were air raid wardens paid

A little further up the road from the cinema, a large ironmonger's shop received a direct hit and a fire spread rapidly. One of the chief objects of air bombardment is to make civilian life impossible by bringing it to a standstill. He went through two floors before coming to a rest. I cooled down a bit after I had smoked a cigarette. It included the Raid Wardens' Service that was to report on bombing incidents. (27), Peters faced a more serious problem on 9th July 1943, when the town suffered a very heavy raid. October 2019 They were considered the toughest set of wardens in the borough. Eric Parsons escaped from this ordeal because of his interest in rabbits. (31), At the height of the Bitiz there were 127,000 Civil Defence workers. Some were paid but most were unpaid and did it on top of a full-time job, a bit of a parallel situation to Firemen in some places. (14), Being a warden was a very dangerous occupation. (21), Frances Faviell commented that "The stench was the worst thing about it, that – and having to realise that these frightful pieces of flesh had once been living, breathing people… if one was too lavish in making one body almost whole, than another one would have sad gaps. To alert the wardens a buzzer would be pressed at the control centre, which caused all … The object of air bombardment is not to hit military objectives but to attack the nerve centres of the man in the street. (32), Stanley Rothwell was highly critical of those British politicians that he felt had been responsible for the war. Most were civilian volunteers who also worked a day job, although there were some full-time air raid wardens. ARP badges and insignia. The lifeboat was sent out but no survivors were found. The Post itself was in a basement of an old house. Mr. Frederick Whales, a railwayman who is also an air raid warden, unearthed the body of his niece, Molly Stiller. I laid her on the stretcher, 'You'll be comfortable now my dear.' On 10 p.m. on Saturday, 26th October, 1940, Stanney in Holtye Road, was demolished. June 2018 Uniform First, they said they did not want any more women; then, when that argument was disposed of, they said they would not employ married women, and asked me why I wanted to work when I was married. In May 1941, the Metropolitan Police claimed that out of of a sample of 228 men prosecuted for looting, 96 held official positions. Late on Friday afternoon a small number of enemy aircraft crossed the Southeast Coast. There were several air raid warnings in late July but little damage. They not only had to have practical skills to tackle the aftermath of bomb incidents but they were also tasked with the heavy duty of cheering up the population of London while the bombs continued to fall. I laid her on the stretcher, 'You'll be comfortable now my dear.' All lights near an outside door must be screened. Outsell, a sergeant of the special police, reported for duty despite the fact that he suffered injury by a machine-gun bullet. A county town in the Southeast area was attacked, and a cinema was hit, causing a large number of casualties, including many children. I did exactly the same thing with the other one. December 2018 They were considered the toughest set of wardens in the borough. Remember that most of the injuries in an air raid are caused not by direct hits by bombs but by flying fragments of debris or by bits of shells. Every factory, every office should be provided with bomb-proof refuges, or people upon whom our economic life depends will not be able to carry on work. And we must begin by realising that ARP is a psychological problem far more than a structural or technical one. Every local council was responsible for organising ARP wardens, messengers, ambulance drivers, rescue parties and liaison with police and fire brigades. Government consideration for air raid precautions increased in the 1920s and 30s, with the Raid Wardens' Service set up in 1937 to report on bombing incidents. Thank you Civilian Air Raid Wardens for your commitment to help keep my husband and his family safe, and mine. The hand bell was part of the equipment used by ARP wardens. Once, they had had a woman on the strength, but she had left months ago. I wonder, why had I been so angry." We could hear cries coming from what was left of the house. In these target areas the street-lighting should be made so that it can be controlled by the Air Wardens on the alarm signal being given; and while shelters should be hurried on with and strengthened, night and day, the people's spirits should be kept up by theatres and cinemas until the actual attack begins. They had found two more bodies and sent for the Light Rescue to come and take them away, and while I watched two more bodies were uncovered. Grandma was an Air-Raid Warden sounds like a great