Child's Air Raid Warden's Uniform

[Flying10uk]

While looking for something else in my attic recently I rediscovered this, my late father's child's air raid warden's uniform. This was made in mid 1940 by my father's grandmother who had been a professional London seamstress and businesswoman, giving up her career in 1900 when she got married.

When my father received this uniform he had already experienced the horrors of war when a German mine laying aircraft had been shot down over Clacton and one of the mines on board had detonated. Later the same year my father experienced being dive bombed and suffered serious injuries to his ears but received no medical treatment for this until after WW2.

One of the most awful experiences that my father had during the war was witnessing a Spitfire pilot burn to death after he had crash landed in a field, near the family home.

My father loved wearing his air raid warden's uniform, during WW2, as my Grandfather was an air raid warden in Clacton on Sea as well as being in the Home Guard. Yes the uniform should probably be black but in 1940 everything was in short supply and so people made do with what they had.

My father received no counselling or treatment for his PTSD but his recurring nightmares finally stopped in the 1970's.

Before anyone asks, yes I still have the sundial pictured in the centre of the last picture, although I don't store this item in my attic.

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[GeeRam]

Yes the uniform should probably be black but in 1940 everything was in short supply and so people made do with what they had.

Actually, its not far off the correct colour for the early war ARP 'Bluette' one piece overalls, first issued in 1939, and which was correct for the BoB era.
The two piece serge wool 'battledress' style CD uniform seen in the photo's being worn by your Grandfather wasn't issued until early 1941, and wasn't in fact black either, being a very dark indigo blue.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

What a unique collection. I hope you have someone to be a steward of the items and the story.

[Flying10uk]

My father started collecting during WW2 and many of the items I still have but are mostly stored separately to the items that I have collected. Somewhere I still have some of the shrapnel from the bomb that nearly killed my father and other family members in November 1940.

[Surpmil]

The "invisibly wounded" is one term for such cases.

A lucky stroke that your ancestors I assume fell outside the lost generations.

Not many Decco sundials about - practically a contradiction in terms!

[Flying10uk]

A lucky stroke that your ancestors I assume fell outside the lost generations.

Both my grandfathers were 14 years old when WW1 ended and there were British soldiers of that age serving in WW1, I believe, against all the rules, but not my grandfathers. Wind forward to WW2 and one grandfather was in a reserved occupation working above ground at a coal mine and fire watching on roof tops when he wasn't doing that. My other grandfather was also in a reserved occupation of being the only qualified electrical engineer in the Clacton area to service air raid sirens. He was also in the Home Guard and Civil Defence. Both grandfathers were at the upper end of the age bracket for conscription by WW2.

[GeeRam]

Both my grandfathers were 14 years old when WW1 ended and there were British soldiers of that age serving in WW1, I believe, against all the rules, but not my grandfathers. Wind forward to WW2 and one grandfather was in a reserved occupation working above ground at a coal mine and fire watching on roof tops when he wasn't doing that. My other grandfather was also in a reserved occupation of being the only qualified electrical engineer in the Clacton area to service air raid sirens. He was also in the Home Guard and Civil Defence. Both grandfathers were at the upper end of the age bracket for conscription by WW2.

Sounds like both of your Grandfathers were born the same year as both of mine, 1904.

Both of mine were toolmakers, and like one of yours one was a fire warden, and the other was in his factories HG unit. My paternal Grandfather was one of the 1200 odd HG servicemen to die as a result of HG service, when he was injured in an ammunition explosion at a West London AA battery he was guarding. The same explosion killed two ATS gunners, and my Grandfather was hospitalised and while recovering in hospital, he caught bacterial meningitis and died. My Grandmother then spent the next 5 years battling with the War Dept for a war widows pension, as the cause of death in their view was not related to the original injury from the explosion.

[Flying10uk]

Sounds like both of your Grandfathers were born the same year as both of mine, 1904.

Yes that's correct and one of my late grans who worked/helped out in a Red Cross hospital, in the UK, during WW1. Somewhere I have a photo of here dressed in a Red Cross nurse's uniform although she wasn't a nurse, she was a "helper". When my gran was quite elderly she was still able to describe how she made dressings up at the hospital as, apparently, not all dressings were bought in. `