Adèle Emm
OUT OF The SHADOWS
The HIDDEN ‘DAD’S ARMY’
The secret life of The Home Guard Intelligence Unit
Photograph of Syd (centre) in a sou’wester with his pals, camping in The rain. He wasn’t fond of guarding The local reservoir overnight against The threat of invading Germans
National Service (Armed Forces) Grade Card for Adèle’s faTher, Sydney Guy Emms. Until he was married, Syd was known as Emms
When I first started researching this article, I couldn’t find any reference to an Intelligence Unit of The Local Defence Volunteers (LDV), renamed The Home Guard (HG) – and my faTher insisted he was in it! Not only this, but he told me his Captain was a solicitor, The sergeant a clerk and he, well, he was just The private.
My faTher, Sydney Emm, didn’t tell porkies. I came to The conclusion that The Intelligence Unit was a secret unit so hush-hush that all usual resources for corroborating its existence were keeping schtum.