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[This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Margaret Jones from Three Counties Action at the Bedford Museum Project in Riseley on behalf of George Hawthorn and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr. Hawthorn fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.]

In April or May 1939 the Government formed the Militia to give 6 months training to men before going on into the Services. I was 20 years old and a driver when I received a letter telling me to go to Ashburnham Rd in Bedford to have a medical. I thought we would have a choice of which service we would join and I wanted to join the RAF but they wouldn’t have me so I went to the Regiment of Engineers as the RA was known first. After the medical I joined the Militia on 6 July 1939 and was sent to Oswestry. I was paid 1/6d a day which was a lot lower than the pay of £2 a week I received as a driver for Shellmex/BP before joining.

I remember I arrived in Ostwestry on a Sunday. We travelled by special train with other people from Bedford to Gobowen Junction then we were transferred in open top lorries to huge fields. There was a thunderstorm and we had to put up tents, which I had never done before. There were about 5,000 of us and we slept 8 to a tent. We were given straw palliasses to sleep on and the straw was all wet. Initially we were given second hand uniforms from the 1918 War which had been packed away and were none too clean. It was 4 weeks before we were given shirts and we had to wear our own. I had a steel basin to drink from which used to go rusty in the tent so we cleaned them with an emery cloth. When we became constipated we were told to go to the Breakfast Tent and get some tea which was laced with something to help — we called it gunfire tea.

We trained on searchlights and I drove a lorry and trailer with a field telephone. In October I went home to Bedford for a weekend’s leave and when I returned to Oswestry, 50% of the men had been sent to France. I saw from the noticeboard that I was to go to the 70th Coastal Defence Regiment of the R.A. I was then paid 2S a day. I stayed in the Militia until 6 January 1940. One month before I left we were given a walking out uniform which consisted of a navy serge jacket, flannel trousers and a black beret.

When I was posted to Plymouth, I was with soldiers from everywhere not just the Militia. I later became ill and after a time in the Royal Naval Hospital I was discharged from the Army. But after the War I did try to keep in touch with friends from the Militia. One friend, I know, was murdered by the Japanese in Hong Kong. I would like to see the Militia remembered more as I feel we did a good job and we all went in together.

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