East Sussex Constabulary epaulettes c1960s

Object/Artifact

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Old Police Cells Museum Brighton

East Sussex Constabulary epaulettes c1960s

East Sussex Constabulary epaulettes c1960s

Name/Title

East Sussex Constabulary epaulettes c1960s

Entry/Object ID

670

Description

A pair of blue heavy cotton epaulettes, with chrome plated metal numbers "418" and East Sussex Constabulary shield badges.

Use

For displaying an officer's number on either a shirt or another garment such as a raincoat.

Context

Until the 1950's standard police uniform for constables and sergeants consisted of a high necked tunic, though the actual styles and cuts of the tunics varied between police forces. The officer's number was displayed on the collar, as had been the case for the very first Metropolitan Police officers in 1829. This is where the term collar number comes from, a term often used for an officer's number even after the adoption of open necked tunics. In the 1950's police forces began to adopt open necked tunics, East Sussex Constabulary doing so in 1951. This necessitated the wearing of a shirt with a collar for sergeants and constables, which for the first time gave a smart enough appearance for officers to not have to wear tunics in the summer. However epaulettes were needed to display an officer's number when just wearing a shirt. Epaulettes were also used to attach numbers to raincoats, though they were not needed for tunics which had fixed epaulettes. Interestingly even after the introduction of open necked tunics, some police forces did not allow officers to simply wear shirts in the summer for some time to come. West Sussex Constabulary, for instance only allowed officers to dispense with tunics during the summer in 1957. The badge on these epaulettes, which probably date from the 1960's, is the same that was previously attached to the collar of the old East Sussex Constabulary high necked tunics, and was subsequently used on the fixed epaulettes on open necked tunics. These particular epaulettes are possibly a little large for a shirt and may well have been used on a raincoat or similar garment. Officers in Sussex Police still used epaulettes with metal numbers and rank insignia until the 1990s when they were replaced with embroidered ones.