A very good condition, 1943-dated ARP Pattern 59a serge battledress in up for auction on eBay. The austerity (a) jacket featured exposed buttons that were quicker to manufacture. The blouse is a small size though.
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An interesting piece of info in the Badges of Rank files at the National Archives is that there were four different manufacturing options considered for badges in October 1941: Embroidered, Calico Printed, Woven & Screen Printed.
All types were available at the same time. It was a decision to go with embroidered for the first batch but as more and more badges were needed the printed variety was ordered. Each had merits and demerits - Embroidered looked better and could put up with wear and tear better; CPA (Calico Printers Association) was cheap but frayed. Woven was quick to produce. Screen Printed very fast production but faded. Across Civil Defence Region 5 - which was the 28 metropolitan boroughs of London, most local authorities had area markings with their own name (e.g. Lewisham, Kingston, West Ham). The below photo shows the rarer "London" area marking. I'm unsure where this badge was issued, but possibly the outer boroughs may have issued the badge.
UPDATE: I have been informed that "LONDON" was an area marking used by the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service (LAAS). With the release of the serge uniforms in the autumn of 1941, most local authorities issued area marking badges with either the county, town or urban district on them. These were sewn below the CD badge on the right breast pocket.
The vast majority of these title were either oblong or curved to mirror the circular shape of the CD breast badge. There were sewn using the 'old gold' colour thread.The vast majority of the badges had a border but not every area did. Generally, the more common post-war Civil Defence Corps badges were the arched variety but without a border and in a more yellow thread. As interesting two-page note about the necessity to continue production during air raids. Initially, as intruder aircraft flew towards their targets, sirens would sound and all production would cease as employees heeded to the shelters. This would cause immense loss of production. To tackle the issue, the Department for Home Security issued this pamphlet advising on measures to mitigate against always sending people to the shelters.
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