Mum’s army: the forgotten role of women in the Home Guard

21.08.2023 - 11:54 / theunconventionalgardener.com / guest

Stephen M. Cullen, University of Warwick

The new Dad’s Army film is a celebration of two historic British institutions: the relatively short-lived military force, the Home Guard, that played a key role in Britain’s defence during World War II, and the much-loved TV sitcom that ran from 1968-1977, which has enjoyed such regular repeats that it hasn’t much left the screen. While the show followed the domestic escapades of Captain Mainwaring and his ageing band of brothers, women didn’t much feature. With the new cinematic offering, there are now some women in the frame.

The reviews aren’t great, but I am looking forward to seeing a better balance of genders in the film. Mainwaring’s wife, Elizabeth, was often heard of but never seen in the TV series. In the film, she steps onscreen, leading local women from the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) to help protect Walmington-on-Sea alongside the men of the Home Guard.

But women were not just consigned to services such as the ATS. In fact, many played a role in the Home Guard, despite the fact that they weren’t strictly supposed to. Yes, there was a mum’s army too.

Anthony Eden’s radio broadcast of May 14 1940 appealed for “men … who are for one reason or another not at present engaged in military service … to come forward now and offer their services” as Local Defence Volunteers (LDV), which was later renamed the Home Guard. The response was instantaneous, with some men heading for their local police stations to register before Eden had even finished speaking. This was not only true of men. Some police officers were confronted by women demanding to be enrolled too. One was Edna Selwyn, a company secretary from Birmingham. She later remembered:

I went straight round there as soon