The beginning of the Home Guard are usually traced back to Captain Tom Wintringham. When returning from the Spanish Civil War, Wintringham wrote a book called "How To Reform The Army". In it, he writes about how Britain could make something similar to the Spanish International Brigades in the Civil War. Although the book was well received, many of its suggestions were ignored at the time. This was because the tensions in Europe did not seem likely to escalate into war. 