Name/Title
Brighton Borough Police whistle c1930sEntry/Object ID
2502Description
Chrome plated police type whistle with chrome plated chain and button hook. Marked "The Metropolitan".Use
For police officers and others to raise the alarm and summon assistance.Context
Like most other police forces Brighton Borough Police began to use whistles from the mid 1880s and at least some off the earliest examples were actually marked "Brighton Police". Over time though, both ex military and plain unnamed examples became more commonly used the force. After the Second World War, in common with most other forces any new whistles purchased by Brighton Police are thought to have been exclusively unnamed plain examples, making them hard to identify.
This particular whistle, though, is known to have been used in Brighton Police, having come from a collection of items belonging to a special constable, William Turner who served in Brighton Special Constabulary between 1961 and 1968 and who went on to serve in the specials in Sussex Constabulary. The type of mouthpiece and method of manufacture date it to the 1930s and it was probably not originally chrome plated, suggesting that this was most likely done after the war. It is thought to be typical of what would have been issued to Brighton officers in the 1950s and 1960s, when they appear to have been issued with both old and new plain examples, many of the older ones having been refurbished by being chrome plated. It was made by the famous Birmingham firm of J. Hudson and Co.
Only in the 1970s were police officers in Sussex no longer issued with whistles.