#home guard
Coastguard Auxiliary Patrol
Many of us with familiar with Britain’s Home Guard, formed during the Second World War, but few of us will have heard of the Coastguard Auxiliary Patrol. While searching through the Imperial War Museum’s online collection database I came across an interesting series of photographs of a small Home Guard-like unit I had not been aware of. The photographs were taken by a Lieutenant L. Pelman in May 1943.
They appear to have been a part of the larger Coastguard Auxiliary organisation. The unit was tasked with assisting the regular forces with the monitoring of the south-east coast of England. The Coastguard Auxiliary began wearing khaki battledress in May 1942 when they became a part of the armed forces. Seemingly the units were tasked with watching not just for the enemy but also vessels in distress - the Coastguard’s traditional role.
From the entries and captions for the photographs it appears that the unit was about 400 strong and made up of former servicemen who manned watch posts. Unlike other organisations, like the Royal Observer Corps, the Coastguard Auxiliary Patrol appear to have been lightly armed with a mix of small arms.
In the photographs the unit appears to have been armed with surplus Canadian Ross MKIII rifles while the Auxiliary Patrol member above, with a medal ribbon, is armed with a Sten MkII machine carbine. According to the captions all men were apparently over 50, with the oldest aged 76.
The men are wearing standard battledress with Coastguard shoulder flashes. The chap on the far right has a ‘Coastguard AUX’ flash. One man has a rank braid on his shoulder - possibly Sub-Lieutenant. In none of the photos are the men seen in webbing or any other load bearing kit.
Thanks to Taff Gillingham, who has a surviving example, we know that the flashes were white-on-dark-blue. All of the men are seen wearing Coastguard caps with HM Coastguard cap badges. Sadly, nothing seems to have been written about the Coastguard Auxiliary Patrol with these photographs, their captions and some passing mentions in contemporary newspapers the sole sources I could find while researching the unit.
We have articles on a number of other auxiliary home defence units including Canada’s version of the Home Guard, the Veterans Guard of Canada, the Singapore Local Defence Corps and the British Home Guarditself.
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VE Day Celebrations in London (May 8th, 1945):
A mounted policeman tries to clear a path for traffic. Crowds of people have gathered in Whitehall to hear Churchill’s speech, including Grenadier Guards, members of the Home Guard, and civilians. In the background is a soldier on top of a bus stop.
A young man holds a Union Flag aloft. To the left of the photo, the back of a bus packed with people can be seen.
A number 3 double-decker bus slowly pushes its way through the huge crowds. Behind the bus, people line the balconies along the street.
Photograph of the crowd taken from the Parliament Square end of Whitehall, looking past the Cenotaph towards Trafalgar Square.
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