This second world war Doctor's helmet recently sold on eBay for £383 (including shipping). The Imperial War Museum has an example with a single thin central black stripe. Home Front helmets prices are continuing their upward trajectory and there are often keen late bidders for the rarer examples on eBay.
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A rare factory ARP badge has cropped up on eBay; W.A. & A.C. Churchman was a British cigarette manufacturer based in Ipswich, Suffolk. There are literally thousands of variations of the industrial ARP badges but I have seen very few that have "KEY MAN" on them. There are a number of celluloid badges that has a yellow Key Man variation.
This enamel badge is sure to generate considerable interest. See the snippet below regarding the role of Key Men. One of the best films I have seen is this example shot in Burnley in November 1941. It covers a wealth of the Civil Defence Services - the ARP, Fire, Ambulance/First Aid and Police - as they deal with various incidents.
A large number of helmets are shown and there are some oddities amongst them. a plain white helmet, a plain white helmet with just a small diamond, a black helmet with two different styles of W front and back, and one with a very large W. Examples of Shelter Warden (SW) as well as SM (which I assumed was Shelter Marshal but here acts like a Messenger). Even though late in 1941, the majority of shots show bluette and civilian clothes. Just one pieve of film early on shows a battledress being worn. Well worth taking the time to watch this film. An example of the wearing of the war service chevrons on different sleeves. Although the official guideline was for the chevrons to be on the lower right cuff here we have an example of a chap wearing them on the lower left cuff. The stand down photo is in front of Yeadon Town Hall probably in May of 1945.
Currently on eBay this CDR (Civil Defence Reserve) helmet is up for grabs. Read more about the Civil Defence Reserve here and also about the special reserve group that served in Antwerp.
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