Local Defence Volunteers
In the opening episode of 'Dad's Army', Britain's Home Guard (or rather, as it was called originally, the Local Defence Volunteers - or LDV) was born in broad daylight, on Tuesday 14 May 1940, inside the office of George Mainwaring, the pompous but fiercely patriotic manager of the Walmington-on-Sea branch of Swallow Bank.
He turned on his wireless just in time to catch the end of the broadcast by Anthony Eden, the secretary of state for war, addressed to 'men of all ages who wish to do something for the defence of their country':
'Here, then, is the opportunity for which so many of you have been waiting. Your loyal help, added to the arrangements which already exist, will make and keep our country safe.'
Off went the wireless and on went Mainwaring, 'Right!' he barked at Wilson, his worried-looking assistant, 'Let's go to it!'
'Your loyal help, added to the arrangements which already exist, will make and keep our country safe.'
The historical reality, back in the summer of 1940, had not, in fact, been very different from the fiction. The date - 14 May - had been the same, although it was not until shortly after nine o'clock in the evening that Eden spoke to the nation via the BBC's Home Service.
Neither he nor his government had previously shown any enthusiasm for a policy which involved ordinary citizens, fearing imminent invasion, being allowed to take matters into their own hands instead of relying on the orthodox forces of security and public order (namely, the Army and the Police). However, when reports began reaching the War Office concerning the appearance up and down the country of 'bands of civilians...arming themselves with shotguns', it had been clear that the time for a rethink had arrived.
Without much agreement as to whether the aim was to sustain or suppress this burgeoning grass-roots activism, Eden and his advisors proceeded to improvise some plans and, as one observer put it, evoked 'a new army out of nothingness.'
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