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A couple of nice items from Beckenham in south east London. An enamel wardens' post sign and an original local area marking for the bluette overalls. 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 The German butterfly bomb was a small 2 kg anti-personnel device capable of killing or causing serious injury. The early cluster bomb was used extensively on the Eastern Front but thankfully only a relatively small number were dropped on British towns and cities in East Anglia and the North West. More information about butterfly bombs  Butterfly Bomb Sign Preparations for the likely bombing of military installations, industrial facilities and civilian populations led to the creation of many thousands of temporary and permanent air raid shelters. For people caught outside when the siren sounded they were guided to the nearest shelter by the ubiquitous 'Shelter' signs. These would often convey the distance to the shelter in yards and also sometimes the number of people the shelter could accommodate. There were obviously many hundreds of thousands of these enamel signs manufactured. Some are double sided so they could be used from any direction. Following the war many would stay in situ for many years and others were removed and thrown away. Those that remain are highly collectable and can reach many hundreds of pounds at auction.  Black Enamel WW2 ARP Shelter Sign During the second world war dozens of different designs for ARP signs were created. This is a high quality chromium plated version. Most were for positioning on doors and some for ARP posts. They are highly sought after collectables and often faked these days.  WW2 Metal Air Raid Warden Sign - Caxton Name Plate Company. |
AuthorNews about interesting insignia, ARP related info and period photos that turn up. Archives
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