Name/Title
East Sussex Constabulary or Sussex Constabulary County Crime Squad truncheon c1966-1975Entry/Object ID
2252Description
Medium weight brown coloured wooden truncheon 15 1/2 inches (39.5cm) long, with a ball top, stamped on body in large lettering either "6" or an inverted "3" followed by "Commandos 3", which has then been highlighted in white. No wrist strap or maker's marks.Use
For a male police officer to use as protectionContext
From the late 1880s until the mid 1990s most male uniformed British police officers were issued with plain undecorated wooden truncheons of a similar style to this. These were typically 15 to 16 inches in length and had a grip made up of 4 large groves. Because such similar styles were used over such a long period of time they can be difficult to date. However the earlier examples are usually made of tropical hardwoods, such as ebony, lignum vitae, rosewood and mahogany, amongst others. This made them heavy and dense. In the period before and after the Second World War cheaper woods were used, making the truncheons progressively lighter in weight. By the 1980s new truncheons tended to be more cumbersome, lighter and much less well made than those from the first quarter of the 20th century. They were also usually heavily stained to hide the fact that they were made of lighter coloured, cheaper wood.
Unusually this example has "Commandos" stamped on it in large lettering which has been filled in with white paint. The type of wood used and weight indicate that this is a post war truncheon and the marking on it would be meaningless outside of Sussex. However in the 1960s East Sussex Constabulary operated plain clothes "County Crime Squads" who were also called "Commando Units" or simply "The Commandos". These Units were retained after the formation of Sussex Constabulary in 1968 and three operated across the Force until 1975. Their remit was to concentrate in areas where burglary and other serious crime was occurring and to carry out observations and conduct stop checks. It was also envisaged that they would conduct drug raids, act as a scouting department for potential detectives and form the nucleus for a murder squad (see item 2294 ).
The marking on this truncheon indicates it was connected to the "Commandos" and at the time it was not normal practice for plain clothes officers to routinely carry truncheons, certainly of this size. In fact an officer in the post 1968 Unit has confirmed that they never carried truncheons of any size. It is more likely that this was intended as a piece of unit equipment rather than personal issue and the number "3" may indicate which particular squad it came from. The East Sussex units were first established in 1966 (Poulson, Rumble and Smith 1987) so the numbers do definitely not represent 1963. A 1967 report (item 2294) into the future make up of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in the new Sussex Constabulary, recommends the establishment of 3 County Crime units and this truncheon may have been used by the third of those units. Alternatively this truncheon may represent some sort of presentation item, especially given its large style of stamping and use of white paint.