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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: cati on Thursday 17 November 11 12:46 GMT (UK)
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I know that the various Home Guard Units wore the cap badge of their local regiment (for example, the Buckingham Place Home Guard wore the cap badge of the Grenadier Guards; the South Staffordshire Home Guard wore the cap badge of the South Staffordshire Regiment): but can anyone advise me what the cap badge of the Home Guard (Anti Aircraft) wore?
Cati
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Still the local County badge, once they were affiliated, and AA div patches
As far as I was aware, the local Buck House HG company formed part of the 1st County of London (Westminster) Battalion.
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Many thanks scrimnet....
Ah, my Dad (who're usually quite reliable) told me about the Buck House Company _ I shall take great delight in correcting him on that!
Cati
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just a daft question,so what cap badge does Capt.Mainwaring and company wear in 'Dads Army'?
Steve
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Royal West Kents
But the county patches are made up ones ...CP1 is Croft and Perry, the writers and creators.
Also the pouches worn in the TV series are not Pouches, Home Guard...They are Cases, Binocular 1937 Pattern
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I did try to make out what badge they wore but couldn't get a good view of it,although i thought it looked like it had a horse on it.
Steve
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The horses name is Invicta .Signals is Jimmy etc .
Originally the Home Guard were not permitted to wear the regimental cap badge until an ordnance was passed in 1941 (from memory).This can help date early photos . Anti Aircraft and Rocket batteries came under the control of the Royal Artillery and so Officers had the advantage of wearing white lanyards , RA buttons and whatever command arm patch they belonged to .The most notable being Eastern Command AA being the busiest (an upward pointing black archers arm bow and arrow on a red square patch . Woman officers in the Commands had different but equivalent ranks e.g. A Major (male) = Sub Commander (female) .
The early 3/8" wide blue NCO bands on the epaulettes were never withdrawn , neither were the HG epaulette sliders . These were sometimes worn by off duty HGs on civvy coats or the more clandestine units of the Home Guard as they could easily be removed for patrols in cold wet weather conditions when a battledress blouse was essential.But in general terms the normal Home Guard units took on the standard issue rank chevrons etc.
Guards berets with cap badges are often seen worn by Auxiliary Units as well as the more usual FS cap , but they were a completely different kettle of fish altogether ! Some units like the Upper Thames Patrol adopted unique dress based on Naval uniform with a UTP cap badge and the mounted Home Guard patrols (Horse ) adopted standard horse guard or despatch rider kit, puttees and leather bandoliers (RA primer belts or US issue 30-06) depending on rank but with the normal FS cap and county regimental badge.
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To go off on a slight tangent, I find Foyles War to be very well researched and the story line to stick very close to what was happening at that date during WW2. Are the props and uniforms equally accurate?
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If I manage to upload it, it is a photograph of Members of original 2 and 3 (ICI Paints) Platoon "B" Company, 9 Bucks Battalion Home Guard, 12 September 1944. There are plenty of badges, but none recognisable to me.
My father second from left sitting. Opposite the factory was waste ground on which multiple AA rocket launchers were deployed. A new office block was built on the site post war.
My father was radar plotting officer. He explained to me that the radar screen showed a circle. When enemy aircraft crossed the circle he had to compute where it/they would exit and all rocket launchers would be aligned to that point. He never said that they were ever in action. Strange because ICI was with MacMichael Radio nearby. The Luftwaffe visited Bells Asbestos on the other side of Town frequently.
My father had two patents granted in early 1942. One for improvement to self sealing fuel tanks for aircraft and the other mustard gas self sealing uniforms even if perforated!
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Sorry , but I have never seen Foyles War ! I research as much as possibly from primary sources on military from the 17th C to WW2 from public records ,living memory or MOD issue documents . I am particularly interested in the Auxiliary Units of the Home Guard , Secret Sweeties and Aux Coastguard . I make my own uniforms from original patterns in moth eaten condition ( which I carefully take apart )in '37 , '40 and '44 pattern utility , and have produced leatherwork from 1903 and 1908 pattern items mainly from MOD pattern office drawings or patents, sometimes photos are a very good source as the one shown and items collected of course. The Kakhi Web on the net is also a reliable source .
