Stories from the Store: Doris Sygrave and the Hemel Hempstead Home Guard

Doris Sygrave was the secretary for the Hemel Hempstead Home Guard, at the request of Lt. Col. Grover and Mr. (Capt.) Davis.

She recalled that it was difficult at the beginning. To start with they had no weapons, undertaking drill using chestnut paling stakes. However, from Summer 1940 the men were issued with uniforms and training books, rifles and ammunition. These all came, slowly, from County Hall Hertford.

Doris would recall one incident in Autumn 1940 with amusement, although at the time it was quite terrifying.

"I was in the dining room "office" when I received a telephone call that parachutes were dropping North East of Hemel Hempstead. The Colonel handed me a revolver and told me to shoot any 'Huns' in sight, whilst he made a call-out of all troops. The cook at the house, an elderly woman, went hysterical and the parlour maid fainted.

It turned out to been a false alarm. The Brocks Firework Company, who had their factory on the outskirts of town at what is now Woodhall Farm, were experimenting with what was called pyrotechnic trials. These looked very like parachutists, but as I learned later were used to drop articles to troops behind enemy lines."

The Home Guard were stood down in 1944.

Taken from "The Home Front" life in the Dacorum area during the Second World War 1939-1945 available to buy from Dacorum Heritage.