Name/Title
Sussex Police female Volunteer Cadet Corps hat 1997 - presentEntry/Object ID
2185Description
Blue felt covered re-enforced bowler style hat with blue cotton webbing hat band and fitted with a damaged enamelled star shaped voided badge marked "Sussex VCC" with no crown, containing the Sussex Police coat of arms. Marked "C.W. Headdress Ltd" Size "56cm" "EN 812 : 1997"Use
For use by a female Volunteer Police Cadet in Sussex PoliceContext
The original police cadet system was first established in 1948 in the Metropolitan Police with youngsters being employed full time from the age of 16 to 19, in a uniform support role and given the option of becoming full time constables when they were old enough. The scheme was introduced in an attempt to increase levels of recruitment to the regular force, by attracting school leavers who were not yet old enough to become constables. Similar schemes operated with some changes in many other police forces until the 1980s when the paid schemes were discontinued.
From the late 1980s the paid police cadet schemes were discontinued. Volunteer schemes were retained or begun for younger children, operating purely as youth organisations on similar lines to those run by the military. These schemes now fall under the national Volunteer Police Cadet programme and are organised on a local territorial police force basis.
Paid schemes were run in Sussex before and after the 1968 amalgamation, and cadets have always had similar headwear to that used used by full time officers but not helmets, with the exception that they have blue hat bands instead of either black or chequered ones.
Sussex Constabulary, whilst having a paid scheme, also introduced a volunteer cadet scheme in January 1969, aimed at younger children and run along the same lines as the scouts and military cadets. To begin with the volunteer cadets wore a version of the old paid cadet uniform from the 1950s, consisting of a blouson style jacket and berets for headwear. When the berets were replaced with caps, the volunteer cadets had purple hat bands to distinguish them from the paid cadets who had blue cap bands. When the paid scheme was discontinued in the late 1980s, initially purple bands were retained for use by the volunteer cadets, though eventually they changed to blue bands in line with the national scheme.
This particular re - enforced bowler type female hat is fitted with a Sussex Police Volunteer Cadet Corps enamelled badge. Though damaged this badge contains the letters "VCC" instead of "Police" and does not have the crown present on police officer's cap/hat badges. Sussex Police first introduced an enamelled all ranks solid centre cap badge in 1995 and a "VCC" version without a crown at the same time. The badge on this hat is voided and probably dates from after 2002, when Sussex Police replaced its solid centred all ranks badges with voided ones. Prior to 1995 cadets had the standard Sussex Police cap badge as used by constables and sergeants. At present cadets are seen with both the star VCC badge and the standard Sussex Police enamelled cap badge on their headwear, presumably depending on availability.
The makers marks inside this hat date it from 1997, though the badge is probably post 2002.
Until 2018 hats with blue bands within Sussex Police were exclusively used by cadets, but since then they have also been issued to police community support officers, in line with both national policy and more importantly with that of Surrey Police whom Sussex Police shares its uniform procurement with.