Name/Title
Photograph of three Brighton Special Constabulary sergeants and a newspaper clipping 1969Entry/Object ID
2516Description
A black and white original photographic print (20.9cm x 16.3 cm) of three Special Constabulary sergeants together with an original newspaper clipping from the "Evening Argus, Tuesday, February 13, 1969" showing the same image and with an article titled "Carry On Specials". The rear of the photograph has handwritten in ink "William Frederick Turner, left" and a stamped mark "Evening Argus Brighton Copyright Picture", with a date reference and telephone number.Context
The newspaper article accompanying this photograph explains that the three officers are William Turner, Bruce Ferguson-Cooke and William Smith, all members of the Special Constabulary at Brighton who had recently been promoted to the rank of sergeant, in February 1969. At that time Brighton Police were part of Sussex Constabulary, having been amalgamated in 1968. However detail from the article shows that all three of these officers had previously been long serving members of the Brighton Borough Police Special Constabulary.
Both the article and the photo give interesting information about the special constabulary. It is clear that at least to begin with Sussex Constabulary used standard police ranks for its special constables. In the future it would adopt a different rank structure for them, consisting of specific ranks and insignia unique to the Special Constabulary. However in more recent years standard police ranks are again being adopted for use by special constables in Sussex Police.
The photograph also shows the variation in uniform and insignia then used by special constables in Sussex. William Turner on the left, is still wearing a Brighton Borough Police cap badge with a King's Crown. Given that he joined the specials in 1961, this badge which dates to pre 1953, would have been out of date all of the time he had it. The other two sergeants have the then current Sussex Constabulary "EIIR" lower rank's cap badge. The tunics being worn are more telling. Both Sergeant Ferguson - Cooke and Sergeant Smith are wearing old style tunics with two pockets and no belt that pre date Sussex Constabulary. It is most likely that these are old Brighton Borough Police tunics, this style being used throughout the 1950s and replaced in the early 1960s with ones with four pockets and a belt. It is thought that Sergeant Turner is wearing one of these four pocket pre amalgamation Brighton Borough Police tunics. Though not clear from this photograph, the museum has another contemporary one of him (item 2518), wearing a tunic with a distinctive cuff decoration, used by Brighton Police but not Sussex Constabulary. These differences are not unusual as it had long be normal practice to issue special constables with obsolete uniform and insignia.