Shetland Home Guard headquarters staff at the end of the war. John Johnson is second from the left in the back row. Courtesy Shetland Archives
Shetland Museum and Archives has had a double Christmas present in the form of two fascinating Second World War collections.
The first donation, received in December, is a collection of 70 Home Guard military identity cards. The second collection pertains to many aspects of military activity around Shetland during the war, including lists of bombs dropped and enemy aircraft shot down.
Joey Johnson, of Lerwick, found the Home Guard ID cards while going through her late husband’s papers. Mr John Johnson was an intelligence officer in the Lerwick headquarters of the Shetland Home Guard battalion.
The cards feature photographs and signatures of each Home Guard member and personal details, including place of birth, rank (from second lieutenant to platoon commander) and ‘distinguishing marks’ such as ‘scar on chin’.
Brian Smith, archivist at the Shetland Museum, said he was delighted with the cards: “We have Home Guard material already – attendance records for members, for instance, and some material about their social activity, but these identity cards, with their sharp photographs, bring the personnel to life.”
Asked whether any of the Shetland Home Guard members might still be alive, Brian was doubtful: “Most of them were born in the 1890s,” he said. “Going through them, there don’t seem to be any juveniles. I suspect the youngest were born in 1900, so they’re not around now.”
How Mr Johnson came to have the identity cards is not known.
“I presume – and these things are delicate – he took them home after the war. (They’re duplicates of those issued to the soldiers.) You can imagine this sort of thing going on,” said Brian.
Military identity card of Second Lieutenant Peter Clark of Uyeasound, born in 1896. Courtesy Shetland Archives
Brian was in the process of unpacking the second donation as he spoke to the 24 Hour Museum, discovering that it contained a real wealth of material relating to the Home Guard and more. The collection was put together by a historian and includes a map of watchposts and a scheme of contact points, phone numbers and addresses dating up to January 1943. There was plenty in addition to the Home Guard items, too.
“It’s magnificent – stuff about campaigns against U-boats, RAF bases and units, lists of bombs dropped, enemy aircraft shot down… There are even extracts from diaries,” enthused Brian. “It will all be listed in due course.”
As valuable as the collections are, it’s not yet known what will be done with them.
“Unfortunately, they’ve come a little late,” explained Brian. “We’re planning to open a new museum and archive in late May, so we’ve already decided on the main exhibits.”
A temporary exhibition could use Mrs Johnson’s donation, however, he said. “I’d like to see a focus display about the Home Guard in Shetland. The cards would be a good basis.”
Very little research has been carried out about the Shetland Home Guard so far, but Brian Smith is keen to promote study of its activities.
