Name/Title
Metropolitan Police truncheon with painted flag c1856-1886Entry/Object ID
979Description
Wooden mostly plain truncheon, 17 inches (43cm) long with multi turned handle. The body is plain but on one side has painted what appears to be a blue/black triangular flag on a mast with a gold 8 pointed petal/star device in the middle. It is marked with two impressed stamps (one near the top of the body, the other close to the handle) of "MP" under a crown. There is an old circular collector's sticker on handle end, numbered "7". No maker's marks.Use
For a constable or special constable to use as protectionContext
The "MP" marks under a crown clearly identify this truncheon as being from the Metropolitan Police. Identical stamps appear on both early and later 19th century, otherwise unmarked truncheons from the force. They do not appear on Metropolitan Police decorated examples, it being thought that there was no need as these are always marked with a painted "M.P" inside a red cartouche. The apparent long term use of the stamp makes dating difficult but it is known that the Met. reduced the length of its truncheons to 17 inches in 1856 and to 15 1/2 inches in 1886, suggesting that this example fits somewhere between these dates. It may have been used either by a constable or a special constable.The Metropolitan Police purchased huge numbers of undecorated truncheons throughout the 19th century to arm the Special Constables that were sworn in to deal with a series of large scale demonstrations in the capital. The fact that this truncheon is not stamped with an office's Divisional number may indicate that it was for special constable use.
The apparent flag decoration is something of a mystery and it does not conform to the normal decoration of Met. Police truncheons. It is possible that it is a later addition.