Name/Title
Cossor C22 8H VHF police personal radio c1962-1966Entry/Object ID
1212Description
Cossor C22 8H VHF single channel police personal radio, marked "Cossor Police Pocket Radio CC2/8H", with separate leads for earpiece and microphone. Has additional markings on embossed tape, "D.5" and "SC7".Use
For a police officer to receive and transmit messages from and to and a local stationContext
From the late 1920's police forces had been using various forms of radio communications. However due to the size of the equipment required most police radios was confined to vehicles. A few forces, Brighton being the first in 1933, developed workable pocket radios but these were only capable of receiving messages. Brighton stopped using their system in 1939 when its frequency was re-allocated due to preparations for war. Experiments continued nationally after the Second World War but the challenge was to develop a transmitter unit that was small enough for an officer on foot to carry. So until the 1960s officers on the 'beat" had to rely on telephone communications, at police boxes or police pillars.
The Cossor C22 8H personal radio was one of a number produced in the early 1960s and adopted by some police forces. It was one of several models made by the company of A.C Cossor of Highbury in London, who had been making radio equipment since 1922.These radios were used by police forces until the late 1960s, when they were replaced with the Pye Pocketfone, the first personal radio adopted by the Home Office as standard for the UK police.
This particular radio came from Sussex Police and is thought to have been used in one of the Sussex Forces prior to the 1968 amalgamation by which time the Pye Pocketfone was being used across Sussex. It was one of four contemporary radios that formed part of a small collection and which appeared to have been part of a display at some time, within Sussex Constabulary/Police as they came complete with display cards. The card with this radio suggested it was used in Sussex between 1962 and 1966.
It is possible that this radio and two there types in the museum collection, made by Storno and Cossor, were part of Home Office trials in late 1964/65 of VHF personal radios for the police and trialed within Sussex. This would certainly explain their presence and apparent limited use in the Sussex region.