country song or perhaps a song from the ’70s.In fact, this is the story of our Grandma Sayde, my dad’s mother. He was a part of a vast network that served as the eyes and ears of the city's civilian defense force — and more. If you are sensitive you carry the scars for the rest of your life… My old soldiers, seasoned campaigners in battle, worked with tears streaming down their faces. New buildings had to incorporate spaces for shelters, and employers with a workforce of fifty or more in a designated target area were obliged to provide shelter accommodation for their employees (they would receive government funding to help pay for this). For any help you need, apply to your Warden or to your local Council Offices. The aim was to protect civilians from the danger of air-raids. And those documents helped instill a sense of duty — a dignity — into the position. (10), Winston Churchill took a keen interest in these arrangements. ", Regan then went on to explain his reaction to this difficult situation: "By now I am feeling a bit angry at the prospect of these girls being lugged by their arms and legs, so I got down beside them. We found her lying on her back, terribly injured, and quite nude. Molly Stiller, daughter of an officer in the Home Guard, was the only member of the cinema staff to be killed. During the First World War Britain was bombed by Zeppelins and Gotha bombers and it was predicted that large-scale aerial bombing of the civilian population would feature prominently in any future war. Local councils were responsible for organising all the necessary ARP services in their areas. I know I would have belted the first one that handled them with disrespect, but nobody makes a move to shift them, and they just stand there, gawping... Then I put my right arm under one of the girl's shoulders with her head resting against me, and my left arm under her knees, and carried her up. In these areas there must be a large proportion of whole-time employees. If the kettle is on the stove they know the occupants are probably downstairs and have not gone to bed; if there is a cot they know there is a baby about somewhere." Since Essex and Surrey offered far greater amenities for landing, and were reasonably handy, it was not likely that anyone would risk all the chimney-pots and roof-tops of London - let alone the trolley-bus wires." London is of course the chief target, and others will readily occur. September 2020 The Town Hall, however, had objections. Air Raid Precautions (ARP) refers to a number of organisations and guidelines in the United Kingdom dedicated to the protection of civilians from the danger of air raids. He paid $5,000, which included a 20% buyer’s premium…I thought the price seemed reasonable. Subscribe to our Spartacus Newsletter and keep up to date with the latest articles. (29), Peters himself was one of the survivors of the air raid: "I had just left the back of the Scotch Wool Shop and got to Bridglandʹs when the bombs dropped. It left 1,741 dead and 1,065 were seriously injured. A small millinery shop received a direct hit and collapsed killing the manageress. "I go to the cinema every Friday evening" he said. [Source: Imperial War Museum (?)] The most devastating raids inflicted 121 casualties for each ton of bombs dropped and it was this figure that was used as a basis for predictions. When surprise practice air raid alerts took place, blackout rules were enforced, with no lights allowed or only those behind light-tight blackout curtains in windows of … (4), John Langdon-Davies argued in 1939 that the British government should reassess its policy on ARP: "If we are to become ARP minded, we must realise that the peace-time life to which we have become reconciled must be altered fundamentally. We concentrated on improving our first aid skills. Film – to lessen the danger of fire and prevent fire from spreading. Intriguingly, when Air Raid Wardens was released with Nothing But Trouble on one tape in 1993, the blurb on the back told you the ending. I know none of us are very happy having to handle corpses, and it shows. Equipment 4. November 2018 Air Raid Wardens is a 1943 comedy film directed by Edward Sedgwick and starring Laurel and Hardy. One made a direct hit on a cinema, another on an ironmonger's shop higher up the road, another on a builder's and ladies' outfitters and one fell near a factory. A Mrs Dyson, who lived opposite one of the houses which had suffered a direct hit, described the terrible noise of the explosions. I joined the Air Raid Precautions system and became an ambulance driver attached to No 3 First Aid Post in Livingstone Rd. Air Raid Precautions (ARP) After the air raids on Britain during the First World War, the government feared that air raids by German bomber aircraft would threaten people in the UK again. All set against