Wartime Memories from Malvern Museum

Malvern Museum has a range of fascinating wartime items and local memories from the Second World War.

First are ARP Warden (Air Raid Precautions) logbooks which record training practices for the volunteers and staff at the medical centre in Malvern Link which served as a First Aid Post. Only one casualty is recorded as being treated in the log books, and he had walked into a lamp post!

There are also various arm bands worn by members of the LDV (Local Defence Volunteers) and Home Guard. They also trained with practice hand grenades made out of concrete to simulate the weight of the real thing.

Various badges including those use to raise war bond money are on display. Malvern used these to help buy HMS Tenacious, a T-Class destroyer.

The incendiary bomb tail-fin is believed to have been dropped by a German bomber getting rid of it's payload during raids on Cardiff and Liverpool. It was found near Guarlford.

Alice Woodman, a member of Civil Defence, was out on patrol checking the blackout in Great Malvern in July 1942 when a German aircraft crashed on the local golf course around midnight. The pilot bailed out and landed near the Wyche cutting. Arrested by Alice, the enemy flyer was taken to the local police station and she was later awarded the Defence medal for her bravery.

The baby gas mask was donated to the museum by an unknown benefactor. They were used early during the Second World War for babies who couldn't wear a gas mask and had a pump which was used to pump air inside the dome. The leather straps were fastened between the legs, tightened around the waist with the baby's head in the dome.