No 2 Platoon F Company 8th Essex Homeguard

Like another member I have found little information about the group I am trying to research. I am a family history researcher from Fordham in Essex and member of Fordham History Society. This photo was taken in front of the John Owen Barn in Fordham Essex, (no date as yet.) The photo was taken for the newspaper, so luckily we have all the surnames with the men's initial and now I am trying to research the men with help of our history society members and older village members. I did find an interesting article about the Wakes Colne viaduct which mentions the pillboxes being manned by the Homeguard. I found a photograph online of the 8th Battalion Colchester and some of the men look like the ones in the Fordham photograph. I have an article by Fred Nash which is also useful. But I would welcome any information or comments about Essex Homeguard.
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk...t_Reports/DA72_TEXT_-_WAKES_COLNE_VIADUCT.pdf

 

Welcome Wendy, and thanks for the link – there was a recent thread on the spigot mortar that may be of interest.

I’ve done a search of TNA catalogue which flags-up a number of holdings at the Essex Records Office which you may already be familiar with, including:

Papers of EN Farrar as an officer of the 8th Battalion, Essex Home Guard

Wormingford 'G' Company, 8th Battalion, Essex Home Guard, corresp, parish invasion scheme, plans and list of members.

TNA seems to have little on topic themselves but I was struck by the number of Essex men in the Durham battalions.

 

The Home Guard of Great Britain: Counties A-E

 

Many thanks for the two links Roberto. I have a visit to the Record Office booked, so will check these out.

When I was project manager for our community WW1 project funded by the Heritage Lottery, I thought the Essex Regiment would be my main focus of our 30 men who died. But in fact, they were from 16 different regiments. Also whilst I was on holiday in Campbeltown Inverness, I was drawn to look at the town war memorial only to find one casualty from the Essex Regiment remembered on it.

 

Thank you for this link, I have seen this one and need to dig deeper into the website.

 

Hi Wendy
I am researching G Battery (Mercers Troop) 5 Royal Horse Artillery who manned pillboxes on the GHQ (defence0 Line in 1940
Just a mention of the Homeguard a bit further south in Little Waltham.
5 RHA did mention manning pillboxes in Colchester area but I am unable to identify the positions..
I would be very interested if during your research If you do find mention of 5 RHA





The part of the GHQ line manned by 5 RHA stretched from Saffron Walden to Wickford (37K) and had pillboxes around 300 meters apart over the whole distance.

Many are still intact they were,

Type

FW3 Machine gun group

FW3/24 Infantry Section

FW3/28A 6 Pounder A/T Gun

I believe it fair to assume that G Battery manned the type FW/28A boxes that mainly covered river crossings and approaches.

The infantry boxes were manned by 6th Battalion Home Guard.

Those in the area (Little Waltham) occupied by C Troop G Battery (Mercers Troop) were manned by the Broomfield and Springfield Home Guard Companies.

A Troop G Battery also manned pillboxes in Colchester as part of the General Defence Line. So far it has not been possible to locate which ones, but geographically the ones at Chappell Viaduct 8K NW of Colchester would seem a possibility.

 

Wendy,

1) Insignia on the two photos indicate they both were taken between summer 1941 and before February 1944.

2) The book you need is Warmen Courageous: The History of the Essex Home Guard 1940-1944, by Major Peter Finch, published by John H. Burrows (1951) - it has a whole chapter, 11 pages, in great detail, purely about the 8th Battalion, with names, places etc. The book is very rare - it sells secondhand for £150! - but it can be found at your local record office, which I believe is in Colchester.

Hope that helps,

Austin

 

Thank you Austin. I shall visit the library next week. Wendy

 

I realise this thread is 8 years old now but I have recently taken possession of Lt. E. N. Farrer’s homeguard battledress blouse and shirt. I have trawled through Warmen Courageous (Essex Home Guard bible) and eastern command structure references of the Essex 8th Bn.

I was thrilled to read this thread. Does anyone have a picture E. N. Farrar? I’m have no idea how to access the files but will tackle TNA and ERO to pull his history together. I’m a Halstead chap so this is very close to my area of interest.
Thanks in advance.

 

Superplumb1,

Wendy has not logged in for over six years now. She has posted on different threads.

I will send her a Private Message (PM) next asking her to return.

PM explained

If you hover over the name of the member in their avatar it will show a new text box and within is the date of their last logged visit. Some members "flag" their interest in a thread, which means they get a system alert. Once you have posted five times - a measure to stop spam - you can send a private message (PM) to members using 'Start a private conversation' accessed via your avatar. Such messages depend on their email given at registration is still valid. You can receive and reply to a PM already.

Other members who posted in this thread may be able to help. You can only use the PM option to start a message after another four posts.

Farrar only appears in this thread, unable to readily fully identify him via TNA and a genealogy site I use. There is very little online. I assume he served in WW1 and volunteered in WW2 to lead his Home Guard unit.

 

Thank you David, I will try the Essex Records Office. Be good to hear from Wendy.

 

I was going to recommend you tried the Essex Regiment Museum @ Chelmsford, having visited in the past, but it closed in January 2026, with its artifacts being transferred to the successor regiment, the Royal Anglians @ Duxford. See: Essex Regiment Museum in Chelmsford set to close in January 2026 - Royal Anglian Regiment

 

Since Ian Hook left the ER museum, honestly its worth just fell through the floor. I booked an appointment in 2024 to speak to an archivist to research something HG related and a young girl [the nominated specialist!!] looked at me as if I was stupid and suggested I look at the museum exhibits to get the information I required. I haven't been to Duxford since ownership transferred to the Royal Anglians.