Coleshill House was chosen by Colonel Gubbins because its  large parklands and woods made it very very suitable for guerrilla training. Gubbins sent Major the Honourable Michael T Henderson to scout around the country for a suitable HQ after the Luftwaffe blitzed the cramped offices in Whitehall Place, Westminster.

Henderson soon discovered that Coleshill, the country estate adjacent to that of his brother, was qualified in all respects (as potential HQ).  Coleshill's owner was the Earl of Radnor, but only the Earl's two Pleydell-Bouverie sisters and their dogs lived there.

Here they ran courses for around 5,000 men often farmers or landowners and usually recruited from the most able members of the Home Guard were trained in the arts of guerrilla warfare including assassination, unarmed combat, demolition and sabotage. Recruits for Coleshill reported to the Highworth post office, from where the postmistress Mabel Stranks arranged for their collection.


The Auxiliary Units History

Dedicated to the men and women of the WWII British Resistance Organisation
known as The GHQ Auxiliary Units 1940 - 1944
By WA. Joyce, 203 Devon Auxunits
(with apologies to Henry Wadworth Longfellow and Prologue of 'The Song of Hiawatha')


Should you ask me whence these stories?
Whence these Legends and Traditions?
With their nasty sounds of banging and
Their smells of smoke and almonds,
I should answer, I should tell you:

Tales they are of Home Defences -
Of a very secret movement. Frowned upon at first by Big-Wigs,
Looked upon as underhanded!
"T'wasn't done," they said, disgusted
Turned their Army noses upwards
As a sign it was beneath them

But our persevering leaders
Stood their ground and asked no favours,
Trained their men with scanty weapons,
Gave them strange ideas of fighting!

Till at last the pompous Big-Wigs "Thought there might be something in it"
Condescended to consider,
Questions that concerned equipment.
Saw results in other quarters and
At last began to praise us! So our work became quite pleasant Once we felt we were approved of!


         

           

           

  


Coleshill House, Coleshill, Mabel Stranks, Highworth, Highworth Post Office, Colonel Gubbins, Auxiliary Units, Churchill's secret army, Special Operations Executive (SOE), Home Guard, The Countryman's Diary-1939, Peter Fleming, Ian Fleming, Pleydell-Bouveries, Sir Thomas Freake, Sir Henry Pratt, guerrilla warfare