THE HOME GUARD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 217, 12 August 1940, Page 8

THE HOME GUARD.

Received August 12. 11.10 a.in. LONDON, Aug. 11. . Ninoteen-ycar-old Ronald Nesbit is tho first member of the Home Guard to be killed in action. He was patrolling a railway line when a German piano dived from the clouds and machine-gunned him. Almost every Australian and New Zealand journalist in London, in common with non-military able-bodied Englishmen, parades with the Home Guard when liis normal work is finished. KING INSPECTS PARADE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Aug. 10. The King this afternoon inspected some 4000 members of the Home Guard. This was the biggest parade of this citizen military force yet held. All but about a hundred were in uniform, and His Majesty commented on tho smart appearance to General Sir B. Sergison-Brooke, who is G.0.C., London area. Many of the men arc veterans of tho last war, but under their regular army instructors they displayed the agility of much younger men. His Majesty, who was also accompanied by Brigadier Whitehead, commanding the Home Guard in the London area, had a long conversation with corps commanders about the different types of rifles with which tho Guard is armed at present.

Among those members of the Home Guard presented to the King, was General Sir Hubert Gough, who commanded* the Fifth Army in the last war.

Hearing that Their Majesties were passing through, a party of New Zealand troops training in the Home counties, lined both sides of the road. The King ordered the ear to be slowed down to a walking pace while he acknowledged -the troops’ cheers.