Name/Title
A pair of Sussex Constabulary special constabulary shoulder patches c1968Entry/Object ID
2513Description
A pair of black/dark blue felt curved shoulder badges, marked "Special Constabulary" in light blue coloured embroidered letters.Use
For use on the shoulders of special constable's tunics in Sussex ConstabularyContext
The Special Constabulary is made up of volunteers who carry out uniform police duties in their own time, and in its current form it dates from The Special Constable's Acts of 1914 and 1923. Until 1914 special constables could only be sworn in for very limited amounts of time if there was the threat of a riot or a serious disturbance and were not uniformed. The threat of war in 1914, and the likelihood that many police officers, being ex soldiers and therefore army reservists, would be "called up" to fight led to concerns that there would be a shortage of officers. To counter this the 1914 Act allowed special constables to be sworn in for the duration of the conflict. The 1923 Act made the temporary arrangement permanent.
With the 1914 Act and longer periods of service special constables were given uniforms for the first time, though in many areas shortages meant that most specials only had proper uniforms towards the end of the war. However by the end of the war and in particular following the 1923 Act, similar uniforms to regular officers were in use, though helmets were not issued to specials, who wore caps.
The type of insignia used by special constables varied from police force to police force. Most forces used the same insignia as full time officers, though some used generic special constabulary insignia and others used special constabulary insignia unique to the particular force in question.
Special constables often had additional insignia to identify them as specials. This usually included an "SC" prefix before their warrant number. At times cloth badges such as this were also attached in pairs to the shoulders of tunics. This practice was not universal across the forces of Sussex and appears to only date from the introduction of open necked tunics. Photographs show that in Sussex special constables were often issued with a variety of often obsolete uniform including closed neck tunics well into the 1950s.
These particular shoulder badges were used in Sussex Constabulary after 1968. They came from a collection of items belonging to a special constable who had served in Brighton Borough Police and then Sussex Constabulary in the 1960s. Given that Brighton special constables did not wear shoulder patches, they must be from his Sussex Constabulary service. Special constabulary shoulder badges were used by Sussex Constabulary and Sussex Police from 1968 until at least the 1980s.
In the modern Sussex Police the only difference in the uniforms of regular and special constables are the format of epaulette letters and numbers, special constables having the "SC" prefix followed by a 4 digit number.