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WESTBOURNE

A village history in West Sussex

MEMORIES

With the fall of France and the threat of imminent invasion an appeal was made on 14 May 1940 for volunteers to form the Local Defence Volunteers. On 23 July 1940 recruiting was terminated as 1,300,000 had responded: and the LDV was renamed the Home Guard. The uniform was at first just an armband, but was later replaced by army fatigue style battledress.

Sidney Morgan recalls that it consisted of old and young - too old, or not yet called up into the forces. Duty was arranged on a rota of about one night in seven. They assembled at the old Isolation Hospital (now Sussex Cottages) which was at a high enough point to provide good observation. Later on they used Racton Tower, which was probably the best observation point for miles around There were no floors: so they climbed ladders to the porthole-like high windows where scaffolding was fixed for them to stand on. An empty cottage nearby was used for off duty time.

Source: Westbourne’s War by Tom Edwards. Westbourne Local History Group.

SIDNEY FRANCIS MORGAN  26 March 1915 – 15 November 2014

WESTBOURNE HOME GUARD

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