a white background. They did not like woman. In my family, we knew them as the ARP men, although in an ARP poster advertising for recruits, all recruits are described as wardens. Not half of the victims had been identified by Sunday." I could still talk the language, just as I can still recite 'Au clair de la lune,' but it did not mean very much." A proportion of bossy and bad tempered wardens gave the whole service a bad name. In December 1940, Bernard Regan attended a serious incident on the Isle of Dogs in Poplar. Air raid wardens take up position at the entrances to public shelters in Hong Kong, during an exercise in the last days before the Japanese invasion. They carried children, old people, bundles of blankets, and the odd personal possessions which some eccentrics insisted on taking with them to the shelters." They managed to save a public house and a warehouse from total demolition and by nightfall they had the fires under control. I was given a tin hat, a whistle, and a CD respirator. They had to be strict with blackout, as the smallest chink of light could be seen by enemy planes. Over a great part of the countryside, modified lighting should be at once allowed, and places of entertainment opened." It takes more than blind courage to face this task and handle these gruesome bundles, it takes guts of an unusual order, or else one has a callous nature that cares for nothing. Senior military personnel from all branches of the armed forces were called upon to advise the committee. She was among the killed. This is a ceiling pike. In the first place, a properly functioning Labour Party and a Trades Council, voicing needs and grievances from the wards, or branches, or places of work, criticizing and checking the red tape and ineptitude where these occurred, and, above all, insisting on the treatment of people as people, could have made a great deal of difference… Secondly, a proper democratic organization within the Wardens' Service itself could have rectified many mistakes, as well as developing an atmosphere of willing co-operation, and individual responsibility and initiative, in place of the sour grumbling and ‘browned off' feeling that became only too common." By the time the Blitz started in the summer of 1940 full-time ARP personnel were being paid £3 and 5 shillings (£3 5s.) It was the largest loss of life in any air raid in Sussex. Presently one of Mr. Brackpool's colleagues came across the boy's dead body. I realized what it was, and seeing that nothing could be done in the darkness, I took my squad back to the depot to report what I had seen and to prepare to come back at daybreak with shrouds and the death wagon to do the unsavory job of picking up the bits and pieces. Mrs. L Bennett typed us a booklet containing all names, addresses and where people planned to shelter during air raids. The 1.4 million ARP (Air Raid Precautions) Wardens in the UK during WWII were mostly part-time volunteers who had full-time jobs. They fail in every attempt to succeed in the military and return to their home town Huxton only to find out that their store now is open, with a man named Eustace Middling (Donald Meek) in charge, selling radios instead … Local A.R.P. February 2018 Stay under cover until you hear the sirens sounding continuously for two minutes on the same note which is the signal "Raiders Passed". Photograph I have done a little more research since asking the question - apparently there were 1.4 million air raid wardens, but central government records listing exactly who they were have not survived. "The unskilled working class provided the fewest, probably more because of transport problems and the physical strain of their daily occupations than for lack of patriotism. Recently, a Manette couple uncovered a trove of air raid warden history in a crawl space under their home. After treatment he went on duty. Local councils were responsible for organising all the necessary ARP services in their areas. By 1944, with the decreasing threat from enemy bombing, the total of full-time ARP staff had dropped to approximately 67,000 (10,000 of whom were women). I wonder, why had I been so angry. (22), Stanley Rothwell hated this aspect of the job: " It takes more than blind courage to face this task and handle these gruesome bundles, it takes guts of an unusual order, or else one has a callous nature that cares for nothing. ... brain drain, airy-fairy, aid, AIDS, paid, laid, said, maid, aide. Game Their ranks were varied. My tale is not a story of war; I will leave that to historical blog writers. How thoughtful. December 2019 When the air raid warning siren sounded ARP wardens were responsible for helping civilians to the nearest shelter—the London the Underground was often the nearest and safest place to spend the night during the Blitz. We could hear cries