Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Home Guard (United Kingdom)" in English language version.
Some British weapons, notably the Sten machine carbine and the ST Grenade ('Sticky Bomb'), were inherently dangerous designs and accidents were bound to occur through carelessness or complacency. The Home Guard was certainly not unique in this respect, as Captain Clifford Shore recounted [...] … one of my [RAF Regiment] sergeants shot himself with a Sten gun; in a crowded tramcar of all places… I liked the particular NCO immensely and realised that no matter what I could do there could only be one finding for such a case – that of negligence. It was a good job the magazine was not on the Sten otherwise there might have been wholesale killing… [...] 1,206 Home Guards died while on duty, and, never having engaged the enemy in ground combat, statistics are not on the organisation's side.
On 1942, the man who in 1915 wrote the music for "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile," took his own life. Wearing the uniform of the Peacehaven Home Guard, former British Staff Sergeant Felix Powell shot himself in the heart using his own rifle.
