It may seem unusual to see women in civilian clothes posing with a group of military men.

We can’t explain the reason, but it may be nothing more than that they were wives accompanying their husbands.

What we do know is that the men were senior officers of the Home Guard during the Second World War.

It is also likely that the picture, like an earlier one we published (Memory Lane, February 1), was taken at one of the Cowley car factories, Morris Motors or Pressed Steel.

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Both pictures have come from the archives of an organisation called Oxfordshire Home Guard, based at Launton, near Bicester.

As we recalled, the Cowley factories became No 1 Civilian Repair Unit during the war and instead of making cars, workers put thousands of damaged aircraft back into service.

Mines, trucks, reconnaissance vehicles and many aircraft components were also produced by the workforce, which included many women.

Morris Motors also played an important part in the First World War, with owner William Morris, later Lord Nuffield, handing the factory to the Ministry of Munitions.

Factories were converted to manufacture mine-sinkers, ensuring that mines floated hidden below the surface of the sea, out of the sight of the enemy.

All the work was supervised by Lord Nuffield.

He was constantly on the move between Oxford and his other factories in Birmingham and Coventry.

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Lord Nuffield’s patriotism was symbolised by his insistence that the Union flag fluttered over all his factories engaged in war work. Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors, was born in 1877 and died in 1963.