coming from what was left of the house. The number of men and women working in the fire service also declined. In these areas, which comprise at least seven-eighths of the United Kingdom, gas-masks should be kept at home and only carried in the target areas as scheduled. Under which names were they clowning around? When the red alert sounded that meant "raiders overhead", the air raid sirens would be set-off. The handbook, excerpted here, outlined the responsibilities of the air warden, from knowing his assigned area and its residents, to supervising drills, to attack procedures and post-attack duties. These were run both by paid wardens and by those who were volunteer clerks, ... An appeal for Air Raid Precautions volunteers, including wardens, on the side of the Town Hall. About nine-tenths of ARP wardens were part-timers who came on duty after they finished their day's work, and one in six was a woman. These shelters were built of brick with roofs of reinforced concrete. Real ARP does not mean digging a large number of shelters and then going on living as we have done heretofore. December 2020 Three, don’t run. Medal In April 1937, the Air Raid Wardens' Service was created which aimed to recruit some 800,000 volunteers, with 700,000 joining by the Munich Crisis of September 1938. Periodically air raid drills tied up the city as air raid wardens cleared cars and pedestrians from the streets. On 5th May, 1941, the Luftwaffe carried out a heavy raid on the centre of Liverpool. We had to throw buckets of water up the wall to wash it down. About one in every six warden … Two bumblers, failures as businessmen and air raid wardens, stumble across a nest of Nazi saboteurs bent on blowing up the local magnesium plant. Following the. Bombs were dropped at different places. May 2019 Mr. J. Woodrow would be the patient. The only tangible things were a man's hand with a bent ring on a finger, a woman's foot in a shoe on a window sill. The stench was something awful and it clung to my nostrils for some time after; in fact I never lost that smell until some time after the war was over.We gathered about six bags of bits and pieces; one pathetic little bundle, shapeless now, tied with bits of lace and ribbon, had been a baby." Created by Castle Films during WWII for the U.S. Government AIR RAID WARNING shows the duties and responsibilities of the Civil Defense Air Raid Wardens. Wardens worked from a network of wardens’ posts, which were connected to higher command by telephone or messenger. Air Raid Precautions (ARP) is one of the most remembered aspects of home-front Australia. January 2018. A small percentage of ARP wardens were full-time and were paid a salary, but most were part-time volunteers who carried out their ARP duties as well as full-time jobs. To my intense relief, pitiful and horrible as it was, I was not nauseated, and found a torn piece of curtain in which to wrap it." She worked in the cinema as an usherette. (11), Barbara Nixon, an actress, became a voluntary (part-time) warden. Air raid wardens were covered by the Air Raid Precautions (later the Civil Defence). The Civil Defence services lost large number of its personnel. If you are sensitive you carry the scars for the rest of your life… My old soldiers, seasoned campaigners in battle, worked with tears streaming down their faces. I therefore applied to be paid the magnificent sum of £2 5s. One part-time ARP warden in central London claimed that the 130 pairs of ladies' gloves, 214 towels, seventeen bottles of hair lotion, two fur coats and a fur collar he had managed to accumulate were "tips". And they had had by far the heaviest fall of bombs in the neighbourhood, half the area being completely devastated. March 2019 During training I had instructed my men to treat the dead with reverence and respect, but I did not think we would have to shovel them up. November 2020 At four in the afternoon there would certainly be casualties. Once war started the government urged local authorities to provide purpose-built public shelters, above ground heavily protected brick and concrete constructions capable of holding up to fifty people. This was written in indelible pencil on a luggage label or lipstick on the casualty's forehead. In April 1937, the Air Raid Wardens' Service was created which aimed to recruit some 800,000 volunteers, with 700,000 joining by the Munich Crisis of September 1938. Obey your air-raid warden. 