The Home Guard in The Lee, including Sir Bernard Docker as a Buckinghamshire Mr Mainwaring

Farming was considered a reserve occupation so many farmers joined the Home Guard to 'do their bit'. There wasn't much activity, The Lee being far away from an urban industrial area, but it is near Chequers, the Prime Minister's country residence. Even so, Philip's first impressions of the Home Guard were not that great. "Weapons were obsolete" even if there was little opportunity to use them. During parades, Philip was more interested in waiting for The Bugle pub to open. His comrade Fred Randall, a Methodist, was equally interested in prolonging them. The officer commanding was Sir Bernard Docker, the chairman of Daimler. He lived at Kingswood House, one of the largest in the village. After the war he achieved a degree of fame and celebrity as the husband of Lady Docker, a former showgirl, noted for her lavish lifestyle. Nevertheless there were bombs dropped in the area. Whether they were intended for Chequers or dispatched by German bombers returning from raids on London was never clear.

One unexploded bomb was dropped at Swan Bottom; three at Ballinger. The Americans allegedly bombed Copperkins Lane in Amersham by mistake. Luckily there were no casualties. Local folklore ran that the first bombs of the war were dropped on Ballinger, the last on Hyde Heath. Bizarrely, The Pheasant pub in Hyde Heath was firebombed. The Home Guard would look out for German parachutists in the Misbourne Valley from Concord, a farm overlooking it. Philip's wife had also been a fire watcher in Hayes in west London. Now heavily built up, this used to be an area of extensive market gardens serving London. Philip as a farmer also employed German prisoners of war as labourers. One of them, Albin Fassner, was a Sudeten German. Generally they had a great reputation as hard workers. Many stayed in England after the war. Albin lived locally in Prestwood.