Name/Title
Police type whistle, probably from Brighton Borough Police complete with police box key 1922-1939Entry/Object ID
768Description
Chrome plated police type whistle with Chrome plated chain and button hook, with key attached. Marked "The Metropolitan". The key is marked "A. Kenrick & Sons West Bromwich"Use
For police officers and others to raise the alarm and summon assistance. If this was a police issue whistle it is likely that the key is for a police box.Context
The use of the whistle by police to replace the rattle as a means of raising the alarm only became widespread after 1884 when whistles were adopted by the Metropolitan Police in London. Joesph Hudson and Co. supplied these whistles to the Met and the "Metropolitan" trademark was registered to reflect this, the connection being used heavily in the company's marketing.
To begin with a number of Birmingham based companies produced whistles for the police but Hudsons soon became the largest manufacturer. The company was formed in 1870 and is still in existence as The Acme Whistle Company. Whilst most famous for producing whistles, Hudson and Co. also manufactured other items of police equipment until the 1950's.
The correct name for a police type whistle is a General Service Whistle or GWS, as they were not only used by the police, and after 1884 they became popular not just with police but with all manner of other institutions as well as with the general public.
While many police forces had whistles made with their names stamped on them, some only used unpersonalised examples. West Sussex Constabulary is thought to be one such force, given the lack of any known whistles with their name on. Even those police forces that did buy named whistles, are thought to have purchased plainer unnamed whistles as replacements or to supplement their supplies. This was because personalised whistles were more expensive and had to be bought in larger numbers. Hudson and Co. had a minimum order policy for such marked whistles of 144 or a gross.
This particular whistle could be one such plain example and is of a type that Hudson's sold as standard. The presence of a key and a chain suggests police use, police box keys often being attached to officer's whistle chains. Normally, without any provenance it would impossible to confirm police use for this whistle and it could have been bought by any other organisation or a member of the public. However the key with this whistle is identical to that on another whistle in the museum (item 2273.2 ) which is known to have been used by a Brighton Borough Police officer. Consequently there is a strong possibility that the whistle and key pictured came from the Brighton force, and that the key is for one of the many police boxes that were in the town before prior to the 1970s. The lack of markings and method of construction date the whistle to between 1922 and 1939.