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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Home Guard
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The name given in 1940, on Churchill's suggestion, to the Local Defence Volunteers who had been formed earlier that year as a citizens' army of last defence. They underwent part-time training and eventually acquired reasonable equipment, but in their first summer they were described by *Churchill as 'bands of determined men armed with shot-guns, sporting rifles, clubs and spears'. A less flattering portrait became popular, decades later, in the form of *Dad's Army.
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