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A nice photograph of a member of the Home Guard with a local Air Raid Warden. Probably early in the war given the unofficial overalls on the warden.  An erly war photograph showing Doris Waddington wearing a warden's helmet outside a wardens' post. The interesting aspect is the large "ARP WARDEN" sign affixed to the wall.  Large WW2 "ARP Warden" Sign One of the duties of an air raid warden was to ensure everyone in his area od responsibility both had and knew how to use their gas mask.  WW2 ARP Warden Issuing A Gas Mask An interesting photograph showing a large number of despatch riders. Their helmets feature the "DR" for their role within the CD services.  WW2 Civil Defence Despatch Riders This wonderful photograph of nurses also shows a scarce ARP chaplain's helmet. A similar armband was also issued.  WW2 ARP Chaplain's Helmet This photo shows a member of the Civil Defence Service taking a call at an underground facility somewhere in London. The most curious aspect of the photo is the special breast badge that has the CD emblem combined with "NEW TUBE SHELTERS". This is something I have not come across before, If you have any further information please leave a reply.  New Tube Shelters - A Most Curious WW2 Civil Defence Breast Badge It's rare to see Civil Defence officers wearing peaked caps. This photo showing a CD group from Nuneaton has two officers wearing them. What service they originally came from is hard to determine. The man to the left has affixed his ARP badge to the cap. No piping can be seen so possibly the caps were police issue.  Unusual Peaked Caps for Civil Defence Officers Six photographs showing how to deal with an incendiary device using a Redhill scoop and a container, A couple of staged photos showing the new ARP Pattern 71 serge jacket that was being issued in the Summer/Autumn of 1941. One photo shows the slacks (ARP Pattern 73) and the other the skirt (ARP Pattern 72)  ARP Pattern 71 Serge Uniform Portraits First Aid Post personnel from Preston pose for a group portrait. It would appear that the man in the middle (sat down) has two area markings below his CD breast badge. The bottom one is Preston but I cannot determine what the other one is.  WW2 Civil Defence FAP Group Photo Group portraits of Civil Defence volunteers are always interesting for throwing up details. This one has a Fire Watcher - FW - helmet tucked under the legs of the man at the front. A peculiarity on this photo is that it appears that the ranking members are only wearing chevrons on their right sleeves. Also, everyone is wearing a beret and it's not often that you see ladies wearing them.  WW2 Southampton Civil Defence Portrait 1942  Close up of Southampton CD personnel Another interesting group portrait of First Aid Party CD personnel from Cornwall. Undated but after the summer of 1941. I have seen other photos of Civil Defence members from Cornwall and they all usually appear to show the special yellow county cap badge being worn.  WW2 ARP / Civil Defence Yellow Cornwall County Cap Badge The ladies are all wearing the Pattern 71 tunic with the drivers' cap. The gentlemen are in the serge battledress and berets and have a mixture of CD and ARP breast badges (commonly seen as local authorities used up existing stock of badges). The District Warden in the centre of bottom row appears to be the only person wearing a lanyard. Only one person appears to have a St. John qualification on his right pocket. Image courtesy of Imprints of WWII.  WW2 Civil Defence Group Portrait From Cornwall An interesting photo of a First Aid Party (FAP) at work. Most likely a staged photo is shows a casualty being readied for a waiting ARP ambulance (theirs the ambulance driver on the back of the vehicle with 'A' on their helmet). Of interest in the helmet insignia of the person in the middle. The large diamond above the FAP letters signifies the person as the Party Leader (they also appear to have two chevrons on their sleeve). There's also a gentlemen at the front of the stretcher wearing gaiters which are not often seen worn.  A very nice study of Miss Frankie Whitten taking part in a parade of London County Council (LCC) Ambulance Drivers at Hyde Park, London, shortly after her wedding earlier that day at Caxton Hall Registry Office to Surgeon Lieutenant J D Thompson. IWM HU 74991 Coypright  WW2 Civil Defence Ambulance Driver Portrait An interesting group portrait from an unknown location. Interesting to see they adopted the white 'W' on a black square on a white helmet. Not overly rare but interesting to see a lot in one photo. Although the quality of the photo is not great, the senior officers in the centre appear to have additional markings about the 'W', possibly the rank diamonds that were used in the early part of the war.  WW2 Civil Defence Warden's Service Group Portrait This interesting image (claimed to be from 1940) shows a number of sirens that can fixed to the door of a motor vehicle. Given that the majority of city and town's had a central air raid warning service I am not entirely certain to whom these devices were issued. The siren may have been used as an emergency vehicle siren.  WW2 Portable Motor Vehicle Sirens The King and Queen inspect bomb damage near the Belgian Suite in the grounds of Buckingham Palace caused by the explosion of a 250kg German time bomb on 10 September, 1940.  Buckingham Palace Bombed - 10 September, 1940. A 1943-dated photograph of a first world war veteran warden from Fulham in London
An interesting selection of photos showing how a First Aid Party were to deal with a gas-attack casualty. An interesting photo of a Civil Defence reserve member. The insignia on his right pocket appears to be the badge often seen placed on the upper sleeve of most mobile reserve columns.
This rather happy chap is probably showing off his brand new serge battledress and beret. Introduced from the autumn of 1941 is replaced the rather inferior bluette overalls. The only markings on the battledress is a Derbyshire local area marking. He has not yet attached his ARP badge to the beret.  Civil Defence Serge Battledress Introduced 1941 A couple of nice portraits on the Alamy photo stock website. The gentleman is wearing the bluette overalls and his own beret (prior to the introduction of the CD beret in 1941). The lady is wearing the early driver's coat and a helmet with what appears to be the gas cape cover.   An interesting parade photograph of Civil Defence members in Lenton, Nottinghamshire. Interesting to see that only a few have the area marking of 'NOTTINGHAM' under the CD breast badge - and it is unbordered. The officer has a yellow-piped side cap. Images courtesy of Lenton Times.  WW2 Civil Defence Parade, Lenton, Nottinghamshire (© Lenton Times) This portrait shows Edith Essery from Hartleopol in her Civil Defence ambulance uniform. Either an ambulance attendant or driver her ARP Pattern 71 serge uniform has an unofficial local rank badge. Two (narrow) yellow bars in the usual rank insignia for an officer (lowest senior officer rank) but these are much thicker than usually seen. The cap badge does not seem to be the silver ARP badge but is probably a locally produced example featuring a large 'A'. Images from Hartlepool History Then And Now.  WW2 Civil Defence Ambulance Driver/Attendant Portrait Warden Taylor notes down an incident report in his wardens' post. At the War & Peace Revival Show in Kent a few of us manned an ARP Post and helped tell the story of the wardens to many interested punters within the Home Front Village. An amazing amount of time and effort when into the displays. And by Jove was it hot...  ARP Warden Taylor takes down an incident report. (© Stuart McGregor https://www.facebook.com/stuart.mcgregor.3597) |
AuthorNews about interesting insignia, ARP related info and period photos that turn up. Archives
September 2018
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