Name/Title
Brighton Borough Police white helmet 1952 - 1967Entry/Object ID
2532Description
Two panelled white cloth covered cork white Brighton Borough Police helmet, with white cloth hatband and green buckram type lining. Fitted with chrome plated ball top and chrome plated Queen's Crown Brighton Borough Police helmet plate with a coat of arms centre, apparently in a single pressing. Inside on the leather headband is a maker's stamp marked "Made in England Christys London" and there is also a label inside marked "Christys London size 7 1/4". There is also a white patent leather chinstrap that is fixed into the headband.Use
Standard daytime summer headdress for Brighton Borough Police male constables and sergeants 1952 to 1967.Context
Brighton Borough Police first introduced the white helmet in 1933 for daytime summer use.
They were worn in conjunction with white gloves, making officers more visible amongst the crowds of tourists and at the same time raising the status of the Force.
Their use ended in 1939 and only resumed in 1952, again worn in conjunction with white gloves. They continued to be worn as daytime summer wear until the Borough Force was disbanded at the end of 1967 and amalgamated with the other Sussex Forces to form Sussex Constabulary in 1968.
The badge or helmet plate on this example, with a "Queen Elizabeth Crown", dates it from 1952-1967. This style of helmet is known as a "ball top", which was used for both summer and winter wear in Brighton from the 1890s onwards.
This helmet was made by the well known hat maker Christys of London and despite the outer colouring, there is no wear at all to the headband and it looks to have hardly, if ever, been worn. The museum has a number of other similar white helmets from Brighton Police, which all have interior clips for removable chinstraps. This particular example has a fixed strap, which together with its single pressed badge and light use, suggests that it may be a late example.
While Brighton Borough Police are well known for using white helmets, they are not the only Sussex police force to have issued them, or indeed the first. Both the Hove and Eastbourne Borough Forces used white helmets before Brighton, Hove possibly as early as the 1890s and Eastbourne from the 1900s. However it appears both had stopped using them by the 1930s or earlier.