Edinburgh's Home Guard

When Edinburgh resident Marjory Langdon was sorting her possessions in preparation for moving house she was not expecting to unearth a mystery hidden for over 70 years. In a spare room cupboard she found a framed drawing of an exotic looking lady. Looking inside the frame for information about the portrait she found a 1940s newspaper concealing a hand-drawn map of Edinburgh from WW2. The map was a detailed plan of Local Defence Volunteer (LDV) posts and road blocks. The LDV had a strong presence throughout the city, but this map focussed on the platoons based at Mortonhall and the Braid Hills. There may have been a greater need for the LDV to be based here as it was the site of an army camp. It may have been a prisoner of war camp, but it is more likely it was for displaced Europeans.

She had no idea of how the map came to be there, but remembered that her father-in-law, Captain John Langdon, had been a member of the Home Guard. The map however was signed with the initials RTL. Marjory realised that Ralph Thomas Langdon, was John's elder brother and it was likely that he too was a member of the Home Guard and so perhaps the mystery was solved.

On the outbreak of war in September 1939 there was fear that German paratroops would attack Britain. In May 1940 Sir Anthony Eden announced the formation of a special home defence force: the LDV. Volunteers could be between 17 and 65 (and in many cases older) and included those who because of age or being in an exempt profession were ineligible for military service. They were unpaid and many had a day job around which they fitted in training, parades and obligatory day and night duties. By May 1940 almost 4000 men had volunteered to be part of Edinburgh's LDV. In July though Colonel Blair, the area organiser, called for more men to come forward as there were "increasing duties in the city" and he felt that many "would welcome the opportunity of helping to secure victory for liberty and justice by joining the Home Guard".

However the LDV were quickly ridiculed with the nickname the "Look, Duck, and Vanish Brigade". This caused Sir Winston Churchill to insist on a name change to The Home Guard in July 1940. Their nickname was no doubt due to the advanced age of some members and a chronic shortage of uniforms and weapons. It was 1943 before the Home Guard were adequately equipped. Edinburgh however was well organised and divided into areas to match police districts with the aim of raising a company for each district. It was in May 1940 that a meeting at the Golfers Rest in the Braid Hills, organised the formation of the LDV for the area depicted in the map. One of their first tasks was the establishment of a road block at Hill End during the hours of darkness.

The "Home Guard Handbook" listed the main duties as "Guarding important points", "Observation and reporting - prompt and precise", "Immediate attack against small, lightly armed parties of the enemy" and "The defence of roads, villages, factories and vital points in towns to block enemy movement." Edinburgh's home guard were involved in operating motor boat patrols on the Union Canal; filling sandbags on Cramond Beach; numerous exercises of mock battles and attacks; and manning anti-aircraft guns. Both the anti-aircraft batteries in Edinburgh brought down enemy planes.

The organisation was "stood down" in 1944 and disbanded in December 1945.

For further reading see:
The Watch on the Braids: the record of an Edinburgh Home Guard company, 1940-1944. Edinburgh Central Library - Scottish Collection Reference

The People's Army: the Home Guard in Scotland 1940-44 by Brian D Osborne, Edinburgh & Scottish Collection, Morningside Library and Scottish Open Reference