This coat was recently donated to the Museum and has a large number of badges on it from WW2. It was owned by a land girl during the Second World War and was very kindly donated to the Museum by her family. Many of our young volunteers have been researching all of the badges and trying to find out what each one of them was for.
This is a photo of two of our young volunteers Calum and Finn researching some of the badges on the coat.
We have now found out what all but two of the badges were for. The coat is in very good condition as are most of the badges (some are slightly discoloured).
Here are some of the most interesting badges:
Rainbow and Flaming sword: Post WW2 U.S. forces European command
Red Fish: WW2 British Army 2 corps badge
Red Witch: 2nd Anti-Aircraft division badge
Igloo with a star: Exercise Eskimo Badge
We recently received a copy of the article below. It appeared in a newspaper local to the Museum, The Annandale Observer, on September 7th 1945. It details the wartime shipment of ammunition from a Central Ammunition Depot near Gretna Green (Eastriggs? Longtown?). The ammunition was sent via the Arctic convoys to Russia. We weren’t aware of this before and were very interested to find out.
If you are interested in this region during World War Two, you might like this book, which was published by the Museum following local history research and oral history interviews.
This booklet (which is included within the Solway Military Coast book), specifically looks at The Ministry of Defence depots at Eastriggs and Longtown.
Are you an expert in World War Two fabric badges or know someone who is?
We need your help!
Recently a lady brought in an old trench coat which belonged to her mother who was a Land Girl in World War Two.
On the interior of the coat there was multiple fabric badges from many different regiments of both the British and American armed forces from World War Two.
Through careful analysis of these badges and help from our good friend google most of the badges have been identified, however there are a few badges that have not. This is where we need your help. Below there are pictures of these badges and if you recognise one, we would greatly appreciate it if you could get into contact with us. Email: manager@devilsporridge.org.uk
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We hope that someone can help us with this and if anyone knows any extra information or stories about the Land Girls and their badges in their coat’s then please get into contact with us. Thank You.