Name/Title
Group photograph of Eastbourne Borough Police in summer uniforms and white helmets June 1908Entry/Object ID
991Description
A black and white original photographic print, 29 cm x 24-5cm high stuck to grey card mounting 44cm x 36cm, embossed in the right bottom corner in gold, "Fredk A Bourne, Rembrandt Studio, 19 Langney Rd, Eastbourne". Marked on rear of mount handwritten in ink, "PC Sayers". The photograph is marked in the lower right corner "22.6.08". The image shows a number of Eastbourne Borough Police officers, in a formal group setting, wearing summer uniforms, the majority of whom are also wearing white helmets.Context
This is an important image as it is the only known group photograph of Eastbourne Borough Police officers wearing white helmets. It was for some time the only known image of these helmets being worn in the town, but subsequent research has revealed many more and established that such helmets were worn for summer use between 1901 and 1932, after which officers reverted to blue helmets for all year use. As well as the white helmets the officers are wearing summer tunics, with braided epaulettes.
From the writing on the rear of the mount, the photograph appears to have belonged to PC George Sayers, who joined Eastbourne Borough Police on 2nd April 1900. His collar number was "24" and he is the second officer from the left, in the middle row.
Also in this photograph is the very distinctive figure of Edward John Jenkins Teal, sitting in the centre with the dogs, wearing the boater hat, who was the chief constable from 1900 to 1918. Inspector Arthur Walls is sitting fourth from the left, and he was tragically killed duty in 1912 by a burglar armed with a gun.
Inspector Walls had the rank of "Parade's Inspector", which was unique to Eastbourne and is displayed on his collar. This meant that he was responsible for the policing of the seafront area of the town. Interestingly the sergeant wearing a cap also has a special rank embroidered on his collar "Warrant's Officer", meaning that he had responsibility for serving warrants and other administration matters.
It is known from a 1967 article in The Eastbourne Herald Newspaper that at the same time this photograph was taken, an almost identical one of the officers in winter helmets was also taken. However at this time we only have the image from that paper and no actual original print.