Wardens Post A

In 1941 a fire-watching scheme was set up nationally whereby street parties or employees of businesses and factories kept watch for incendiary bombs in shifts and tried to extinguish them before they caused fires. This collection of papers refers specifically to the fire-watching teams of Bushwood Road and Forest Road in Kew. Fire watching was first organised in Bushwood Road on the 17th January 1941 and started on the 10th February 1941. On the 1st November 1942 Forest Road was taken over. These teams were led by their captain J.R.Attfield of sector 102 and would report to warden post "A" located in the Coach and Horses public house just off Kew Green, and of which C. Kember was warden until December 1944. The collection includes logbooks, correspondence, notices, rotas and reports, although the bulk of the material is made up of rotas. Much of the correspondence in the collection refers to Mr. R.H.A Seale, Richmond's Assistant chief warden, and/or to Mr. Dudley Sutton one of Richmond's Fire Guard Staff officers. Their services to the Civil Defence both ended on the 6th September 1945.