Who Do You Think You Are Magazine Forum

[JulieH1969]

Apparently my aunt was an air raid warden in Nottingham during WW2. Is there any way of finding out if any records were kept about this? My cousin, her son who now lives in Australia, was wondering if she would have been awarded any sort of medal, but I have no idea.

Thanks
Julie

[Mick Loney]

I have seen some of the 1939 register entries with an added note for activies such as this. If you can find her in the Register, an added note may confirm she was an air raid warden.
Obviously, if she is still alive, you won't find her, as her entry will be redacted!


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[AdrianB38]

Well that was a less than clever bit of indexing to the TNA Guides.

See
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help ... recautions

Service records for the ARP have not survived, it says. I'm moaning because I had discarded the link to a bomb survey only to end up back there via Google.

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[AdrianB38]

Forgot the other bit.... The Wikipedia article on the Defence Medal (United Kingdom) has a long list of civilian organisations whose members could be issued with the DM campaign medal. It does appear to include the Warden service - subject to a minimum service period of 3 years. However in the absence of any service records it may be impossible to know if she was entitled to one, or if she received one. Certainly there are no Medal Rolls for WW2 British Army soldiers so I doubt there'll be one for the ARP.

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[JulieH1969]

thanks both, I will see if there is anything on the 1939 register then in the first instance.
Cheers
Julie

[phsvm]

Completely off the top of my head and with nothing to substantiate the sugggestion but have you looked in local newspapers from around the time? Perhaps after the war there was a victory parade or similar which may give names or photos.

Again, a long shot but have you thought of contacting the local press/radio station to ask if they'd be interested in running a story asking if there are any former wardens from the area still alive who may have memories of you aunt? I've just reunited a WW1 Dead Man's Penny with the descendants of the recipient because the family who had it, who weren't local, contacted our local press about it and I happened to see the story.