A.R.P. Badge
Theme : World War Two

A silver A.R.P badge comprising the 'Air Raid Precautions' initials surmounted by the Royal Crown. On its reverse, this badge carries a London Assay Mark dating it to 1942. These badges were issued (between 1937 - 1943) to ARP volunteers on completion of their training. An early recruitment poster showed an outstretched hand, palm uppermost, on which lies one of these badges, the image is captioned "Where's Yours ?". There were approximately 1.5 million ARP wardens in Britain, almost a supplementary police force. They were expected to know everyone who lived within their 'sector', then if a bomb dropped, the warden could direct the emergency services quickly and efficiently. Other duties included supervising the 'blackout' , ensuring not a chink of light was showing, from vehicles or buildings, that might inadvertently assist enemy aircraft. They also had to supervise people in reaching the air-raid shelters, then in the 'all-clear' draw up accurate reports of each bombing incident.

This Item is located at The Museum Stores at Landore in the Stores