A quick look through the photo posted shows some chaps issued with '37 pattern kit , others in 1908 . The general rule here is that the Aux units were issued with '37 pattern kit , occasionally turned up for parade and photo shoots as most of their work was done at night . There are photos of Aux Units on patrol with pistols and revolvers stuffed in their belts carrying Thompsons and knives looking very smug and very scruffy ! In photo shoots like this they would not be carrying pistols or issue commando knives , but were known to be a cocky bunch and liked to distinguish themselves on such occasions by wearing the canvas belts and gaiters .They also had different divisional number patches under their county/division patch depending on area . For instance under the standard Home Guard shoulder title ,mine is ESX over 202 over my Sgt stripes , which means Patrol Leader , Essex Aux Unit 202 (North of Thames) when not wearing my epaulette sliders ! One Home Guard issue document refers to' those not issued rubber soled boots ' when making stud silencers from sack cloth and tar for creeping about .The Aux units were known to have been issued rubber soled boots like other commando and some para units, so do I . I often lecture or reenact a Platoon Leader (Sgt) of the Aux units and demonstrate use of detonators ,explosives , use of the issue knife etc and have had to produce my own kit because of my 44" chest and 32" waist . The originals are just not available in this size ! I was lucky to be given a genuine 44 utility pattern blouse that fitted me (like the 40 pattern but with no pocket pleats) which had been altered into a 49 pattern , which I immediately restored and is now badged up as 30 Advance Unit which my dad served with .
Uniforms were also manufactured at this time in the US and often carried 'USA' stamps inside and a British size patch marked SRD (Salvage and Repair Department) because some fittings had to be changed on arrival before issue .These were better made and cut with slightly larger pockets and more substantial collars and of higher quality material and were much sought after .They can be recognised by the size patch of the slightly greener shade of khaki that some say are Canadian or even Greek post war repatched , but were in general issue early on. So if you see TV programmes or whatever that include brownish kakhi , greenish kakhi and a mish mash of rank stripes , some cap badges , no cap badges , some with 37 pattern kit Thompson's and or Stens , Ross or P17 rifles (or even silenced sniper rifles) and other uniforms and badges etc., I have mentioned before , then you can identify the units they belong to and the period and district they are supposed to be acting out! Brophys book is a good one for this and the artwork is great for a contemporary publication of the Home Guard .
The absence of cap badges always gives an approximate date when the unit was formed too and these guys look very smart having received their new kit early on .
I have just seen a similar posed photo which was taken outside Braintree Registry office , some with some without cap badges so a little later than this .Approximately 50+ guys an Officer and a WO1 wearing what we would call a No 1/2 dress cap .It was odd because there were 4 sergeants sitting in the front row . Too many sergeants for such a small number of chaps , so after a little bit of digging I discovered a newspaper article that reported a parade competition between 4 Home Guard Platoons from surrounding villages which was judged by Officers at that time . Problem solved as almost immediately afterwards the 4 village platoons were absorbed as Coys of the Braintree 11th HG.
The British actor Anthony Quayle (Ice Cold in Alex etc) was a CO in the HG Aux Units , but for some strange reason he seemed to play the role of a German officer in his war films ! I also believe that David Croft (of Croft and Perry -Dads Army mentioned in an earlier posting) had a brother who was a Captain in the Aux Units when they were originally trained at Earls Colne in Essex .He appears to have been a recruiting officer , sworn to secrecy and having signed the Official Secrets Act I wonder if his brother knew this ?
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That's very interesting Fahr451, we had his (silk?) shirt, his forage cap, a small revolver and a Wilkinson Sword commando knife post war. Also pips and buttons, I still have them somewhere.
