Name/Title
Sussex Police badged uniform pullover c1987Entry/Object ID
2426Description
Blue wool "V" necked pullover with vertical ribbing and a bell shaped badge over the left breast embroidered with a star, topped with a Queen's crown and marked "Sussex Police" around "EIIR", under which is marked "Police". Marked inside "Pure New Wool", "40" and "Made in England".Use
For a Sussex Police officer of all ranks to wear under other outer clothingContext
In the late 1980s Sussex Police began to replace its existing unmarked uniform pullovers with ones such as this, with an embroidered "Sussex Police EIIR" badge. Unlike the earlier unmarked pullovers, these newer ones did not have cotton patches on the shoulders or elbows. However despite the presence of the badge, these pullovers were still not permitted to be worn as outer wear in public other than in a police station, as they did not display an officer's warrant number. It is not known whether this was an oversight or whether the force was still not in favour of its officers wearing pullovers instead of tunics or coats.
This particular pullover was issued to WPC Alison Harrison who joined Sussex Police in June 1984. It is shown here with a white shirt and black tie, standard uniform female officer's dress when it would have been in use. Her first pullover was of the older pain design with the shoulder and elbow patches. This was the second style that she was issued with, most likely before 1988, after which she mostly served in plain clothes. It is shown here with a white shirt and black tie, standard uniform for female officer's for when it was in use. At the same time male officers were still wearing pale blue coloured shirts.
In the early 1990s officers were allowed to wear pullovers in public for the first time and new ones were issued. These were identical to the pullovers to that had previously issued in the early 1980s, with no badge, but with arm and shoulder patches(see item 2333), and the addition of a bell shaped "Sussex Police EIIR" badge. They also had small loops on the shoulders to allow the attachment of the epaulettes already used to display officer's number on their shirts.