The Oxfordshire Home Guard were at the Community Free Space in Bury Street, Abingdon, and will be back tomorrow, with an exhibition called ‘Doing Their Bit.’
They came armed, and fully equipped, but on this occasion they were not expecting an enemy attack.
Instead they were meeting the public in the year 2018 to show what life was like on the home front during WWII.
The Home Guard had posters recruiting women volunteers to assist by performing non-combatant duties similar to those under taken by the Women’s Auxiliary Serviced for the R.A.F. . That is in addition to all the work women were doing at home, in factories, on the buses, and wherever else they are needed during the war.
The Oxfordshire Home Guard have also generously promised to turn out as a body to guard Abingdon Lock on Sunday 8th April 2018.
An impressive display, well worth a look round.
Brilliant exhibition – masses of detail and fascinating memorabilia – including a washing-line full of 1940s underwear! The bit about women’s role was particularly interesting – it took several years to convince Churchill and co to allow women to be trained and armed, despite the fact that if there had been an invasion they would have been the ones most needing to defend themselves!
The event at the Lock on 8 April should be great – and it is the same day as the Head of the River so well worth a trip down to the riverside.