Name/Title
Brighton Borough Police constables and sergeants night duty helmet 1952-1967Entry/Object ID
122Description
Blue two panelled felt covered cork helmet with black painted chrome Queen's Crown Brighton Borough Police helmet plate, marked "Brighton Police", with solid coat of arms centre, and black ball top. Marked inside as made by "Christys of London" and "Made expressly for G. Eade and Sons, 158 North Street Brighton"Use
For use on by a constable or sergeant on night dutyContext
The use of a "Queen's" or St. Edward's Crown on the helmet plate, dates the badge from 1952-1967, though the helmet could be earlier. Generally speaking black painted helmet plates such as this were intended for use during nightime, with almost identical chrome or white metal ones being used during the day. The rationale was that a black helmet badge would not reflect as much light at night and alert a criminal to an officer's presence. Their use meant that any other metal helmet furniture also had to be black. Whilst separate coloured badges for day and night duty were not used in every police force, they were in Brighton.
This particular plate is a little unusual in that black helmet plates are normally painted black and have a separate chrome or white metal centre. This example is a chrome plate that has been completely painted black The fact that the museum has at least 2 other similarly completely black Brighton helmet plates from this period suggests this was common, with Brighton foregoing the normal practice of having chrome or white metal centres, instead painting either them or the whole chromed badge black. Officers serving in Brighton in the late 1950s report that new recruits were given white metal helmet badges and instructed to paint them black for night use. This DIY approach probably explains the differing types of black paint used. It is not known whether they had to paint the helmet tops as well. There are examples of pre 1952 badges with King's type Crowns that have also been painted completely black, so the practice of Brighton not using white metal helmet centres at night appears to have been long established. It is not known how common this practice was in other police forces as photographs of officers at night are rare and most black painted badges in collections have white centres.
This helmet was made by the well known hat maker Christys of London and it was supplied by G. Eade and Son of 158 North Street Brighton. Eade and Son were at this premises between 1889 and 1958, listed as "Hatters, Outfitters and Umbrella Makers". It was common practice in the past for police forces to order uniform through a third party, rather than straight through the manufacturer.
This style of badge is called a Brunswick star and its use on police helmets goes back to the 1870s. However it only became more common after 1934 when the Home Office attempted to standardise police uniforms and insignia.