Image from the Imperial War Museum.
A week or so ago I raised the somewhat vexed question here of the number and effects of air raids over our area during the Second World War, and asked what readers knew, and the things they had heard.
Well, I had an excellent response to that, and I’m still after more, so please do pop back to that post and check it out. Blog readers have been busy on related material, and hopefully when this busy spell passes I can get some of that material up on the blog.
Meantimes, there’s this wonderful piece of Second World War ephemera supplied by the wonderful Reg Fullelove, via the dogged and dedicated young David Evans, who’s been mining a whole bunch of great stuff lately.
David went to chat with Reg, who donated a wonderful booklet – a manual for the civilian air raid warden – which has been scanned in full and made available for download at the foot of this post.
David explains how Reg came to have the manual in his collection:
The Air Raid Warden
Image courtesy Reg Fullelove/David Evans. Click for a larger version.
Another enjoyable afternoon chat with blog contributor Mr. Reg Fullelove BEM who had kindly offered these artefacts from World War 2. Reg’s father, David was an Air Raid Warden in Brownhills during the conflict, and this is the medal he received after the war had ended. The box in which it was posted is equally intersting..On His Majesty’s serivce, is intact and bears David Fullelove’s address in Browonhills.
It was quite a poignant moment for me when I saw this medal, as my father had been an Air Raid Warden locally, and, with the passing of time his medal had gone.
Image courtesy Reg Fullelove/David Evans. Click for a larger version.
The other artefact is the little pocket-sized handbook, .
I would like to thank Reg for his ongoing generosity and kindness.
David
You can download the whole booklet in PDF form from the link below:
The Duties of an Air Raid Warden – PDF format – 4 megabytes
If you have anything to add, please do: you know the (air raid) drill: comment here, or mail me – BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers, and my undying thanks to Reg for being such a top bloke and contributor. A most generous, kind hearted and fascinating gentleman.
