Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

Diorama - World War 2, Anderson Shelter, AWAS and VAD, 1943

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Overview

The Anderson Air Raid Shelter or Air Raid Precaution (ARP) shelter was a prefabricated kit consisting of a 4-piece angle-iron base frame, 6-piece dome section of curved corrugated iron, and corrugated iron end sheets. It was designed c1938 by Sir William Paterson at the request of British Home Secretary and Minster for Home Security, John Anderson (after whom it was named), and was based on an earlier design by Dr David Anderson.

Historical information

The structure was intended to be buried half in the ground with the upper half covered in soil. The manufacturer John Lysaght P/L states in advertising material: "over 40,000 tons of these shelters were supplied to the British Government by the Australian company of John Lysaght (Aust) Pty Ltd and over 2,500,000 were supplied by the English manufacturers. The Australian War Memorial has an original Anderson Shelter in its collection. The Western Australian Museum Boola Bardip has a section of Anderson Shelter on display in the Reflections Gallery.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-99-780

Inscriptions and markings

The Army Museum displays a 1:1 Scale diorama of two service women in a replica backyard Anderson shelter in a Perth backyard in 1943. On the left is a member of the Australian Women’s Army Service and on the right a Voluntary Aid Detachment member. The Anderson shelter was a small and cheap shelter that could be erected in people's gardens. Within a few months nearly one and a half million Anderson Shelters were distributed in London to areas expected to be bombed by the Luftwaffe. Similar shelters were later available for purchase in Australia.

Contextual Information

At the Australian Army Museum of WA, the replica Anderson Shelter forms part of the World War 2 experience.

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

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