Name/Title
Eastbourne Borough Police white summer helmet c1911 - 1912Entry/Object ID
914Description
A six panelled domed white cotton covered cork helmet, with white/beige coloured interior lining and green coloured cotton lining around the inside of the brim. There is a large cotton covered top dome and a broad cotton band around the base of the helmet. Inisde is a brown leather headband and a brown leather chinstrap, as well as a label marked "Christys London Bobby & Co. Ltd Late Atkinson & Co. Eastbourne"'. On the front is a large white metal garter style badge marked "Eastbourne Borough Police" with a coat of arms centre and topped with a Kings Crown.Use
For summer use by Eastbourne Borough Police constables and sergeants.Context
Until this helmet was donated to the museum, the use of white helmets by Eastbourne Borough Police had largely been forgotten and little was known of their use. Recent research though, has confirmed that they were used for summer wear by sergeants and constables from 1901 until 1932. It is interesting that the first year that they were withdrawn, 1933, is the same year that Brighton Police adopted white helmets, and that their use in Eastbourne its hardly known, whilst they became synonymous with policing in Brighton.
The type of badge used on this helmet appears to have been only used on the force's summer helmets, as it does not have the star surround used on all other Eastbourne helmets until the 1930s.
It was made by the well know hat makers "Christ'y's of London", but the label also shows that it was supplied through the local Eastbourne Department store of "Bobby's". Other helmets and hats indicate that this was normal practice for Eastbourne Borough Police. Bobby's was a chain of department stores and their Eastbourne branch was opened in 1911, having previously traded as "Atkinson & Co." In time the store became a "Debenhams" branch.
This particular helmet has excellent provenance and was donated by the family of the officer who wore it, PC George Champion, who joined Eastbourne Police in May 1893, retiring in 1919. The reference to "Late Atkinson & Co." on the label suggests that the helmet was supplied shortly after the store became "Bobby's", suggesting a date of 1911/12, which would tie in with PC Champion's service.
At the time that these summer helmets were initially used, the normal dark winter helmets in use by Eastbourne Police had a ball top, however in the late 1920s they adopted a blue coloured hemet of a very similar design as the white summer ones in use, for winter and, presumably night wear, though they were fitted with a different star shaped badge.