Civil Defence Service

The Civil Defence Service was a civilian volunteer organisation in Great Britain during World War II. Established by the Home Office in 1935 as Air Raid Precautions (ARP), its name was officially changed to the Civil Defence Service (CD) in 1941. The Civil Defence Service included the ARP Wardens Service as well as firemen (initially the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) and latterly the National Fire Service (NFS)), fire watchers (later the Fire Guard), rescue, first aid post and stretcher parties. Over 1.9 million people served within the CD and nearly 2,400 lost their lives to enemy action.
Organisation.
The organisation of civil defence was the responsibility of each local authority. Volunteers were ascribed to different units depending on experience or training. Each local civil defence service was divided into several sections.
The Women's Voluntary Service (WVS) aided in ARP and observer duties as well as running and operating the mobile canteens and rest centres.
Uniforms and insignia.
Initially, in the early part of the war, ARP members had no recognisable uniform. Members would wear civilian clothes but were issued with helmets, armbands and gas masks. The first issue of uniforms in October 1939 was in the form of a blue heavy cotton drill overall (called bluette) that was issued to wardens as well as rescue parties. From February 1941 all CD services were issued with dark blue battledress and trousers for men and a four pocket serge tunic with trousers or skirt for women. A wool beret was also issued to all members. Those not issued with a uniform would be issued with a blue armband with Civil Defence written on it.
From the formation of the ARP until 1939, the badges were made of solid sterling silver, with a crescent-shaped button hole attachment for men and a pin style brooch for women. From 1940 on, the badges were made of a base metal. Civil Defence insignia included a circular breast badge worn on the left pocket incorporating the letters "CD" topped by a king's crown (in yellow on dark blue or black backing). A similar smaller badge with yellow circle around the CD and crown was used for the beret, though a large number used their silver ARP badge on their head wear.
The branch of service a member belonged to was shown on their shoulder titles. Additionally, there were instructor badges and first aid badges that could be worn as well as red chevrons each chevron for 12 months' service in the CD). 
Rank was indicated by yellow bars 2½ inches × ¼ or ¾ inches) or chevrons:
Members of the various services were issued with service gas masks and steel helmets ARP service personnel were issued with Mk. II British helmets. These were often not made to the same level as issued to soldiers to reduce costs. These helmets, which had less resistance to ballistic impact, would have small holes drilled in the rim to show they were not for front line use. Depending on the role of the person the helmet would be marked with a letter or letters to easily allow others to ascertain their role at an incident.
Fire Guard officers wore the military helmet whilst lower ranking members were issued with the Zuckerman helmets) with "FG" for Fire Guard written on it. There were many variations in abbreviations, style of letter and colour.
Disbanded.
The Civil Defence Service was disbanded on 2 May 1945. On 10 June 1945, before His Majesty King George VI, a farewell parade with representatives of all the Civil Defence Services from across Great Britain took place in Hyde Park, London. Many of the duties of the service were later revived as part of the Civil Defence Corps in 1949.