Name/Title
A pair of Sussex Police special constabulary chief divisional officer epaulettes c1995Entry/Object ID
478Description
A pair of dark blue cotton epaulettes embroidered with a Queen's Crown over the letters "SC" and three horizontal white bars.Use
For use on the shoulders of special constable's tunics.Context
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 may 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.
In the past special constables across Sussex used the same structure and insignia as their home force. However in the 1970s in Sussex Police they began using a different system of ranks and rank insignia unique to the special constabulary. In 2023, though they reverted back to the same basic rank structure and insignia as used by regular officers in Sussex Police, with the only difference being the ranks are prefixed with the word "Special".
These particular epaulettes are for wearing on a uniform shirt and have three bars signifying the rank of chief divisional officer, what was the equivalent of a chief inspector in the regular force. Most special constabulary uniforms, also have some form of insignia, identifying the wearer as a special constable. In this case there is "SC" on these epaulettes. These examples were used in Sussex Police by Chief Divisional Officer John Bartlett, who joined the special constabulary in 1979 and rose to become the most senior special in Brighton. They probably date from the 1990s when Sussex Police began to use embroidered epaulettes. Prior to this both special constables and regular officers had epaulettes with metal numbers and rank insignia.