The badge below for a Civil Defence Reserve (CDR) Region XII member's beret is a fake / reproduction. Several badges have appeared online for the CDR (e.g. Kent County CD Mobile Reserve shoulder titles) and white-lettered and embroidered Fire Guard insignia.
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A Fire Guard certificate issued by the Borough of Brentford & Chiswick.
This interesting badge recently sold on eBay for £127.50 (including shipping). It is silver hallmarked and includes two scrolls—one for RESCUE STATIONS and the bottom one for L.A.R.P., which I assume can only refer to Local Air Raid Precautions (as seen on instructors' badges).
The National Archives has a record for "North Midland Coal Owners Rescue Station Co Ltd". It appears they had rescue squads and ambulances that could attend to incidents at collieries in the area. A question recently cropped up regarding area markings. A re-enactor was asking questions about an area marking for a specific county and found a battledress online with two different area markings. The claim being made by the seller that the warden had been sent from Somerset to assist with civil defence duties in Beckenham, south-east London during the summer of 1944 as the V-weapons targeted the capital.
The claim being made is that the volunteer sent to London added the Beckenham area title to show he had also served in that location. There was one period photo I saw many moons ago (which I cannot now find) with a senior ranking chap wearing two area titles. This might explain that particular photo but I've not come across any documentation or sources to confirm this happening. As an aside, the number of area titles that cover counties is interesting. A lot of area markings appear to be for towns and London boroughs. However, there are a few examples of counties - Notts and Norfolk being two examples. It does appear that the south west of England had quite a few county badges - Somerset, Gloucestershire, Devon and Cornwall certainly existed and perhaps others I haven't yet seen. Original second world war enamel signs are avidly collected and the below example was sold on eBay for £425 (including shipping).
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