LADIES ONLY HOME DEFENCE GROUP
Officially, women were not allowed to join the Home Guard until 1943, and then only in a support role, but despite this rule many remained hugely defiant and had worked out intricate plans to defend Britain and their homes should the Germans invade.
One strategy that a few plumped for was to set up Women’s Home Defence groups. These were uniformed, private armies whose members trained in unarmed combat and learned how to fire a tommy gun, while using opera glasses to scan the skies for German paratroopers. Technically, these groups were illegal but there seems to have been no attempt to disband them.
The Dodwick Watchers are based on such a group set up by Lady Helena Gleichen, a grand-niece of Queen Victoria, in Much Marcle in Herefordshire in 1940. Gleichen, who was then in her late 60s, had seen fighting at close quarters when she worked for the Red Cross in Italy and France during the First World War. Her army wore neatly trimmed calico armbands with the words, “Much Marcle Watcher” written in ink. They were lectured on military tactics, shooting and unarmed combat. She once demanded that the Shropshire Light Infantry give her 80 rifles with ammunition, adding, “I could do with some machine guns, too, if you have any to spare.” When her request was denied she resorted to issuing her own collection of shotguns and antique weapons to the Watchers.