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Very interesting . Revolver probably a Colt or Smith and Wesson Police Service type in .38 , shipped in from the US , the classic issue F-S commando knife by WS came in several flavours, knurled grip or turned grip with wavy quillon probably brown sheath snap fastener . I have an issue one and one custom made for an officer with a leather grip ! The silk shirt definitely shows his flamboyance , probably Aux unit. They were also issued with a rubber truncheon approx 14" x 1 1/4" diameter (I have an issue pouch but I think the truncheons were probably snapped up by the Teddy boys post war) but these are almost impossible to find .I was told they had one in Brighton Museum but I have had no response from them on the subject . They were also issued with various manuals that appeared to look like tradesman Calendars and Seed Catalogues under the title Hainsworths .Something easily overlooked and thrown away , but these contained instructions on using demolition equipment and explosives etc., and are very rare also .If you still have equipment or kit belonging to him then be careful of things that look like small metal tape measures as these could be tyre mines , metal pen shaped objects of copper and brass as these contain ampules of acid , in fact anything out of the ordinary could be quite dangerous .My son dug up a cache of ammo last year near where I have located a possible operating base . Nothing later than 1942 including 9mm ,.303 and US export stamped 30-06 . It was concealed so well some of it looked almost as issued !Took me hours to deactivate it all ! These sorts of things turn up all the time in attics ,old sheds garages and church/ village halls etc . If you find something that could be dangerous contact your local military museum, before the police as they will destroy it . The museum will almost always have someone on hand to make it safe so it can be displayed or returned if of sentimental value .
If you look up the British Resistance Organisation at Parham Museum in Suffolk they are building a data base on these forgotten heroes and his name may be on it .
I am working on locating their secret bunkers called OBs, in my area and have found possibly 9, some in total ruin or blown up by the Royal Engineers ! Some buried and inaccessible .
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The only other item I had was his swagger stick. When the leather dried out and the stitching started to come apart, I got rid of it. My father was an industrial chemist, probably 1 or 2 i/c ICI Paints Division Laboratory. He wouldn't have kept anything dangerous, except for the dagger, the revolver was in a gunged up state and incapable of being restored to working order. My brother disposed of them 30 years ago or more.
My father formulated camouflage schemes for RAF aircraft amongst other things. Post war he was probably responsible for Dulux County Cream and Buckingham Green ::). I guess they were for the guarding of the factory.
I have the names and ranks of all the men shown.
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That's a shame when items like this are disposed of . A firearm can be classified as ' deactivated by other means' e.g. damaged or corroded beyond repair as are those we recover from wrecked aircraft from the Thames estuary and North Sea . So you could have kept the revolver legally by simply halting the corrosion process . The knife is very valuable and we have a good collection of variants at our museum .Dried leather is a problem so I have come up with a mixture to repair dry decomposing leather which contains beef gelatine amongst other things .An OiC or 2iC at ICI a very important gentleman undeed ! An industrial chemist perhaps ?What secrets he would have carried ,what a responsibility too ! He probably kept most of what he did close to his chest .
Many Aux Units operated as part of industrial complexes . We had one in the town where I live that operated inside a shore based Naval Station repair yard without the knowledge of the Royal Navy !How shrewd is that!
As you know ICI has never produced just paint , but also explosives , chemical warfare agents and other chemicals used in the manufacture of fuels and synthesis of lubricating oils and materials like rubber and Perspex for aircraft screens. They also worked with Cortaulds to produce synthetic fabrics and the shirt may be an example of this collaboration to produce silk like fabrics although silk was produced near the Cortaulds factory in Essex and blends were used in making parachutes of course . I believe they had a large plant on the Tees that dealt with this type of development of chemicals of strategic use ,whilst the Scottish plant incorporated Nobel (one of the 4 original companies that formed ICI) to produce and develop explosives (like 808 plastic explosive used by HG Aux Units in large quantities) , small arms and rocket propellants .They were constantly targeted by bombing raids . ICI became an industrial giant after the war because of its contribution to the defence of this nation and its importance during the Cold War .ICI was sold off in the 2000s to a holding company to become Akzo Nobel , they still produce special paints and explosives under that name , so his legacy lives on !
