Home Guard comprised more than 1.5 m
Home Guard post at Admiralty Arch in central London, 21 June 1940
Lt Gen Lashmer Whistler (General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Command) with local Home Guard commanders at Oswestry, 1954
A member of a Montgomeryshire Home Guard unit in 1941
Recruitment poster for the Ashtead Home Guard
Reserved occupation
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A reserved occupation is an occupation considered important enough to a country that those serving in such occupations are exempt or forbidden from military service. In a total war, such as the Second
Home Guard (United Kingdom)
…too young, too old or medically unfit to join the regular armed services (regular military service was restricted to those aged 18 to 41) and those in reserved occupations. Excluding those already in the armed services, the civilian police or other civil defence volunteer organisations, approximately one in five men were…
Badge given to a steelworker in 1915 to show that he was in a reserved occupation, and thus avoid receiving "white feathers" from women.