This group portrait (currently on eBay) shows a number of ARP/CD personnel and a boy scout. The lady sat in the centre at the bottom is most interesting. She is wearing the standard issue Pattern 71 tunic with a beret (not usually seen). Her insignia is very interesting: she is wearing an instructor's badge on her collar, a St John qualification on her right breast pocket and it would appear she also has the Life Saving badge on her lower left forearm (a most unusual place for this badge). Given her central position she is probably the most senior person in the group.
The gentleman next to her has five war service chevrons so this dates the photo towards the end of the war. His breast pocket badge is the red on black ARP type (rather then the more usual yellow on black CD version). The majority of the other ladies have the Pattern 47 wrapover with red lined collars. They also are wearing the felt hat.
0 Comments
One of the lesser seen helmet markings is that related to decontamination of food stores following a chemical attack. An immense amount of preparation went into dealing with expected chemical/poison weapon attacks. Decontamination Squads were to deal directly with the chemical weapons but aside from them specialists were trained to provide direct support in managing food stocks that may have been affected. Another part of the system was the Food Analyst who had the rather unfortunate helmet marking of "FOOD ANAL". I don't have much information about the photo and cannot ascertain for sure it is an original wartime photograph.
It's always interesting to see the uniform regulations being bent. This pretty standard group portrait of (probably) wardens features a lady on the bottom left wearing a male battledress. It's rare but not unheard of to see period photos of females having managed to get hold of a battledress. Apart from that it's a pretty standard photo of uniforms and insignia. Appears that the majority of berets have the printed CD in a yellow circle. That's a bit unusual as those with ARP badges usually fixed them to their berets. There's a member of the Home Guard lurking in the photo as well...
A group photograph of civil defence personnel wearing both types of ARP Pattern battledress - the first issue and the the later austerity (with exposed buttons). Oddly, this photo shows some men only displaying an area marking in the place where the CD breast badge would normally be. Alas I cannot make out the area name though the photo appears to come from Cumbria. Probably a case of the local authority have some difficulty in sourcing the badges.
A fantastic group shot of a number of Rescue squads from the Camberwell area of south London. All appear to be in bluette overalls and the distinct lack of battledress dates this before the autumn of 1941.
|
Please support this website's running costs and keep it advert free
Categories
All
Archives
May 2024
|