Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

Ray White · Joined: 02 Dec 2014 Posts: 7758 Location: Derby

I inherited this volt meter from my Dad ... so I presume it came from his time in the ADCC (Air Defence Cadet Corps) during WW2. It is a military issue with the crows foot emblem. I suppose it could be later but Dad had no further military contact after the War so I assume it dates from the 1939/45 period but I have no accurate date for it.

The instrument is in good working order and the whole ensemble is in black Bakelite. Admiralty pattern 5526A.

I hardly ever use it as it could easily be dropped and broken.

It's just a nice thing.

Rootes75 · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2025 1:29 pm Post subject:

Its a lovely piece Ray, even just for display.
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Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22990 Location: UK

Very nice indeed.

RJ
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bjacko · Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2026 6:10 am Post subject: Ex Military

There used to be Disposal shops just after the war who used to sell all sorts of ex-military equipment, your dad nay have bought from one of those?
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ukdave2002 · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4437 Location: South Cheshire

There used to be a place in Chester called Ledsham Trading, housed in the old canal warehouse that later became Telfords Warehouse bar and restaurant.

It was full of military surplus, and my dad used to take me there when I was a kid. He called it an Aladdins Cave and that is exactly what it felt like. There was all sorts of old equipment, including Second World War meters like this one, just the sort of thing he would buy.

What I remember particularly well is the packaging: sturdy, light-brown cardboard boxes, with the contents carefully wrapped in corrugated cardboard, waxed paper and, for the more delicate items, tissue paper. Mechanical parts often had a protective coating of wax.

Everything would emerge from its box undamaged and looking brand new, even though it might have been sitting there for thirty or forty years. They certainly knew how to pack things for long-term storage.