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Description: | This woman's Air Raid Precaution (ARP) warden's uniform dating from the Second World War consists of a navy blue worsted jacket and trousers. The badges on the jacket indicate that the unknown wearer was a civil defence instructor based in Kensington.
The white cord on the left shoulder is attached to a whistle kept in the breast pocket. The whistle was used to attract the public's attention. The warden would have worn a tin helmet, marked with the letter 'A', and carried a special gas mask.
The Air Raid Wardens Service was set up in April 1937 and by September 1939 there were more than 1.5 million wardens in Britain. It was open to men and women. The latter ranged in age from teenagers to women in their sixties. The wardens were responsible for sounding the air raid sirens when a raid was expected so that people got into the bomb shelters in good time and again, when it was safe to leave the shelters. They manned first aid posts and helped to cope with the aftermath of bombing raids. They also had to deal with the many unexploded bombs, evacuating everyone within 600 yards of the bomb, and alerting the Bomb Disposal Unit. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ | Publisher: | Museum of London | Rights holder: | Museum of London | Subjects: | London at War | Temporal: | 1939-1945 | Source: | Museum of London | Identifier: | http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/rser... | Go to resource |
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