This painting
is Norman Partridge's personal picture
of the different ways in which
local people helped the war effort.

You can see the uniforms of
the emergency services,
Air Raid Precaution (ARP) wardens,
Civil Defence units,
Women's Land Army,
the Womens Voluntary Service,
Guides and Scouts,
and many more.

Norman tells us
how he developed his painting.

"I got about half a dozen
different photos
of the damage done
in different parts of Croydon.
And I assembled them all together
and started to do rough sketches
and then started to paint.

I suppose it took me
about three months to finish it.
I had to be very careful
to get all the details right,
especially the uniforms.

I wanted to include
all the emergency services
- the ARP, the land army, the police,
the YMCA mobile canteens,
and the children who had been evacuated
but who had come back to Croydon
when it seemed safe.

The houses in the background
were like the ones flybombed
on Brigstock Road,
which was just round the corner from us.
They were completely destroyed."

Everyone helped to fight the war.
By 1939, over 6,500 men and women
had joined the voluntary services
in Croydon.

They were well organised
at local and regional level.

Croydon's ARP Committee
was established in 1937.
They co-ordinated all the various
Civil Defence Services.
In 1941 it was renamed
the Civil Defence Committee.

Beneath them each service
worked long hours
on a rota system
to ensure that the borough
was protected at all times.

For a detailed, official account
of all the different civilian services
shown in Norman's painting read:

'Croydon and the Second World War'
by Berwick Sayers.

Reference copies of this book
are available in the Research Room.

The Research Room is on the
lower ground floor of the Clocktower.
It is open Tuesday-Saturday
10:30am-5pm.