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An interesting warden's armband from Caernarvonshire.  WW2 Caernarvonshire Warden Armband Front  WW2 Caernarvonshire Warden Armband Rear
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Joan Thomas (nee Baynham) was a Civil Defence ambulance driver. On the night of 29/30 April 1941, Cwmparc was bombed by the Luftwaffe and she ferried the dead and injured from Cwmparc to Pentwyn Hospital in Treorchy. There were many casualties with some 27 dead, three of whom were evacuees, all members of the same family. The evacuees were all buried in the same grave in Treorchy Cemetery. The event was the largest loss of life that the Rhondda suffered in a single night of wartime bombing. Her portrait below shows her wearing the ARP Pattern 71 tunic with private purchase side cap (most likely with old gold yellow piping). The side cap appears to not have any insignia nor ARP buttons to the front. Above her breast badge is a DRIVER badge, quite a rare badge to see worn in this position. Image courtesy of Robert Davies - see his crowd funding page for information about a memorial to the bombing of Cwmparc.  Ambulance Driver Joan Thomas - Cwmparc A number of cities set up voluntary organisations during the war that worked alongside the Civil Defence services to support victims of Luftwaffe raids. Below is an armband for Birmingham's "Helping Hand" organisation. The three war service chevrons show that this particular volunteer had put in over three years work with the organisation. It's quite difficult to find details about the various voluntary post air raid groups and what limited information does exist is tucked away in local archives. The armband is in Roger Miles' collection; he also runs Home Front Collection that often has some cracking items for sale.  WW2 Birmingham "Helping Hand" Armband - Voluntary Post-Raid Organisation Organised in Norwich in July 1940, the Mutual Aid Good Neighbours' Association (MAGNA) worked alongside the ARP services and other voluntary post-air raid groups. It provided support for those that had lost their homes and possessions during the Luftwaffe raids on Norwich. Set up by Mrs Ruth Hardy (a qualified ARP instructor and future Lord Mayoress of Norwich) the scheme had "Street Mothers" and "Good Neighbours" and grew to a membership of some 30,000 women. The armband below follows the general format of the Civil Defence armband introduced in July 1940 with the addition of City of Norfolk and MAGNA. Image courtesy of the Roger Miles' collection. UPDATE: after sharing this blog online, a collector shared the Zuckerman helmet with MAGNA markings.  WW2 City of Norwich Civil Defence MAGNA Armband  MAGNA-marked Zuckerman helmet An interesting whistle has cropped up on eBay. This acetate / celluloid (a type of plastic and often misidentified as Bakelite, though some books do call these whistles that) is marked "The Metropolitan" and has a maker monogram of J Hudson & Company. The original colour is a dark brown, then called 'walnut'. Hudson's make thousands of the metal ARP whistles but in all the archives held at Kew I did not find mention of them producing a celluloid whistle (several other companies did) during the Second World War. This whistle was made in the 1930s and probably reused by a member of the ARP or Civil Defence Services. The lanyard on the whistle does appear to be the style available during the war. An interesting and rare whistle. Blog updated with information supplied by Bruce Rolph.  J Hudson & Company Celluloid (Plastic) Whistle |
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