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I recently posted several ARP / Civil Defence armbands from the county of Warwickshire. Roger Miles has sent through three additional armbands. It would appear Warwickshire was very keen to ensure everyone had an armband.  WW2 Warwickshire ARP Civil Defence Air Raid Mobile Unit Armband  WW2 Warwickshire ARP Civil Defence Air Raid Senior Warden Armband  WW2 Warwickshire ARP Civil Defence Air Raid First Aid Point Superintendent Armband
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The below London Auxiliary Ambulance Service cap sold recently (May 2021) at auction for around £500 (including fees such as buyer's premium, VAT etc). It's a scarce item and clearly someone needed to fill a hole in their collection. Appears a lucky horseshoe had been attached to the from at some time. Ski caps are rare items as not many have survived through to today. The LAAS versions are rarer than the CD-badged versions.  WW2 London Auxiliary Ambulance Service (LAAS) Driver / Attendant Ski Cap  Lucky horseshoe on WW2 London Auxiliary Ambulance Service (LAAS) Driver / Attendant Ski Cap A fantastic collection of armbands issued in Warwickshire (he bear and ragged staff is a heraldic emblem or badge associated with the Earldom of Warwick). There is an Air Raid Warden, Ambulance Driver, First Aid Post, First Aid Point, Decontamination Party & Report Centre. I am indebted to Steve Taylor for sharing this collection. If you know of any other variations please contact me.  WW2 Warwickshire ARP Civil Defence Air Raid Warden Armband  WW2 Warwickshire ARP Civil Defence Ambulance Driver Armband  WW2 Warwickshire ARP Civil Defence Decontamination Party Armband  WW2 Warwickshire ARP Civil Defence First Aid Post Armband  WW2 Warwickshire ARP Civil Defence Report Centre Armband  WW2 Warwickshire ARP Civil Defence First Aid Point Armband ‘Supplementary Fire Parties’ (SFP) were created as part of the ‘Memorandum on Emergency Fire Brigades Organisation’ in 1937. Teams of three or five volunteers were trained to use stirrup pumps to tackle small fires and incendiary devices. They were initially controlled through by the Air Raid Wardens’ Service. By April of 1940 local fire authorities selected, trained and organised ‘Supplementary Fire Parties’ and issued them with armbands that featured red SFP letters on a dark navy blue cotton. The major reorganisation of the fire services in August 1941 saw the introduction of the Fire Guard Organisation. Street Fire Parties replaced the former Supplementary Fire Parties and the SFP armband was replaced by the Fire Guard one. The appointment card below was issued in May 1941 towards the end of the Supplementary Fire Party existence. Interestingly the term "FIRE WATCHER" is still being used.  WW2 City of Cardiff Supplementary Fire Party Appointment Card Cover  WW2 City of Cardiff Supplementary Fire Party Appointment Card Details A number of ARP / Civil Defence armbands have appeared lately bearing similar-looking fonts and perhaps from the same manufacturer. Here we have a FIRST AID POSTS WORCESTERSHIRE armband. Similar to the Caernarvonshire Warden armband we saw recently. Image courtesy of Steve Taylor.  WW2 Worcestershire First Aid Posts Armband An interesting warden's armband from Caernarvonshire.  WW2 Caernarvonshire Warden Armband Front  WW2 Caernarvonshire Warden Armband Rear 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 A stand down photo (going by the war service chevrons) with an interesting beret badge. The embroidered and printed versions of the beret badges usually had a yellow circle; these don't appear to have that. Perhaps a local manufacturing oddity. UPDATE: it's not peculiar at all... it's the printed version that doesn't have the circle. I should actually read my own content in future.  Peculiar-Looking Beret Badges on Stand Down Photo Here's an interesting snippet of information from Austin Ruddy: "Another ebay fake? It certainly looks like it: crudely-marked 'ARP' on the outside flap but stamped '1952' inside the bag. However, there is more to this than meets the eye... I saw one of these at London's Portobello Road market in 1990 and couldn't work it out. It puzzled me for years until I was told the answer. Very occasionally, the post-war Civil Defence Corps still used the term 'ARP', so is this a piece of 1950s CDC kit? No, but the clue is in the 1952 stamp. This is indeed a genuine WW2 ARP first aid bag - there should be a 1940 stamp somewhere inside it - but it was reissued in 1952 to His Majesty's Prison staff, hence the accompanying 'HMP' stamp. They must have had a surplus glut of these ARP first aid bags and didn't want to send them for ragging."
Coming up for auction at the end of the month at C&T Auctions in Kent is this ARP Pattern 71 tunic. It has ARP buttons, Welwyn Garden City area title, four war service chevrons, senior warden rank chevrons and a St John Ambulance Association qualification badge. The shoulder titles are the printed type and there is a whistle lanyard but the sheen on this make me believe it may be a post-war addition.. 1941 dated and looks to be in fabulous condition. Although not a rare badge, this Local Air Raid Precautions (LARP) Civil Defence Instructor badge has its original card backing. This details the maker H. W. Miller of Birmingham; the badge has H.W.M. Ltd to its rear.  Local Air Raid Precautions (LARP) Civil Defence Instructor Badge On Original Card Direct from the garden shed of a notorious shyster in the Midlands is this monstrosity. As ever, it's being hawked on eBay and there are several idiots who think it looks genuine. Completely fake helmet, ARP was almost never used on helmets, adding 15 front and back because of course that's really important and even West Ham is spelt without the space. Doing a little bit of research, buying a book, joining a few forums and Facebook groups and asking a few questions can stop you from wasting away your hard earned cash on crap like this.
UPDATE: a couple of replies indicate that this may be a British Rail collar insignia from the 1960s. Examples I have been able to find online don't have the circle but it could be a variation. This badge is currently on eBay and marked as a home front badge. It may possible be a local variation of the bomb reconnaissance badge.  Possible WW2 Civil Defence Bomb Reconnaissance Variant Badge |
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