FULL MEMBERS

Richard has been Military firearm collecting for well over 55 years. Time served gunsmith and gunmaker. 22 years as R.E.M.E. armourer, S/Sgt. Police armourer for 25 years with Suffolk and Norfolk police. Examined firearms and prepared reports for court use. Section 5 dealer for 25 years and had what was considered to be one of the finest collection of military firearms and associated equipment including fighting devices. He lectured on military firearms and equipment and worked for many major and regimental museums. He has been armourer and guide with the British Resistance Museum for 5 years.

Stewart started researching the Sussex Auxiliary Units in 1992. Four years later following extensive interviews with original patrol members and many hours in the field looking for the remains of their secret hideouts his findings were published as ‘The Secret Sussex Resistance’ (Available to buy through our shop)

He is a member of Subterranea Britannica and a founder member of the Sussex Military History Society.

Owen Sheers - Wales

Owen Sheers was born in Fiji but brought up in Abergavenny, South Wales. He was educated in Abergavenny and Oxford. Owen has won the Eric Gregory Award and the 1999 Vogue Young Writer’s Award. His first collection of poetry, The Blue Book (Seren, 2000) was short-listed for the Welsh Book of the Year and the Forward Prize Best 1st Collection 2001. Owen has also written for Radio, TV and newspapers.

Owen’s first novel about the Auxiliary Units, Resistance (Faber, 2008) won a 2008 Hospital Club Creative Award and was short-listed for the Writers Guild Best Book Award. Resistance is translated into nine languages. Owen was a 2007 Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library. He currently divides his time between New York and Wales. You can read more about Owen's Auxiliary related book here. 

Donald Brown - Somerset

Donald is the author of Somerset Versus Hitler and has researchedWW2 activities in Somerset especially secret activities on Mendip. He has been a Headmaster, worked with the Mendip Ranger Service and taken part in the Defence of Britain Survey. He is now retired and no longer researches the Aux Units. All his findings are deposited within the Somerset Record Office and/or BRO Museum, Parham.

Arthur Ward - West Sussex

In his spare time designer Arthur Ward writes books about military history and collecting. In 1997 he wrote Resisting The Nazi Invader, which was about the Auxiliary Units.

He is also the author of A Nation Alone - The Battle of Britain, Classic Toys, TV & Film Toys, Buying & Selling Wartime Collectables and Collecting British Army Cap Badges, all published by Crowood.

In 2009 The Boys' Book of Airfix was published, his third book about the brand. He runs enthusiasts' website www.collectingfriends.com

Tom Sykes - CART Founder & Webmaster

Tom started CART after a moving to the area and hearing of the site. He runs CART in his spare time from his home in Highworth. Tom used to work in television and he edits the video content and takes most of the images on the site. See Tom talking about the group here. The website itself was built by Tom and his marketing company Goldeneye Creative. Tom loves WW2 history and is very proud of this website and being able to help young and old network on this amazing subject. He is proud to have organised a large part of the July 4th event at Coleshill and looks forward to arranging more events for the group and local people in the near future. Read more about the group and it's aims here.

Paula Sykes - Auxiliary Database Co-Ordinator and CART postmistress

Paula is Tom's wife and she introduced the Coleshill site to him at the start of 2009 and has supported the work since then. She regularly listens to long phone calls and helps Tom type up reports and notes for the website. With her ECDL advanced spreadsheets qualification, Paula enjoys playing her part in helping relatives find out more about their Aux family.

Paula also wishes to point out that she does all the trips to the letterbox as well!!

Keith Blaxhall - Coleshill Expert and Historian

Keith was qualified as a Building and Land Surveyor and worked for an architect, a national contractor and in local government. Keith retired in May 2011 but for more than 30 years Keith was the Head Warden for The National Trust in West Oxfordshire and managed country estates, archaeological sites and woodlands covering in all approx 10,500 acres including Coleshill. He is the secretary of The Ridgeway Military and Aviation Research Group with a museum at RAF Welford near Newbury. Keith is also a member of The Airfield Research Group and The Mosquito Aircraft Museum and contributed parts to The Assault Glider Project at RAF Shawbury.