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My father came into ICI from Nobel. I think ICI Ltd was formed about 1929, the same timeframe as the German IG Farben AG. Both industrial chemical giants. ICI died from lack of profitability and new ideas (Harvey Jones did the last rites). IG Farben was broken up after the war due to the Auschwitz connection. Bayer Pharmaceutical still exists.
I wish I still had the WS knife, it was in very good condition and must be worth a bob or two now.
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You are right 1928-29 and he came from Nobel's !
During this nations darkest days he dedicated all of his available hours to seeing this country survive . His skills produced the vital elements to not only stop the advance of both Nazi Germany and Japan but eventually to defeat them .Because of his work and others like him this country was streets ahead of the US and more than a match for whatever both Nazi Germany and Japan could drop or fire to achieve destruction of its target . ICI Nobel gave vital expertise to the US to develop effective munitions .
The ability to beat oppressors is not only in the hands of the servicemen who deliver the munitions to the enemy but to those heroes providing the expertise selfishly to get the job done . History has the tendency to forget such people to whom we owe a great debt because of the tendency to glamorise and glorify the final act .
War is a really evil and often unnecessary act as those we have witnessed in the last few decades , and nothing glamorous about it all .
You must ensure that whatever you recall from discussions with him and his records at work and with the HG is documented as accurately as possible as I am sure it would be of great interest to the British Resistance Organisation Museum at Parham Suffolk , for future generations to research before it is lost in time . They are building a database of members of the HG and Aux Units but I would be very surprised if they have any information like this ! The smallest piece of information ,the minutiae of world events, which are easily lost help to build the bigger picture and history is only as good as the historian and his ability to research .It's surprising how many questions I am asked on my research that seem insignificant to some that I can't answer . You have perhaps unknowingly ,filled in another missing piece of the jigsaw ! I now know who was a member of ICI Nobel who was responsible for producing the very explosive and mainstay of the Aux Unit " Unit Charge" .
With this sort of provenance I wouldn't and don't like to value such items as Knives but yes a museum piece of great value in many ways . I would love to own simple things perhaps even more valuable like the wrappers for Nobel's 808 plastic explosive ,and others that they made . I have reproduced them as best I could from photos but to have an original .......! I'd love to have the old recipe for 808 for historical records-so would Parham !
Oh by the way , I used to use Nobel's pistol and rifle powders for reloading back in the 80s when an active young enthusiast when most others were using the cheaper imported US stuff developed from their recipes by Dupont , Hercules etc ! Very accurate , consistent and clean stuff so my thanks again !
I,d like his full name and if you contact the MOD they will confirm his rank and give a little more detail for my work if you are happy with this . I can't do this because he has living relatives .If you can do this and post the information , I am sure it would be of great interest to others and I can include his details in my demonstrations and lectures on these forgotten heroes , and when ready, in my book which I am hoping will do justice in accuracy and detail to all those concerned .I have recruited another friend from our museum who shares my interest and will help with the task and I am working alongside a member of our town museum too , as I am a little less than mobile at present so he is doing the footwork with my son who will carry on the work . This is probably the most difficult subject of WW2 to research because of the secrecy taken to the grave by many members . Because of this even newer publications than Lamps original ,' The Last Ditch', have glaring mistakes ,probably taken from unproven or tertiary sources , Chinese whispers and ' I know someone that knew someone etc' or poor interpretation of primary source material .
You may not be aware that he is entitled to a medal for his service and once you receive his records from the MOD you can then follow the information given by them to obtain his medal, if he also turns up in the Aux Unit records (and of this I have no doubt) there is a second device he is entitled to , both of which you can wear in memory during commemorative parades or just proudly keep and pass on as a family heirloom .You can do all this on line .
