Civil Defence Canada

[Roger Lucy]

Originally Posted by derk derin

I have collected a number of civil defence items over the years and have some questions about them that the MLU'ers could help me answer.
The first one is the significance of the color of the helmets,I have three so far and all have different paint.The second question was the decal changed sometime around 1952,the wartime decal had a Kings crown on top then changed to a CD shield with Canada on top.Was this because the Queens Coronation that would have replaced any Kings crown on government status?

You have a Rescue and Engineering; an Ambulance and Medical and a Warden's helmet. Your recycled blue US Office of Civil Defense helmet with the later pattern decal is Auxiliary Police.

The helmets were bought on the surplus and scrap market by the Dept of Health & Welfare which was responsible for Civil Defence in May 1951. Mostly they are Canadian Mk.IIs but some former OCD helmets were also acquired.

The helmets' colour-coding were set down in CD Operational and Training Circular 7/51 of 29/05/51 :
Auxiliary Fire Service - Red
Auxiliary Police Service - Blue
Wardens - White
Rescue and Engineering - Black
Ambulance and Medical - Green
HQ and Welfare - Khaki

The first mention I have seen of the new pattern CD decal- based on an internationally recognized symbol,with the linked letters CD inside a shield - is January 1958.
Roger