Bill King

Bill is a Management Consultant and comes from a naval family. Bills’ main interest areas settled on the Second World War with particular reference to the role of Airborne and Special forces and in Clandestine warfare. Bill has conducted extensive research on the role of the British Resistance Organisation (Auxiliary Units) and has contributed to the book ‘With Britain in Mortal Danger’ published in December 2002 as well as appeared in the Television programmes ‘History Mysteries’ on BBC2 and the Channel 4 series ‘Dads Secret Army’.

In addition to these activities Bill has given talks on Auxiliary Units to interest societies throughout Wiltshire and the south.

Peter Antill - CART Sealion Information Officer

Peter is currently a research assistant working for Cranfield University at the Centre for Defence Acquisition in the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham.

A degree holder from both Staffordshire University and the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth he also holds a PGCE (Post Compulsory Education) from Oxford Brooks University.

A published author, he is currently conducting post-graduate research into British defence policy and expeditionary operations while also contributing to a military history project with two friends, located at http://www.historyofwar.org  .

Peter has written many articles for CART on weapons. They can be seen here.

Bill Ashby - CART Coleshill Information Officer

Son of Lt. W. Ashby (East Sussex Scout Section Officer)
Bill is a member of the National Malaya & Borneo Veterans Association having served with REME during the Malayan Emergency.

His hobby is military history concentrating on 49(WR) Infantry Division in Normandy, The London Blitz which he remembers and of course the Auxiliary Units. He is retired, married and lives in Swindon.

Bill mainly researches on Coleshill House itself and the staff that trained Auxiliers their during WW2

Will Ward - CART CIO for Dorset and Senior OB Researcher

In 1995 Will became Aux Units coordinator for the Defence of Britain Project, mostly as he lived just up the road from Duxford and had an interest in the Home Guard. Many good friendships and much information came from this, not all of which made it to the DoB database. It was clear there was more to rediscover and when John Warwicker stood down, Will took over he editorial role of the BROM newsletter, trying to include bits and pieces of research as they appear. Will see's CART as the electronic embodiment of the DoB cooperative ethos and BROM collection roles combined. He is a great believer in the share to gain principle of research, but has limited free time and lots of hobbies means he may be slow to reply if you get in touch!

Stephen Lewins - CART CIO for Northumberland

Stephen lives in Northumberland. His intrest in things military started some time ago when he got involved with the Defence of Britain Project. He is helped by a friend, who was in Military Intel. Between them thay have photographed sites and tried to work out where they were. It is a pleasure to wander around the countryside in Northumberland looking for remains, though the weather often lets you down!.

Stephen works for Network Rail and he has a page on Flickr where you can see hunderds of pillboxs, O.B's and other defence site photographs. He has conributed all the info on our Northumberland page.

David Blair - CART CIO for Scotland

David has been researching Scottish Auxiliary Units for 13 years now, his research has enabled him to talk with former Auxunit members and get an idea of the Organisation in Scotland. He has located a few Operational Bases still in good condition and gathered information about networks all over Scotland. David is a former Paratrooper having served for 17 years. He lives in St Andrews in Fife with his partner and now works with the Scottish wildlife Trust as a training team instructor carrying out practical conservation work. Once his research is complete (is it ever?) He hopes to produce a book on the Scottish units. He is CART's Scottish CIO.

Clive Bassett

Clive has a life-long interest in WW2 Special Force Units, including S.O.E., O.S.S., Jedburghs and the Auxiliary Units. He is one of the founder members, Trustee and Committee Member of the “Carpetbagger” Museum at RAF Harrington. His first awareness of the Aux Units was over 30 years ago when he was able to buy an original “Countryman’s Diary”. Participating in an Aux Unit reunion a few years ago at Parham in the company of Bob Millard, was a very special occasion. Clive belongs to a number of WW2 interest organisations. He also enjoys researching remote SOE, OSS and Norwegian Training locations, travelling to France and Norway visiting Resistance Museums and the continued study of WW2 History.

Nick Marshall

Nick has been re-enacting since 1978. After a visit to the British Resistance Organisation (BRO) Museum, he co-founded ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ in September 2009 to re-create an Auxiliary Units operational patrol.