You must be very proud as I am pleased to have learned of this great gentleman !Thanks for your response and any information you can give in the future .
Malcolm
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Hello again Malcolm. Here's the names of the men in the photograph plus the card issued on standing down of the Home Guard on 31st December 1944.
To them, it seems to have been just a continuation or add on to their daily worklives. My father never initiated any discussion about what he did in the War. If I asked, he would answer. It was my mother who alerted me to things like 'he had patents you know'. She told me that possibly 50 years ago, but I have a long memory. It was only about 2 years ago I put his name in the search engine and details of the 2 patents came up.
He also represented ICI with another man on Society of British Aircraft Constructors (SOBAC). Got a photograph of their last dinner held in a London hotel.
He knew Doctor Barnes Wallace. He was involved in cocooning of deck cargoes carrying war supplies to Russia. Ministry of Supply? wanted him to go on one convoy to test the efficacy of cocooning. ICI knocked that idea on the head.
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Wow !
A personal thank you from Maj Gen Sir Fred Pile . He was in charge of the whole AA defences of Britain by 1944 !
There is something more than meets the eye here .In the photo he was 2nd Lt , which having special skills and qualifications it is not unusual to receive a CO rank without any military training immediately . But by 44 he received a personal thank you to him and his platoon by one of the most important figures in the WD at the time ! I somehow don't think this demob photo tells the whole story . It's unlikely he ended up a 2nd Lt by 44 and was clearly on special duties of some kind with his platoon and of great value to his company and the WD from the Russian assignment . It is possible that the work he was doing may still be classified as 'sensitive' or even higher even after this period of time and may have a 75 or 100 year term stamped on it (it depends on the MOD then whether they can release it or not !They wouldn't give me some info on a Browning Pistol I own (deactivated) although 70 + years old , because it was still considered sensitive and innservice !
An acquaintance of Barnes Wallis .Its strange in another thread about aircraft identification the person didnt realise the Wellington was designed by him (amongst other notable devices of course ).
Interesting piece on Russian supplies , again probably a cover for completely different aid to the Russians !
It is not unknown that members of the Home Guard ran special missions like the German officer prisoner snatch on Sark made up of regular and HG commandos ! And here is another example of HG not exactly working at the home front ! I would have thought your Dad was more than willing to go but looks like the company had the final word!
The Russian run by air or sea was almost suicidal !
The normal channels for me are blocked on this one .The only way to find out what he was actually doing until 1944 is by you contacting the MOD directly and even then you may not get the full picture, but odd words like 'work of special importance' or 'sensitive nature ', but they will clarify his final rank on demob and other useful info . Did Mum ever say he was away for any length of time as he was not likely to disclose anything unless he really had to ! ? Fairly typical of such true patriots and such things caused many a failed marriage as you can imagine .I am pleased it worked out OK for your parents .
I'll see if I can find his patents as I have a name , approximate date and material as there may be more clues there.
Thanks for the names, I'll try and trace the records of some of his fellow officers/ rank and file to see if any are listed on other duties that may not be of a 'sensitive nature ' and without the associations your Dad had ,that may give a clue also ! His name pencilled in the top left hand corner means others of the same rank received same and were distributed accordingly but you have words like ' original' in the description , suggests they were divided to carry out separate assignments .You would not expect someone developing paint technology to get a citation from AA Command !
This may take a while so bear with me .
Malcolm
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I don't wish to dampen your ardour Malcolm but I expect every member of The Home Guard got an appropriate card. Group photographs were common following Army practice etc.
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I have seen hundreds of them as I am a tech volunteer at a museum . This is a little different because of the additional information you have and his connections with individuals of national importance in particular Barnes Wallis .
Several of these citations were handed out for distribution by ICI to its platoon leaders as shown by the pencilled name in the top left corner and are still quite rare particularly for a 2ndLt , when there were higher ranks involved.
