Under the Rainbow – The Armband, Civil Defence – Gold, Screen Printed on Bluette

The latest edition of The Formation Sign (the official journal of The Military Heraldry Society - Cloth Insignia Research And Collector's Society) has an excellent, detailed article about the Civil Defence armband. The journal is only available to members of the society.

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With the permission of the society, part of the text is reproduced below. You can subscribe to the society to receive the full article. 

Various versions of the Civil Defence armband

The lack of an official Civil Defence uniform before late 1939 saw the appearance of commercially produced armlets which either simply identified the wearer as a member of the ARP services or indicated his service and rank; no standard existed and there are numerous examples. 

In October 1939 the London Civil Defence Region authorised standard patterns for party leaders and control staff in the Region, which indicated both the wearer’s service and the local authority from which they came, but it was not until July 1940 that a nationally recognised emblem was produced. Home Security Circular 155/1940 of 3rd July instructed that local armlets should be discontinued but to emphasise the status of the CD Services and provide a uniform, visible means of identification, a standard blue CD armlet would be introduced for all members of air raid precautions services not in possession of ARP uniforms. 

​Carrying the Civil Defence device in yellow and supplied free it was hoped that they would be worn by personnel on or off duty; a nominal roll of those issued with an armlet would be kept and they should be returned if the wearer ceased to be a member of the service for which it was issued. Requests for armlets should be sent to the Ministry of Home Security at Queens College, Oxford and on 25th July 1940 local authorities were told they would receive a small parcel of the new armlet. These were only to be worn by First Aid (FA) Parties or Stretcher Parties, Mobile FA Units, Rescue Parties, Ambulance Drivers and Attendants, FA Posts, Decontamination Squads, GIOS and Assistants, Wardens, Control and Report Centres, Messengers, Senior offices of those services as well as Controllers and their executive staffs and IOs. A 13th August notice pointed out HSC 155 did not apply to armlets indicating rank prescribed for local authority officers; Chief and District Wardens in London Region or by Group Officers, and Group Rescue Offrs; these were to be worn on the right arm with blue on the left.