Stories from the Store: George Butler & the Chipperfield Home Guard

George Butler moved to Chipperfield with his wife and two young children in 1935.

A traditional watercolourist and trained artist, George worked in the art department of J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. He worked across London, Berlin and New York.

At the start of World War II, George was seconded to MI6 to work on propaganda at Woburn Abbey. Here, his team came up with the V for Victory call sign used by the BBC when broadcasting to occupied countries - the first notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony that matched the morse code for "V". He also worked on propaganda leaflets dropped by the RAF over occupied countries.

In 1942, George moved back home. At work, he was engaged in design for several government departments including recruitment for the services and industry and Ministry of Food campaigns.

At home he joined the Chipperfield Home Guard. He became a camouflage expert, regularly going off to lecture and advise other units.

His daughter, Tania, recalled, "Our garden shed filled up with green and brown netting, cardboard replicas of tanks and guns and papier-mâché heads."

Tania goes on to recall VE Day, "On VE Day, we all had the day off from school. For some time a huge bonfire had been growing on the Common. My father painted one of his Home Guard papier-mâché masks to look like Hitler and put it on the top. That night the bonfire was lit, firecrackers and fireworks went off, and the lights went on in all the houses."