The use of the word ' original' in the description clearly shows that they had been split up for special duties prior to 44 . Anything like this involving ICI your Dads background from Nobel his connection to Barnes Wallis is not pure coincidence as I shall explain .
I have searched patent under his name and found a Canadian one for a fabric coating from 1948 with no company assignee , so I don't think this is him .
I have searched world patents and the American site has come up with self sealing tanks applied for in 1937 and finalised in 42 with credits going to 2 inventors so nothing there and no citations of any note .I have searched ICI patents and all of this type of work was attributed to the Teeside works and the coated fabrics patented by them were highly complex materials .They patented more products than any other .So this type of material was more than covered by other patents by ICI . And as I mentioned before ICI collaborated with another giant in the US Dupont (hence ICI Dulux) , not only on paints but explosives too a partnership which was dissolved post war . Dupont explosives division evolved from Nobel's .
At Teeside a special team or 'committee' was set up code name 'Tube Alloys ' under Michael Perrin whose job it was to develop the UKs Atomic Bomb .Perrin had joined the company a few years invented polythene , before specifically working on the separation of radioactive materials at ICI Teeside works . There seems to be pattern forming at ICI prior to WW2 ,a notable industrial chemist is hired produces something innocuous and is then quietly moved to a special programme .
This is why I am particularly interested in your Dads work and the the Russian trip as the UK had agreed to share knowledge on the development of fissile materials with their team of scientists doing the same thing , particularly on the containers that held the primary and main charges and development of textiles to protect workers from radiation . Because of negotiations with the Americans arrived at a solution to the financing solution of the ICI atom bomb , Perrin's team joined the Manhattan Project and was instrumental in producing the first atomic bombs to be tested under Oppenheimer .
The rest shall we say is history .
If your Dad was involved in any other company as an engineer for Avro or May and Baker ,Briggs, Royal Ordinance etc, I would agree , but an industrial chemist from Nobel at ICI , who was associated with Barnes Wallis (the inventor of bombers and special bombs) , who although was working at the paints division was developing materials of a protective nature (the work of the Teeside complex), and then the Russian connection involving 'containers of aid' all around the same time makes a person wonder if he was involved in something a little more sensitive than that of HG radar operator (the description given was not even a good one as radar at the time showed a series of vertical spikes on a cathode ray tube across the screen from which the operator could calculate altitude distance etc , this is how they could pin point the launch of V2s in 44 from the CHL stations around the south and east coast until the spike disappeared off the top of the screen !) , doesn't seem to work for me as he was clearly describing the later rotational reflector system rather than the fixed type then in use , no wonder he didn't see much action ! The government pulled the plug on cooperation with the Russians by orders of Washington ( some historians say that this act almost triggered an invasion of the UK by the US at the time as bizarre as this seems ). It appears there was an invasion threat by the Americans details and reasons not very clear , but collaboration with Soviets in the manufacture of an atomic bomb is quite a good one, particularly as we had a strong socialist bordering communist element in the coalition government at the time under Eden.
All this makes you think that there could be more to this than meets the eye .Too much going on behind what appears to be a lame cover story.
It's funny that one of ICI later acquisitions was Norsk Hydro , the company that produced heavy water for the Nazi atomic bomb project ! A lot of people don't know that ICI was in the atom bomb making business during WW2 , thanks to the Americans who take the credit for everything ! In fact during the 20thC the British scientists and engineers patented vastly more important and world changing inventions than any other nation in the world and ICI was responsible for tens of thousands of them !
Perhaps you can now see why I am keen to have a little more information, but if you feel that for whatever reason you don't want to uncover his wartime experience then that is also understandable of course .
Thanks
Malcolm
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The entries for two patents dated March 1942 no longer appear on net. However, there is this list:- See No. 71.
http://patent.ipexl.com/date/19460606_8.html.
I don't really have any more to tell you, my father was not a bragger, he just did his job and his duty like millions of others.
