We shall remember them – gamekeepers in World War Two
By David S.D. Jones.
THIS year marks the 80th anniversary of the declaration of World War Two on September 3, 1939, the second major global conflict of the 20th Century. Gamekeepers, in common with tens of thousands of other highly-skilled countrymen, volunteered to serve their country either as soldiers, sailors or as airmen on the battlefields, the high seas or in the air, or in home defence organisations such as the Home Guard, the ARP warden service or the special constabulary.
Some even served as auxiliary firefighters, part-time ambulance drivers, pest controllers at munitions factories or as ‘Bevin Boys’ working as miners in coal mines. Many of the keepers who remained at home combined part-time home defence duties with a combination of gamekeeping, farm work and forestry!
Like numerous other gamekeepers, the following men either enlisted in the armed services to fight for king and country or served in Home Front defence forces, playing a small but important part in securing victory.
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