THESE were some of the many men who served with the Home Guard during the Second World War.

The picture, which we think was taken at Cowley Barracks, comes from Barbara Gray, of Osberton Road, North Oxford, who found it in the belongings of her late husband, Alan.

She recognises only one of the men in the picture – her father-in-law Harold William Gray, who is in the fourth row from the front, ninth from the right.

She writes: “As there are many fellow Oxonians in the picture, I thought it might be of interest to your readers.”

Harold William Gray, born in 1909, was a chartered accountant and senior partner in Wenn Townsend, first in offices above Grimbly Hughes, the grocers in Cornmarket Street, and later in the former Pheasant pub, at the corner of St Giles and Keble Road. He died in 1994.

He was one of 16 children born to the two wives of Alderman William Matthew Gray, a prominent Oxford businessman and councillor, whose life is featured below.