Better not mention his visits to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War :o
Here'a ref. to the self sealing improvement.
http://patent.ipexl.com/GB/577956-a.html.
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Interesting thread, which has somehow found its way from Home Guard cap badges to self sealing aircraft fuel tanks! If I may and with apology to cati, I will add a bit to the latter aspect.
Discussion about ICI has so far centred around Paints Division and the Teesside chemical activities. But ICI also had a Metals Division which was based in the West Midlands. In that division was a wholly-owned ICI subsidiary known as Marston Excelsior Ltd. who operated several factories in the Wolverhampton area during the war. Amongst a wide range of engineering products was the fabrication of aluminium fuel tanks for aircraft. At some stage these started to incorporate a foam outer skin to give the tank some form of self sealing property. As things evolved rapidly with the pressures of war, the metal tank disappeared and the tank became a wholly flexible structure, still with its self sealing properties. This latter development must, I now realise, have come as a result of the ICI connection and, especially, the work which Mr Griffiths was doing in Paints. The patent describes pretty accurately how these tanks were manufactured from about 1942 onwards: a layer or layers of flexible reinforced material, with coatings and with a layer of foam which swelled when fuel was released as a result of penetration by bullet or shrapnel; and all manufactured on collapsible metal jigs. (It was a fascinating sight to see these quite large tanks being built up on a large rigid jig and then the latter being painstakingly taken apart within the tank and the components being carefully withdrawn through the largest aperture available).
The journey from idea to fruition must have been a complicated one with much liaison amongst all the interested parties, not least the engineers. It would be fascinating to know the extent to which Mr Griffiths collaborated with the people in Wolverhampton (some of whom I knew in later years) and others elsewhere, such as the rubber sheet manufacturers, to help produce what was an incredible product which must have saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives.
Marston's production of tanks of this type lasted for many years after the war until the concept of flexible aircraft tanks died a death. But the contribution of Metals Division and its metal bashers was by no means confined to this: Kynoch at Witton in Birmingham was one of the biggest ammunition manufacturers in the country and there was even significant involvement in the Tube Alloys project. But that of course is another story! The ironic thing is that the mighty ICI is no more as has already been mentioned; but the Midlands metal bashers, later known as IMI, survived and are now a very significant British engineering company with their HQ still in Birmingham (although "metal bashing" is hardly an appropriate description of their 21st century activities!) In fact, so does Marston, still in Wolverhampton but now owned by a US company and with no interest whatever in rubber fabrication. (I have put online a potted history of IMI from its pre-ICI creation in 1862, if anyone is interested - http://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/KOtherInformationKynoch.htm ).
Thanks for a very interesting thread and how good it is to remember a remarkable inventor as well as his comrades in the local Home Guard..
Chris
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As I said previously my father was not a bragger. It was my mother who provided me with clues to what he had been involved in during the war. So I probably don't know the half of it. Self sealing fuel tanks for aircraft went back to 1917. The type you describe is probably the one improved by my father to be improved by others later. It was only 2 or 3 years ago that I put his name in my search engine and the 2 patent details came up, nothing else. Weird, he died in 1980 and yet someone could only have made the entry on the internet after 1995. All such patents were owned by the employer company, ICI in this instance.
He would have travelled around the ICI empire during the war and indeed after the war.
Perhaps some perspective. We lived in a country village about 3 to 4 miles from ICI Paints Division in Slough. The family car, a 1938 Vauxhall 14 was in the garage up on blocks for the duration. He would have gone to work and back on his bicycle. His best friend owned a building company and lived two houses away. This mans wife managed to wangle a petrol allowance. he would use his wifes car to go to the village pub which was 2 or 3 miles away. My father refused to travel in it, but go by bike. Not all people were patriotic. The Ministry of Information? even had a film made called 'The San Dimetrio' about an oil tanker that barely made the crossing from USA to UK. Intention to shame people abusing the system, but I doubt it had any effect at all.