These soldiers on parade at Park Avenue cricket ground during the 1940s are units of the Home Guard, volunteers who joined up to defend the homeland in the event of invasion by Nazi Germany.

Among them, somewhere in the sixth row from the front on the right, is Sergeant Thomas Beardmore White. During the day he worked as a baker for E R Halford at Listerhills. At night he was a member of what became known as Dad’s Army.

His son, John White, who sent the photograph to us, said: “He was up in the morning for the 7am tram. He came back and was out nearly every night and at weekends, on duty. They were wonderful men. I don’t know how they did it – they weren’t kids – but they did.”

Mr White, 84, who lives at the top end of Little Horton, said his family had a long military tradition. His grandfather lost an eye in East Africa. His father was wounded on the Western Front during the First World War.

“He drove the lead horse on an ammunition limber that got hit by a shell. The driver, a ginger-haired fellow, had his head blown off. My dad was rescued by Canadians.”

Mr White himself served about 18 months as a motor transport driver in the RAF after the Second World War.

After working in the family bakery, the shoe trade and then for Sunblest for almost 20 years he retired.