He sees re-enactment as ‘practical history’ and has spent much time learning how to use the technology and skills of the different periods he portrays. ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ train using the same manuals and much of the same equipment (not the explosives!) as the original patrols. They also intend to carry out night exercises with other re-enactment groups. Nick is looking forwards to trying out his fieldcraft skills!

He is interested in the BRO in general, but his main focus is on the patrols in the Welsh borders, which is his home area. He knows the locality of ‘Shadrach’ patrol (south Herefordshire) extremely well and so this is the patrol he re-enacts, despite now being based in Leicestershire.

Martin Dixon - Underground Expert

Martin Dixon was born in Barnsley at the heart of the South Yorks Coalfield and has had an interest in all matters underground ever since. He is Chairman of Subterranea Britannica - the UK's leading society for underground studies - and arranges frequent visits for members with his partner Linda. On the military side, Auxiliary Unit OBs, ammunition stores and zero stations are just a few of the many underground structures of interest.
 
The special fascination of underground space is that it has to be visited to be seen and appreciated; unlike surface features, subterranean structures have to be explored before their story can be heard. Martin holds a private pilot's licence and owns a share in a narrowboat so his feet sometimes seem to rarely touch terra firma!

Ingrid Bush (Smith)

I am the daughter of Sgt Sidney Leonard Smith (Len) who worked at Coleshill during the war.
My father would never talk about his time in the army and after his death my mother kept all of his military records and photos under lock and key; I only obtained access to them following my mother’s death in July 2009. Amongst the items was a certificate issued by GHQ Home Forces dated 11.6.1942 commending my father "For outstanding clerical and administrative work. He was in almost sole charge of a Dept. at HQ at a time when the organization was in the process of taking shape. The amount of work he had to contend with was prodigious, added to which he was responsible for the training of all Clerks who were being sent out to the I.O.s in various counties. No hours were too long for him, and his devotion to duty and concentration were remarkable."

I was intrigued by this document and also by a couple of photographs which I could not place but which I assumed had been taken at Coleshill. I discovered CART's website and duly sent off an enquiry. Within hours I had a reply from Tom Sykes saying that he had passed my enquiry onto Bill Ashby, who has helped me enormously with my research.

My husband and I came to the CART event on the 4th July and thoroughly enjoyed the day, which was very informative. Since then I have bought 2 books "The Last Ditch" and of course, "With Britain in Mortal Danger".

Nina Hannaford - CART CIO for Devon

Nina was born and breed in Brixham Devon and works as a Dental Hygienist.

She has only recently become facsinated with the Auxiliary Units having found her Grandfather, two Uncles and a great Uncle all served in the Brixham Unit. From her fathers vague memories she has been able to find the remains of their operational base which can be seen on the Devon page.

Now both her local museum and Battery Garden museum have a display on the unit and the men involved so it's a secret no more !

Nina aims to do research in to other OB's around the South Devon area and with luck maybe find out about others in her area.

Sallie Mogford - CART CIO for East Wales

Sallie is the granddaughter of Leslie Bulley of Jonah Patrol and the Great Niece of Charles Bulley also of Jonah Patrol. It formed part of 202 Battalion area 19 group 3 and was one of the eight
Monmouthshire patrols.

Sallie has have worked with Cadw to successfully protect their main OB and ammunition bunkers as scheduled ancient monuments - sites of national historic importance. She conducts a considerable number of guided walks to the site and helps schools with their WW2 projects. Any information on the Monmouthshire patrols would be gratefully received. Sallie works as a Higher Executive Officer in the Civil Service and lives in Newport.

Steve Mason - CART CIO for Hampshire

Interested in AUs since childhood reading of The Last Ditch. Have located 3 possible unrecorded underground OBs, caches or lookouts in West Sussex. Currently researching for a semi-factual novel of an imagined AU setting up and training during the war while trying to lead ordinary lives.

Roger Green

Roger is a volunteer with the National Trust at Coleshill and one of his jobs is to take children around the estate. He explains the significance of Coleshill during the war and what happened there. Roger has been involved in the upgrade of the guardhouse and the interpretation that will soon be installed there. He has also been taking part in the preparation work for the replica OB that will be built shortly on site (this will take the pressure off the original OB which at 70 years of age is getting fragile.)

