composition baby doll, clothed in matching floral dress, bonnet and knickers, used in an air raid shelter during Second World War, maker unknown, Britain, 1930s.

A composition baby doll with moulded hair and sleeping eyes. It has joints at the hip and shoulders and neck. The clothes the doll is wearing are probably the originals, which include a blue and white floral dress and bonnet, knickers, socks and shoes.

Given by Catherine Sargent

This doll was given to the grandmother of the donor, Margaret Martin, by her friend, Eleanor Dempster when they were both living in Wirral, Liverpool. Dempster's family were heavily involved with Elder Dempster Lines, a famous shipping company in Liverpool, (see references).

She gave the dolls to Margaret, a doll collector, because she felt the doll had important significance and should be looked after.

The doll itself is composition, dressed in period clothes and typical of the 1930s-40s. However, how the doll has been used is the main justification for its acquisition. Dempster herself had been an air raid warden during the second world war in Liverpool and had worked with one other woman on a shelter that Dempster oversaw, and the doll was used to comfort children who had been injured, were scared, or had lost family during the Blitz. It remained in the shelter and was used throughout the duration of the Blitz in Liverpool.

This doll originally belonged to a woman named Eleanor Dempster, who was an air-raid warden in Liverpool during the Second World War. She used it in an air-raid shelter to comfort the children during the Blitz in Liverpool. It stayed in the shelter throughout the war, and was always on hand for a child who needed it.

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