Cigarette Cards

Collecting and trading cards has always been a popular hobby, particularly amongst young boys. Before the arrival of 'Bubble Gum' and more recently 'Pokemon' cards young boys collected cigarette cards. They were of course dependent on the goodwill of parents and grandparents, older grown up siblings, aunts, uncles and perhaps a kindly neighbour or two, to complete their collections.

In 1938 the usual array of film stars and sportsmen were replaced with cards depicting Air Raid Precautions. W.D. & H.O. Wills and W.A. & A.C. Churchman both produced similar sets. There were 50 cards in the Wills' series, but only 48 in the Churchman's series as these were of a larger format. Albums, costing 1d. (less than ½p), could be bought into which the cards could be placed.

The series illustrated below is by W.A. & A.C. Churchman.

A series of 48 Cards

Planning a Refuge

Choosing your refuge room	Rendering your refuge room gas-proof	Making a door gas-proof	Window protection	Window protection against blast
Types of splinter-proof wall	Protecting your windows - a sandbag defence	Equipping your refuge room - A	Equipping your refuge room - B	A garden dug-out

Incendiary Bombs

Incendiary bomb and
its effect

Incendiary bomb
cooling down

Covering of
incendiary bomb

Removal of incendiary bomb with scoop and hoe

Extinction of
incendiary bomb

Fire Fighting

The stirrup hand pump	Two-men portable manual fire pump in action	A chain of buckets
Light trailer fire-pump	Light trailer fire-pump in action	Medium trailer fire-pump
Medium trailer fire-pump in action	Emergency heavy pump unit	Hose-laying lorry

Gas Attack

The civilian respirator	The civilian respirator - How to adjust it	The civilian respirator - How to remove it	The Civilian Duty respirator
The Service respirator	A heavy anti-gas suit	Rubber clothing	Air Raid Warden and civilian volunteer despatch-rider
Volunteer mobile corps (owner drivers)	A First Aid party	Supply depot for respirators	Mobile gas vans
Civilian anti-gas school	Testing for gas contamination	Decontamination workers in training	Air Raid Precautions badge

Air Defence

Representation of air defence control room	Pilots running to machines to take off	Gloucester Gauntlet interceptor fighters	Representation of balloon barrage for defence of London
Anti-aircraft searchlight	Anti-aircraft sound locator	Height finder	Anti-aircraft gun

Churchman