No 7 Platoon, 21st West Riding Home Guard, December 3rd 1944. Photo donated by David Scholes who provided the following information: There are thirty platoon members in the picture, 9 seated, and the remainder in two rows behind. My knowledge of individuals is restricted to three: all seated in the front row- (from left to right ) no 5: Mr Dunn, then a bank colleague of my father, though in a different bank- no 8, my father, and on his left, no 9, a Mr Pickles ( whose son later attended the same school as me). From “A Century of Change” published by Hebden Bridge local History Society in 1999 – By the end of 1944 there was no longer a need for the Home Guard, and it was “stood down”. There had been three companies, one each at Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, and Sowerby Bridge, making the 21st Battalion of the West Riding Home Guard. For their final parade the Hebden Bridge company marched to the Parish Church via Salem, where the salute was taken by Lt. Colonel R. Whitworth. After the service they marched back to the Grammar School playground where a message of thanks from the King was read by the C.O. Major G.F. Robertshaw, J. P. followed by a final “Dismiss”. Photo probably taken in the playground of the then Hebden Bridge Grammar School.
