NATIONAL REGISTRATION IDENTITY CARD

For those younger viewers who may not know, in WW2, everybody in a household was issued with one of these cards, even children. Part of the information on it not only identified the address where the person lived, but also their position in the hierarchy of the residents. In this case, all the residents would have had an identity card with the same first part of that number (EJKE 15) which would have identified the address 7 Saxon Road, Newhaven (much as the present day postcode does), however each of the others residents would have had a different number for the last digit (in this case 1) the number one indicating the fact that the holder was identified as the head of the household.
For instance in our house there were 5 residents and our identity cards were numbered as follows:- all carried the CJBP 111 then for my father (last digit 1), mother (last digit 2), my elder sister (last digit 3), myself (last digit 4) and finally my younger sister (last digit 5).

If people moved house, (for instance if they were bombed-out as we were ) they were normally re-registered at the new address and given new identity cards with different numbers.

Also as a point of interest, since the holder of this identity card worked on the Railway he would have been considered to be in a "Reserved Occupation" and would have been issued with an oval brass lapel badge on the front of which at the top was an embossed picture of a loco, underneath which were the words "Railway Service" in a blue enamel strip below which was the initials of the Railway Company which employed them (GWR, SR, LNER, or LMS). (See photo I have added above) On the back of the badge their name would be engraved. The photo appears to show Mr Lander wearing his Oval Railway badge. Do you by any chance have that Oval Railway Badge in your collection?

Mr Bert Lander was Chargehand Shipwright at the Marine Workshops from 1927 to 1960. During WW2, he served as an Air Raid Precautions (ARP) Warden, his post at that time was in Western Road - now facing Brooks Close.