Name/Title
A pair of Sussex Constabulary/Police raincoat epaulettes 1968 - 1980Entry/Object ID
2408Description
A pair of large dark blue heavy woollen epaulettes with chrome plated letter and numbers "H 810" attached with a mixture of screw and pin fittings, each with a set of chrome plated metal sergeant's insignia. Both have distinctive tongue type slider bottom halves.Use
For a sergeant to wear on a uniform raincoat or overcoat.Context
With the introduction of open necked tunics shirt epaulettes were introduced in the 1950s. However removable epaulettes were not only used on shirts but also on raincoats and occasionally on more heavyweight overcoats that did not have fixed epaulettes.
These examples being of a very heavy construction are clearly intended for either a raincoat or overcoat. They are from Sussex Constabulary or Sussex Police and were issued to PS Herbert Hother who had been a sergeant with the Brighton Borough force and went onto serve with Sussex Constabulary in 1968, and retired in the then Sussex Police in 1980. Number "H 810" was his Sussex Constabulary/Police number and unlike the Brighton Borough force, in the new combined Sussex force officers retained the same number upon promotion and throughout their service. In Brighton the same numbers were continually re issued and the lower numbers were reserved for higher ranks. On promotion a constable would surrender their existing number and be given one from the new rank's allocation of set numbers. So in Brighton Herbert Hother began as "PC 100" and on promotion became "PS 47". However when he became a member of Sussex Constabulary he was allocated the number "H 810", though for admin purposes his full number was "AH 810", the "A" designating that he was male.
When Sussex Constabulary was established in 1968, it was initially not intended for officers to have numbers on their uniforms, even though they were allocated an alpha numeric warrant number. It was only after complaints from the Home Office that these warrant numbers were attached to uniforms, with the omission of the first letter, "A" or "B" which designated their sex, for a male or female officer respectively.
Raincoats with removable epaulettes were used within Sussex Police until the mid 1980s, when they were replaced with a shorter waterproof coat, which had a single warrant number over a breast pocket on the left side.
Metal numbers were used on Sussex Police shirt epaulettes until the 1990s when embroidered versions were introduced. Initially Sussex Constabulary used a more elaborate style of metal sergeant's insignia and this simpler version pictured appears to have been adopted in the 1970s.