'Feudal' Home Guard Units?

[Signalman]

That may have been an 'accident' of time and place.
The one my grandmother supported from a Comms and Int. perspective were all local farm labourers / baker / game keeper sorts.

Yes, here in West Wales they all seem to have been farmers, farm labourers and countrymen, as well as quite a few farmers' sons who hadn't yet been conscripted. My old Scout leader was one, who at the time was a teenager (being later conscripted, fighting from Normandy to Germany). Another was my mate's farmer grandfather and the other names on the list belong to a few other well-known local 'peasant farmer' families.

The main 'toffs' around here had either dabbled in a bit of light fascism during the 1930s (a curious fascistic organisation called 'The English Mistery') or were related via the Mitford Girls to Mosely, so were probably the first to be topped by the Auxiliaries in the event of invasion.

 

[pikeandshot]

B Coy 2 UDR was, I was told, built on the workers from the Earl of Caledon's estate, and when I met him in the 70s he was the Major O.C.

Cheers, will see if I can chase this down at least a little bit, does anyone know any promising leads on UDR regimental history? Also cheers to everyone else, good to have the suspicion confirmed (or at least encouraged!) that ‘feudalism’ and LSV/HG isn’t in the realms of fantasy

 

[CutLunchCommando]

B Coy 2 UDR was, I was told, built on the workers from the Earl of Caledon's estate, and when I met him in the 70s he was the Major O.C.

This reminds me of Quigg VC.

Robert Quigg was born in 1885 at Cornkirk, County Antrim near the Giant’s Causeway where, as a young man, he worked on the Macnaghten's estate. When Sir Edward Harry Macnaghten, aged 20, served with the 12th Battalion The Royal Irish Rifles as a Rifle Platoon Commander, Robert Quigg became his batman.

On the hot and sunny day that was the 1 July 1916, Private Quigg, with the rest of the platoon, advanced three times towards gaps in the German wire. However, each time the attack failed when the withering fire of German machine guns mowed down many of his friends. In the aftermath of battle, Quigg could not remain deaf to the cries and moans of his wounded friends lying in no man's land. He crawled from shell hole to shell hole seeking the wounded and dragging them back to British lines and medical aid.

On the following day when it was clear that Sir Harry Macnaghten was missing, probably lying wounded in no man's land, Quigg again combed the blood-soaked mud. The German snipers, machine gunners and mortar teams had him targeted, never mind the many artillery shells that were landing round him. He calmly ignored all and evaded all as he crawled through the mud from shell hole to shell hole. He found, and carried or dragged back, wounded men on separate trips until, at nightfall on 2 July 1916, he was forced to give up when those left of his Battalion were ordered back from the trenches.

Robert Quigg VC | Royal Irish - Virtual Military Gallery

www.royal-irish.com