The book From Dusk Till Dawn, by the Wiltshire farmer and broadcaster A.G. Street (who lived at and farmed Ditchampton Farm, near Wilton), was first published in February 1943 by George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., of 182 High Holborn, London, W.C.1.
In this book Arthur George Street (1892-1966) put on record the story of the Home Guard from its birth, through its teething troubles and adolescence, to the mature and efficient force that it was by the end of 1942. As a farmer and an enthusiastic country member of the Home Guard, Mr. Street told the story of the fictional Sedgebury Wallop Platoon in the Wessex district. It was men such as Walter Pocock, ‘Shep’ Yates, Tom Butler, and Sir Robert Enfield, who first made the Home Guard into cohesive defence units. The Force itself was an example of British improvisation, and every one of those early volunteers – officers and men – improvised in a thousand ways to give his unit the highest possible efficiency in the shortest possible time, for in 1940 an invasion was generally expected. There is humour in the telling of this story that sometimes provokes a loud laugh, sometimes an approving smile. A chapter on the Home Guard in Scotland was contributed by Alexander Keith.