L.A.R.P. Civil Defence Instructor lapel badge
 

I was wondering if anyone can please tell me the significance of the letter L before the A.R.P. in the title of this badge. Is it anything more significant than 'Local'?

The badge has some interesting provenance as it came with a Defence Medal in its original box named to a Mr M.R. Atkinson of 5, Appleby Close, Ilkeston. Derbyshire. His entry in the 1939 Register gives his occupation as a Certificated Assistant Schoolmaster but, perhaps more interestingly he is also an A.R.P. Warden in Ilkeston.

This badge may be offered for sale along with the paperwork at some point in the future.

I have always believed it to be Local.

regards

Thank you, Local would certainly appear to be the obvious choice.

Local Authority Rescue Party.

Dave.

Dave,

having spent some time googling it would appear that Simon was right.

https://www.ww2civildefence.co.uk/ar...rs-badges.html

The other Simon.

Having collected Home front for many years I do believe it stands for ` LOCAL` but have seen these offered by dealers as ` lONDON, LEEDS,LIVERPOOL either out of ignorance or deception ......

Very nice indeed, the 1939 register is often a real pain, it's what is not shown that fascinates me, on the righthand page.
It would be so nice if you could simply go down to Kew and order the relevant volume and sit in the reading room, but, not in my lifetime.

The letter L does indeed indicate Local.

It was designed to identify those who had qualified as an Instructor on a locally run course as opposed to those who had qualified on a central, nationally-run course at an ARP School and qualified with a Special Certificate who wore the badge with the letters ARPS. An example of the award of the ARPS qualification is attached.

In addition those centrally trained wore a badge with a gold coloured crown and edge, those locally trained wearing it with a silver coloured crown and edge.

These and many other ARP/CD badges are described and illustrated in my book "Doing Their Bit'; Home Front lapel badges 1939-1945".

Copies on Amazon or from the publisher, Sabrestorm.

Jon

Thank you all for your informative replies to my question.

Hello,

Here is a Certificate of mine for a LOCAL Civil Defence Instructor, this one being for the other badge in the series, namely Anti-Gas Training.

The rear of the certificate has a typed addition stating that the badge was issued 12.8.1942, so maybe it wasnt until 1942 that the badges were first issued as she had qualified much earlier, namely 4.2.1939.

Incidently sometime over the years I have lost the badge for this certificate so if anyone knows of one for sale (With females Pin Back) or has one for sale I would gladly buy it to complete the certificate.

I have other certificates of hers relating to St. John also, a lady very local to me.

regards

Simon, what a lovely thing, I take then the badges were actually issued without an official number?

Frank,

I have not seen the chrome series with individual issue numbers.

regards

The image below shows the Home Office's notification of the introduction of the whole range of Instructors' badges in January 1942.

Although they were an official badge they were not issued, the instructor buying the appropriate badge at their own expense, hence the lack of any official numbering.

There were also private purchase cloth versions.

Jon

Thanks Jon,

Very informative.

Two things I didnt know, firstly the cloth badges - lovely.

Secondly that there were 4 badges??

Not seen the one at (b) Instructors CAGS. Is it Central Authority Gas School? or something else?

regards

Simon,

The CAGS version is the hardest to find. I failed to find one for my lapel badge book.

The C stands for Civilian which indicates that they were trained at a Civilian Anti-Gas School, two of which - Easingwold and Falfield -were set up before the war to train instructors who would return to their local authorities and train those wardens who would then qualify to become Local Instructors.

Easingwold is still the government's Emergency Planning College.

Jon