The Combined Services Entertainment unit, or CSE, originally called the Central Pool of Artists, was set up to supersede The Entertainments National Service Association, or ENSA. Basil Dean and Leslie Henson formed ENSA in 1939 as part of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes, to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II.

ENSA's first big wartime variety concert was broadcast by the BBC to the Empire and local networks from RAF Hendon in north London on 17 October 1939. Adelaide Hall, The Western Brothers and Mantovani were on the bill, with Adelaide Hall singing We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line accompanied by Mantovani and His Orchestra. Performers who served in the CSE include Benny Hill, Kenneth Williams, Spike Milligan and Stanley Baxter.

These shoulder tabs, with other CSA and ENSA badges, were given to the museum by Rae Hammond (1926-1995), manager of Cheltenham Everyman Theatre and author of the book The Magic of Edward Victor's Hands. As an authority on magic in later life, magic may have been one of his specialities serving first with ENSA and later CSE.