A pair of superintendent's epaulettes c1970 - 1995
Entry/Object ID
2346
Description
A pair of blue cotton epaulettes, each with a chrome plated Queen's Crown with a red enamel insert, and a plain plastic button
Use
For a superintendent to wear on a shirt to denote rank, when not wearing a tunic.
Context
The use of shirt epaulettes for constables and sergeants only began from the late 1940s and early 1950s when police forces began to use open necked tunics, thus allowing them to wear proper collared shirts, and the possibility of not always having to wear a tunic.
More senior officers had been wearing open necked tunics much longer and would have needed epaulettes to denote their rank when not wearing a tunic. However in the past this would have been rare and confined to inside buildings. So called shirt sleeve order only became common once all ranks were wearing open necked tunics and, even then was confined to the summer months.
The rank insignia of a crown designates a superintendent and the use of a Queen's crown on these dates them any time from 1952 onwards. We know that they are from Sussex Constabulary or Sussex Police as they came from a collection of items owned by an ex Sussex Police superintendent and may well have been used by him. They probably date from the 1970s. Metal insignia and numbers on epaulettes was common in Sussex Police until they were replaced by embroidered ones in the mid 1990s.
