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A recent addition to my collection is this small (1.5" square) Exeter Housewives Service Civil Defence badge. Established in 1938 by the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS), the Housewives Service organised housewives (who could not work fulltime due to family commitments) to assist their local Civil Defence services (formerly Air Raid Precautions (ARP)). In 1939 the service was formally established within the WVS Civil Defence organisation and expanded rapidly across the country. Volunteers were trained in air raid precautions measures, first aid and home nursing and assisted at rest centres and canteens. Members also helped with evacuated children. During the Second World War, Exeter suffered heavily from German bombing and it was the first city to be bombed in the so-called 'Baedeker' raids. These raids targeted cities for their cultural and historical, rather than their strategic or military, value In the first raids on the nights of 23-24 and 24-25 April 1942, 80 people were killed and 55 badly wounded. A further attack on 4 May, saw 90 aircraft drop high explosives, parachute mines and incendiaries. Exeter had been poorly prepared for air raids on this scale and the local fire services were quickly overwhelmed. Fires devastated the city's shopping centre with over 600 shops, pubs and offices destroyed. The Baedeker raids on Exeter left over 230 people dead and almost 600 injured. The Royal Voluntary Service has an online PDF that covers the Housewives' Service in detail.  Exeter Housewives Service Civil Defence Badge
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This Despatch Rider DR sleeve patch recently appeared on the tat bazaar along with a printed Messenger shoulder title. Although not officially sanctioned, a number of examples (and here) are known to exist and an example is present in the National Archives files. This one has a much deeper gold colour and does have quite a messy rear, which sometimes can point towards an item being a reproduction.  Civil Defence Despatch Rider Sleeve Insignia I am once again indebted to a long-time contributor to this blog for the following image of ARP Control Room armbands. The armbands came from the sale of items once held by a museum in the south west of England. They are red ARP armbands, to which roles in a control room have been added. It would appear the armbands have OFFICIAL OBSERVER and (possibly) OBSERVER under the patches. Given the colour red they may have originally been intended to be worn by people observing the work of Civil Defence and ARP personnel at air raid incidents.  Red ARP Assistant Control Officer armband  Red ARP Control Staff Supervisor armband  Display Patents Ltd, maker's stamp on rear of one armband  Display Patents Ltd. press advertisement |
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