"Local Defence Volunteers", or (rather generously, you might think) "Dad's Army" were accepted as alternative answers.
The Home Guard was formed in May 1940 as the Local Defence Volunteers. The name was changed two months later (the final decision being Winston Churchill's) to something that was felt to be more inspiring.
My dad, who was born in November 1924, was proud to have been a member of the Home Guard before joining the Merchant Navy at the end of World War II. He hated Dad's Army, feeling that it didn't do the volunteers justice.
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