Name/Title
Original photographic print of Class A of Course 107 at Sandgate District Police Training Centre 1954Entry/Object ID
1179Description
Original photographic print on board approx. 29 cm x 20cm of a class group, together with instructors and senior officers, at Sandgate Regional Police Training Centre. Printed at bottom, "Course 107 Class A", "No. 6 District Police Training Centre 1954", "Photo T.H. Everitt & Son 63 Anerley Road SE 19 Phone Sydenham 8613". Also Stamped to rear with these contact details and number "028083".Context
Until the Second World War most police forces conducted their own recruit initial training in house and there was no nationally agreed programme. This meant that the quality of training varied considerably and that often it was not sufficient. However during the war it was recognised that at the cessation of hostilities there was going to be a significant shortage of police officers and that additional training would be required. At the same time it was accepted that a longer national Initial Training Course was required. As a result a number of District or Regional Training Centres were established.
From April 1943 until March 1947 the police forces of Sussex were combined and all new recruits were trained at a training school set up in Wellington Road, Brighton. From then onwards new male officers in from the surviving five Sussex forces were trained at the District Training Centre at Sandgate in Kent, which first opened in 1946. Female recruits were trained at the Ryton-on-Dunsmore training centre near Coventry.
Sandgate trained officers from the No. 6 Police District, which initially included the county police forces of: Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, and Berkshire, and the borough forces of: Reading, Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton, Bournemouth, The City of Portsmouth and Southampton. It remained open until 1975 after which all new recruits from the then Sussex Police, were normally trained at Ashford, also in Kent.
This particular photograph belonged to PC Peter Stevens, who served in Brighton Police from December 1953 until January 1959. He is the only Brighton officer in the picture and is in the back row 5th from the left.
The picture is interesting as it shows that in 1954, some police forces were still not using helmets and that the majority of police forces that did use helmets in the south east used black helmet badges or plates, for both day and night use. In fact PC Stevens is the only officer here to have a white metal helmet plate. He is also the only officer to be wearing a closed collar tunic, which is interesting as Brighton Police introduced open necked tunics in 1952. Also many of the helmet plates, appear to have old style King's crown's on them, despite the fact that Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in 1952. This suggests that many police forces still had a stock of old badges that they wished to use up.