Hands down, this has to be my favourite respirator. There’s a juxtaposition about the thing; the childish colouration, the toy-like appearance of it, coupled with grim wartime necessity.
This one is very much complete, with its box and retaining the pamphlet that would have been shipped with each and every one. For one reason or another, it also wasn’t returned for the fitting of the arsenic prefilter as per 1940 regulations.
They were the only civilian gas mask that could be returned postwar for money, and as such many were recalled and recycled. They’re substantially rarer these days as a result, and I’m very pleased to own one.
It’s rather scabby, with scuffed eyepieces and a repaired tear to the facepiece, but it’s very much ‘all there’ and a very surreal part of Home Front history.

Photos to follow.

Regards, B.B.