6d.) In the cinema was an audience of 184 - the majority being children - who were trapped when the bomb fell." per week; women received £2, 3 shillings and 6 pence (£2 3s. The vast majority were middle-aged or elderly. When air raids are threatened, warning will be given in towns by sirens, or hooters which will be sounded in some places by short blasts and in others by a warbling note, changing every few seconds. We had to throw buckets of water up the wall to wash it down. (3), Others accused wardens for being paid money for very little work: "Thousands of men, many in good jobs, are drawing £3 a week as Air Raid wardens; hundreds of girls and youths are getting good pay for doing nothing; fantastic sums are being paid to motorists for merely putting their vehicles at the disposal of the ARP or ambulance work; demolition squads are standing in the streets twenty-four hours a day twiddling their thumbs; auxiliary fireman are also on the job; 'log-rolling' and intrigue are rampant." They probably would not have been too effective had a bomb ever struck, but the shelters were very common throughout the UK. They were read out at sports matches, with one aimed at women and the other at men. Their limbs were not even rigid. Major Brown sees one man being sick, so he fishes out a bottom of rum to be handed round. The majority of the casualties were in a cinema, where a bomb scored a direct hit. It was part of a torso. 14. How much were Air Raid Wardens paid during the second world war. Anyone who has tried to get out of London for a Bank Holiday weekend will know that this is so... Only when we have accepted this large-scale remodelling of our cities as essential, can we begin to make sense of ARP. Others accused wardens for being paid money for very little work: "Thousands of men, many in good jobs, are drawing £3 a week as Air Raid wardens; hundreds of girls and youths are getting good pay for doing nothing; fantastic sums are being paid to motorists for merely putting their vehicles at the disposal of the ARP or ambulance work; demolition squads are standing in the streets twenty-four hours a day … She explained breathlessly to waiting reporters: All lights near an outside door must be screened. It was suggested that London alone needed 200,000 wardens, of whom some 16,000 would be full-time and paid (£3 a week). On 1st October, 1939, he wrote to Neville Chamberlain, the prime minister, to express his concerns: "The A. R. P. (Air Raid Precautions) defences and expense are founded upon a wholly fallacious view of the degree of danger to each part of the country which they cover. (26), T. P. Peters was an air raid warden in East Grinstead: "On 10 p.m. on Saturday, 26th October, 1940, Stanney in Holtye Road, was demolished. The two speeches on this page were designed to recruit volunteers to the ARP (Air Raid Precautions). The Protection of Your Home Against Air Raids, Imperial War Museum Department of Documents, The Longest Night: Voices from the London Blitz. The new committee, known as Air Raid Precautions, was headed by the then Lord Privy Seal, Sir John Anderson. We covered her with a coat and she actually asked me what had happened. Our late Vice Sheik Larry Leventhal purchased the actual suits worn by Laurel & Hardy in Air Raid Wardens at an official Hollywood auction in the Fall of 2015. By now I am feeling a bit angry at the prospect of these girls being lugged by their arms and legs, so I got down beside them. July 2020 Efforts were made to retain a sense of order and decorum amidst the chaos of war. Sign February 2020 Their store opens and closes in various guises but without success. At length, after four or five weeks, they agreed to appoint me, but said that I must go to Post 13 at the other end of the borough… I made enquiries as to what ‘13' was like. Step 1 : Introduction to the question "7. August 2018 when she recognised me. There were two telephone lines with direct link to the police station, who advised if an air raid was imminent. I stood up and waited for some smart Alec to make a snide remark, but nobody did. March 2021 (13), Frances Faviell was a ARP in London. They had uncovered two young girls, about eighteen years of age, quite unmarked, they looked as if they were asleep. The bombing of Britain in the First World War began on 19 January 1915 when zeppelins dropped bombs on the Great Yarmouth area, killing six people. (24), Wardens were expected to carry out a whole range of different duties: "At half-past two there was another message from Control. The only tangible things were a man's hand with a bent ring on a finger, a woman's foot in a shoe on a window sill. As the Phoney War dragged on the number of volunteers dipped. (34), It was claimed that ARP was not run effectively during the war. Ceiling pike. No overtime was paid. Gas Masks were issued to the public. A good warden would know the habits of the people who lived in their sector so that when a bomb fell the emergency services could be directed at once to where survivors might be buried. A local Air Raid Precautions organization has been established in your district and Air Raid Wardens have been appointed to help you. 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