Worcestershire VTC The WW1 Home Guard
© Copyright Malcolm Atkin 2015.
Worcestershire's contribution to the story of the First World War Home Guard. A movement that took its inspiration from traditional Victorian visions of home defence, trying to come to terms with the new age of total warfare. The Volunteer Training Corps, which formally became the Volunteer Force in 1916 (although VTC continued to be widely used) was the inspiration for the Second World War Home Guard and its promotion of guerrilla warfare, shaping some of the mistrust felt by the War Office towards the Home Guard in 1940.
The VTC was restricted to men but it worked closely with the militant Women's Volunteer Reserve, an equally neglected organisation of the First World War.
This website is an introduction to current research (with Mick Wilks), due for publication in 2019.
Malcolm Atkin
Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without written permission from this author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Malcolm Atkin and this website, with appropriate direction to the original content.
Worcestershire
Volunteer Training Corps and Volunteer Force
See www.mwatkin.com for other research on
WW2 Home Guard
Auxiliary Units
the complexity of the 'British Resistance'
the work of Section D of SIS