By Colin Edwards from Llandrindod Wells:

"R V Edwards, my father, became Captain to the Signals Corps of the Home Guard in Llandrindod Wells and district. He used his loudspeaker van for public address work and took about 5 or 6 men in it on manoeuvres every Sunday. The registration was FO 3344 and was still in existence in 1980.

The signals work and training involved running out telephone lines for telephones and later in the war testing and using radio telephones (RT) which were notoriously unreliable.

The loudspeaker van was always prepared for instant use (announcements, alarms etc) and larger batteries had to be always charged to be ready to power the value driven amplifiers and inverters. Somehow he acquired large searchlight batteries which were fitted behind the seats of the van had to be charged while the van was standing outside the shop. The batteries were extremely heavy and limited the speed of the van to about 10mph up hills!

Any records could only be played by a mechanical wind-up twintable. For parades, my father built a dual turntable with the pick up feeding into the amplifiers. I was entrusted to sitting in the back of the van winding these turntables while the music played to lead the parade.

He played music and provided microphones for many of the passing out dances in the Pavillion at Llandrindod Wells and played dance music all night outside the Wynnstay Shop on Spa Road on VE night."

Written by Colin Edwards from Llandrindod Wells.