SUSSEX HOME GUARD (EAST ZONE)

The records are arranged by the Battalions into which the Home Guard was divided locally. These were mostly territorial (see below), but included three functional Battalions - for the Post Office, for Motor Transport (based on Southdown Motor Services Ltd: see also SMS catalogue), and for the Southern Railway: Within Battalions sections or platoons were sometimes just local, or else might be based on local business firms. Most of the records give brief details of the service of personnel (especially the 'nominal rolls', which usually include date of enrolment, name, number, National Registration number, age, address, next of kin (with address), previous service, and 'casualties' (mainly details of transfer or discharge): in many cases rolls begun after 1940 include dates of enrolment carried forward from earlier rolls). These records are those which were not required by the War Office (subsequently Public Record Office) which gathered in other local records after the War, distributing the residue to local repositories through the British Records Association

Some indication of Battalion geographical coverage is shown on the map held at East Sussex Record Office, which shows some areas (around Rye, East Grinstead and Lewes) as poorly or not at all represented by locally surviving records. There is a further complication in that restructuring was liable to happen, particularly in 1943, when new Battalions were formed out of the old ones (Worth Forest, East Brighton, Uckfield and (perhaps) Brede). The following are the final East Sussex Battalion numbers, with the section numbers of the list allocated to their records

10th Battalion East Brighton (formed 1943) Record no. HGD/1

11th Battalion General Post Office Record no. none

12th Battalion Southdown Motor Transport (from 1943 Sussex Home Guard Transport Column) Record no. HGD/2

13th Battalion Haywards Heath Record no. HGD/3

14th Battalion Hove Record no. HGD/4

15th Battalion Brighton Record no. HGD/5

16th Battalion Lewes Record no. HGD/6

17th Battalion East Grinstead Record no. none

18th Battalion Crowborough Record no. HGD/7

19th Battalion Rother Record no. HGD/8

20th Battalion Hailsham Record no. HGD/9

21st Battalion Eastbourne Record no. HGD/10

22nd Battalion Battle (1943 becomes Brede) Record no. none

23rd Battalion Hastings Record no. HGD/11

24th Battalion Uckfield (formed 1943) Record no. none

25th Battalion 2nd Southern Railway Record no. HGD/12

26th Battalion Worth Forest (formed 1943) Record no. HGD/13

Open to consultation, unless otherwise stated

Records transferred to the War Office after the War, and representing those items which were not required for the Public Record Office. Deposited through the British Records Association and the West Sussex Record Office on 26 September 1950 (D13)

Introduction

The Local Defence Volunteer Force was established in 1940, becoming known later in the year as the Home Guard. It was disbanded in December 1944. From mid-1940 the local units were placed under the administrative umbrella of the Sussex Territorial Army Association, which operated the force in two Zones - for East and West Sussex respectively. Records here represent the East Zone. For further information, see the Association's minutes, etc. (listed in the TER series)