He has made three models of the OB as it used to be to help show what it was like. The next project he hopes to do is to make a model of the whole site at Coleshill showing all the other buildings as they were.
He has also been in contact with an Auxilier in Grimsby who was the nephew of Tom Wintringham (of Osterley Park fame). He is very frail but had some interesting tales to tell.

Ian Edwards - 'Coleshill Reborn' Draughtsman

Ian's is from Cardiff and is interested in general WW2 history especially aircraft and AFVs. All his uncles served in the war in all 3 services, and his father served in the RAF after the war in the Canal Zone.

Ian works for Halcrow as a CAD draughtsman/technician, and he is working alongside CART researcher Bill Ashby in creating some CAD drawings of Coleshill House and grounds.

Ian is a member of the United Services Mess in Cardiff. The Mess celebrated its centenary in 2009 and can count 15 of its members having won the Victoria Cross, the first dating from 1879 won at Rorkes Drift.

Andy Gwynne - CART CIO for Yorkshire

Andy lives in East Yorkshire and was born in West Germany in a British Military Hospital and comes from a Military family background as his Grandfather, Father, Uncles, Brother and himself all signed up and took the Queens Shilling. Andy became interested in the 2nd World War at a very early age and this has stayed with him all his adult life.

He discovered the CART Website when looking for WW2 Defence Structures to photograph and feels that the history of the Auxiliary Units is recognised and brought into the Public Domain.

He enjoys nothing more than setting out to explore a new OB location and recording as much information as possible for future generations to read about.

Rob White

Rob is a retired Customs Officer. He now works part time for Morrisons. He is a member of the MVT and Brixham Battery Heritage Group, is married and a Grandfather. Until 18 years ago he Iived in North Belfast.
His interest in Aux units was probably triggered in the 1960s by his father and some of his pals. They were all members of the wartime UHG and all sergeants by stand down. A couple, like his Dad, rejoined in the 1950s, when his Dad was commisioned. After stand down about 6 of them used to meet in his house once a month until the 1970s. It became apparent that these guys had an extensive knowledge of weaponry. More than Rob would have expected!! Once he read Warwicker's book and David Orr's book on the UHG, he was really intrigued.  

Evelyn Simak - CART CIO for Norfolk

Evelyn believes that history in its many forms and facets not only ought to be recorded for future generations but also that it should be shared and made available for free to anyone interested.  She is lucky in that she is healthy, and also that time now and then allows for a couple of hours of walking and exploring.  For the past few years she (commonly accompanied by her friend and research partner Adrian Pye) have documented historic buildings, churches, pillboxes, derelict windmills and disused railway lines, to name only a few - until the day they helped friends with recording the remains of a WWII military training camp, and for the first time heard about the existence of a 'secret army', the Auxiliary Units.   On discovering that there are only very sparse (and often unverified) records concerning the great majority of AU locations in their area, they decided to try if they could, to perhaps produce more satisfactory results.  They have since found and recorded several OBs both in Norfolk and in Suffolk.  They are still learning something new every day and are happy to share what they do know with others so that CART's good work can grow.

Adrian Pye - CART CIO for Suffolk

Adrian has lived in North Suffolk all his life and knows the area well.  He has always had an inquisitive mind and loves investigating the unusual and generally unknown. He is the author of five guide books about the churches of Suffolk and Norfolk which took him to every parish in both counties. It was while researching churches that he met CART CIO Evelyn Simak (in a crypt below a church!) who had the same interests as him. One rarely goes out exploring without the other and their trusty cameras slung round their necks.

When Adrian first found out about ‘Churchill’s Secret Army’ he was facinated by the intrigue of it all and he and Evelyn decided to investigate as much as they could. Then they heard about CART and thought they could make a worthwhile contribution to the cause. Since starting their investigations they have spent many hours searching for OBs in the undergrowth of woodlands; seeking out those in the know and most importantly asking the right questions. They are both in the fortunate position to be able to spend time enjoying their hobbies and exploring the countryside.