During this month, each weekday I'm posting a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War.
For much of the war, Cornwall had its own
defence force: the Volunteer Training Corps. Here’s a relic from those times, a cap badge from a Cornish
VTC officer’s uniform.
The Duchy’s long coastline, mostly isolated and dotted
with small bays, was felt vulnerable to possible enemy incursion. To help
protect exposed and sensitive areas, by mid-1915 VTC contingents had formed in
many Cornish towns and villages. Generally its men were ineligible for
front-line service: old soldiers, essential war workers, members of the clergy.
Among other duties they helped protect national treasures, including precious
state papers which had arrived for safe keeping at Bodmin
Gaol.
The Corps was a national body, the forerunner of the Second
World War Home Guard, and given similar tasks. Its members wore a red brassard emblazoned
with the initials GR (Georgius Rex), which led to unkind nicknames: God’s Rejects, Gorgeous
Wrecks, Grandpa's Regiment.
But for Cornwall’s VTC men, guarding
military centres and protecting key resources
such as the railway network was deadly serious. They worked as orderlies at the Duchy's Red Cross hospitals, provided
sentries for the explosives factories at Hayle and Perranporth, and volunteered with local fire brigades.
My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100
images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm
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