Who were the 1st Militia Training Group? (Dover 1939)

Discussion in 'British Army Units - Others' started by Fossil Phil, Sep 10, 2011.

  1. Fossil Phil

    Fossil Phil Junior Member

    I have been recording the wartime graffiti inside the old Napoleonic Drop Redoubt fort at Dover in Kent and trying to track down any information about the individuals concerned before the names are lost to the elements forever. I have found some members of the Irish Guards 3rd Battalion and some members of No.4 Commando amongst others.

    However, one has me absolutely foxed. It reads:

    L/Cpl Thornton No.1 Militia Training Group Nov 39

    The only reference I can find to them online is that the 50th (Holding) Btn Worcestershires was formed from them in June 40.

    If anyone could help, I'd really appreciate it.

    Regards,

    Phil
     

    Attached Files:

  2. dryan67

    dryan67 Senior Member

    Militia was the name given to pre-war conscripts with the implementation of conscription in April 1939. By Sept. 1939 there were 34,500 men organized into groups. Their basic training was just finishing when war began. Most groups were infantry, artillery and signals. At the outbreak of war there were five infantry groups, Nos.1 to 5 located respectively at Colchester, Lydd, Newton Abbott, Ripon, and Pirbright. It looks like the Colchester group was moved to Dover early in the war, possibly for defence reasons.

    As you stated there was a connection to the 50th (Holding) Bn Worcs Regt. It's permanent staff came from the 1st Militia Training Group at Dover.

    As their training was completed the militiamen moved to regular units and turned out to be excellent soldiers by all accounts. To quote one officer about the militiamen, "Compared with them, the average regular recruits are milk with the cream skimmed off."
     
  3. Drayton

    Drayton Senior Member

    A little clarification:

    Pre-war conscription was implemented not in April 1939, but on 3 June 1939, when the first (and, as it turned out, the only) cohort of men to whom the Military Training Act 1939 applied, were required to register at their local Employment Exchange. The first group of this cohort was called up in July 1939.

    The intended service was six months training, followed by allocation to the reserve, but with the declaration of war in September 1939, all men already called up were subsumed into wartime general conscription.

    Since a new conscript was unlikely to be awarded a stripe, I imagine that the man in question was a regular seconded to the Militia Training Group.
     
  4. Fossil Phil

    Fossil Phil Junior Member

    Thank you very much for the replies, they help a great deal in trying to understand this name in context.

    I have a reference to an existing a 1st Militia Worcestershire Regiment in 38/39 so there may be a connection there too. Apparantly after the war started a large group were transferred to the 7th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment.

    I wonder if the 1st Militia were stationed at the Grand Shaft Barracks in Dover, as it lies very close to the Drop Redoubt fort. There seems to be very little 'out there' on the net about the militia organisations, unless I'm just not looking in the right places!
     

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