Name/Title
Sussex Police female deputy chief constable's tunic 2002Entry/Object ID
247.1Description
Black wool female police officer's tunic with three small buttons to the front, two waist pockets without flaps, and two small buttons on each cuff. Attached to each lapel are gorget patches embroidered in silver wire with laurel leaves topped with a small button. All buttons are silver plated chief officer style with a Queen's crown surrounded by laurel leaves. Each shoulder has a small sized version of a chief officer badge of crossed tipstaves within a wreath surmounted by a bath star, both of which are embroidered in silver wire. On the left breast are two medal ribbons, one dark blue and white, for the Queen's Police Medal and the other, light blue and white, for the Police Long Service and good Conduct Medal. Inside is a label marked "Dewhirst of England 12s".Use
For use by a female deputy chief constable in Sussex PoliceContext
This rank insignia on this tunic of tipstaves and a bath star, show it as having been used by a deputy chief constable, and both the date it came to the museum from Sussex Police, and the medal ribbons indicate that it was issued to Deputy Chief Constable Maria Wallis.
Until the 1983 appointment of Alison Halford as an assistant chief constable in Merseyside Police, there had been no female police chief officers in the UK outside of the Metropolitan Police. However even she experienced discrimination and misogyny and progress for women within the police remained slow.
Sussex Police appointed Alison Neville as its first female assistant chief constable in 1991, and in 1995 Maria Wallis became the second female officer to hold this rank in Sussex. In December 2001 Maria Wallis was promoted to become the first female deputy chief constable in Sussex Police and was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in January 2002. Later that year she became the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, which allows accurate dating for this particular tunic. It would have been worn with a white shirt and black tie.
Prior to becoming a permanent deputy chief constable, Maria Wallis had been acting in the role, and from June 2001 until December 2001 she became the first women to lead Sussex Police, when she became the acting chief constable.
This particular tunic is an off the peg example that has had chief officer insignia and buttons added to it, in a similar fashion to male chief officer tunics in Sussex Police from the same period. Until the 1980s it had been common practice for many senior police officers to have bespoke uniforms made. This tunic is the same as would have been issued to all other female officers, with the addition of chief officer buttons and gorget patches. The museum also has the tunic's matching skirt (item 247.2) and a belt (item 247.3).