Name/Title
Sussex Police chief constable's tunic 1993 - 2001Entry/Object ID
611Description
Dark blue/black wool senior officer's tunic, with nylon lining, two breast and two hip pockets each with buttons, 4 buttons to the front and a wool belt with a two pronged chrome plated buckle. There are epaulettes, each with a button, having an embroidered crossed tip staves within a laurel wreath, surmounted by an embroidered Queen's Crown. Each lapel has an embroidered gorget patch of laurel leaves, topped with a button. All of the buttons are all chrome plated with Queen's Crowns, those on the shoulders and gorgets being of a generic decorative type with a simple laurel band, and those on the pockets and front being of a higher quality with a more defined laurel band. There is a name badge attached over the right breast pockets, with the Sussex Police coat of arms and marked, "Paul Whitehouse Chief Constable". There are medal ribbons over the left breast pocket for the Queen's Police Medal and the Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. There is a label within marked " J. Compton Sons and Webb Ltd South East Region Police Forces B T Police Male Jacket Height 6/2 Chest 110 Waist 98"Use
For use by Chief Constable Paul Whitehouse 1993 - 2001Context
This tunic was used by Paul Whitehouse who was the chief constable of Sussex Police from 1993 until 2001.
By the mid 1980s Sussex Police had stopped using belts and epaulettes on tunics for the majority of male police officers and had begun issuing belt-less examples. However some senior officers, especially chief officers continued to wear tunics with belts, as they do to this day.
In the past and to this day many chief officers have had specially tailored, often bespoke uniforms made. Paul Whitehouse however, was well known for not having a pretentious attitude to uniform and was often pictured wearing a uniform pullover, something than it is unlikely any of his predecessors would have done. He was also the last Sussex chief constable to use a standard cap badge. This attitude is reflected in his choice of tunic, which from its label is clearly an "off the peg" ready made example by the well known uniform and hat maker "Compton Webb". Interestingly this tunic appears to have been made for British Transport Police, as indicated by the "BT Police' on the label. If it was made for Sussex Police it would be marked as such. Also the front and pocket buttons are the same as those used in BTP at the time. In Sussex in 1993, tunic buttons had "Sussex Police" marked on them, and when the were replaced with generic examples, they simply had a Queen's Crown with no laurel decoration. Alternatively they may be chief officer style buttons, which are similar, and may have been added. It seems likely that at the time, tunic's made for BTP by Compton Webb, were the only 'Off the peg" examples with a belt that were suitable for a chief officer. These may have been intended for more senior officers, as they not only have a belt but external hip pockets, features not found on lower ranks tunics from the same period. The current situation with police uniform manufacturers is that specific items of uniform are labelled with the name of the force that originally sponsored their design and manufacture, and this may be what is what is represented here. The embroidered badges and gorget patches on this tunic would have been applied, along with the medal ribbons by the Sussex Police clothing store.
The type of embossed name badge on this uniform was introduced for all ranks by Paul Whitehouse during his tenure.