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THE Royal Family would have been evacuated to the Midlands if the Nazis had invaded Britain during World War II, secret papers have sensationally revealed.

As the German army marched through Europe, plans were drawn up to move King George VI, the Queen and young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret to Madresfield Court in Malvern, Worcester.

Once there, the sovereign and his family would have been protected by a civilian army of resistance fighters – made up of local farmers and BOY SCOUTS.

The incredible proposals also included the evacuation of the Government and other European Royal families to Worcester. But they were never put into action after Hitler turned his attention to invading Russia following the Battle of Britain.

The secret papers were discovered by pensioners Mick Wilks and Colin Jones, volunteer researchers at the Worcestershire County Archeology Office.

Mick said: “The Germans had tried to capture the Norwegian Royal Family and Government and they’d done the same in Holland. In both cases the families had come to stay in London.

“Had an invasion occurred in London, all the Royal families and Government offices were going to come to Worcestershire.

“Our Royal Family would have moved into Madresfield Court in Malvern. The thought was that it was the middle of the country, the furthest away from the coast, so if there was an attack we would have a bit of notice.

“There was another private house called Pitchford Hall in Shropshire that had been earmarked for other members of the Royal Family too.

“The idea was the family would move northwest and eventually get on a boat from Liverpool to Canada.

“It’s amazing really.”

Research indicates that food supplies were taken to Madresfield Court in unmarked lorries in the weeks after war broke out, and then stored in the vast cellars of the moated stately home.

It was decided that the young princesses – Elizabeth and Margaret – would be evacuated there first, followed by the King and his wife Elizabeth, the future Queen Mum.

The Churchill Government would also have moved to the Midlands.

Mick said: “The Government Office was going to be in Hindlip Hall, which is now West Mercia Police Headquarters.

“The War Office was to be moved to Droitwich and the Foreign Office to Bromsgrove.

“Lots of new flat-roofed, single-storey buildings were put up as temporary Government offices. I still work out of one now in Worcester.

“If you want to keep the morale of the country in tact, you have to have regular messages from the Government and the Royal Family saying ‘we’re still in charge and still fighting’, so the whole of the BBC was also going to move to this county too. They had organised studios in the Evesham area.”

Astonishingly, the researchers say a secret resistance army of mainly farmers and teenage boy scouts had been trained to protect the Monarchy, alongside rank and file soldiers – and were primed to assassinate Germans and blow up enemy tanks.

Mick said: “The secret army was called GHQ Auxiliary Units, a deliberately vague name so that if German spies came across it, they wouldn’t know what it meant.

“They worked out of underground bunkers which would be stocked with food, ammunition and explosives.

“Had the area been occupied, they would have disappeared, not telling their families where they had gone, then they would come out at night to assassinate German soldiers and blow up German tanks.

“They were a resistance organisation but what was interesting was they were recruited and trained before an invasion, unlike the French Resistance that came after France had been occupied.

“Some of the youngest volunteers for the secret army were just 17 years-old. There was a whole patrol of boy scouts in the Broadheath area of Worcestershire. We’ve found a couple of them who are still alive who have talked to us about it.

“They said they found it very exciting as young men. When the Germans didn’t occupy England, almost all of them joined the regular forces.

“The secret army has only recently been discovered because all the volunteers had to swear an oath that they wouldn’t tell anyone they had been recruited.

“It was serious stuff.

“Even today, some of the members told us to go away, saying they couldn’t talk about it.

“Some were cagey initially but once they knew others had talked about it they began to tell us more.

“Some couldn’t remember a lot, it was 70 years ago, after all. But others could remember it chapter and verse, like it was yesterday.

“They had Home Guard uniforms so when they went off for their training, their wives and mothers thought they were Home Guards. That was their cover.

“There were eight patrols in Worcestershire with around half a dozen in each.

“This secret army was mostly along the east and south coast and the South Wales coast.

“They were in Worcestershire because there was a thought that the Germans would make Birmingham and the Black Country a target due to the fact so much ammunition was made here.

“There was also a spy ring in Upton upon Severn. Even today we still know very little about that other than it was organised by a local coal merchant.

“The spy ring recruited vicars, doctors and vets, people who would still have a reason to be going around the county and looking at things had the Germans occupied the area.

“We feel it’s so important and worthwhile to record all this information while they are still alive.’’

• For more information read 20th Century Defences in Britain: The West Midlands Area, by Colin Jones, Bernard Lowry and Mick Wilks, published by Logaston Press.

MADRESFIELD COURT

Madresfield Court was the inspiration for the famous novel and TV drama series Brideshead Revisited.

The 120-room house, set in 4,000 acres and surrounded by a wide moat, was the ancestral home of the Lygon family from 1815.

Author Evelyn Waugh was a frequent guest there and knew the seventh Earl well, dedicating his novel Black Mischief to two of his daughters.

His best-seller Brideshead Revisited was partly modelled on Madresfield, and some of his main characters were said to have been drawn from members of the Lygon family.

The current occupant is Lady Morrison, a niece of the last Earl, and it is expected that the occupancy will pass to her daughter and family.

The house contains outstanding collections of furniture, pictures, porcelain and objets d’art as well as a wonderful library.

Public visits can be made by appointment only, between April and July each year.