Name/Title
Sussex Police special constabulary chief divisional officer's cap 1995-1997Entry/Object ID
2021Description
Black wool cap with chequered band and a single black plain band around the peak, with plastic chin strap, and fitted with a star shaped Queen's crown "Sussex Police" enamelled solid centre coat of arms cap badge. Makers marks "Grantham" and written in ink on hatband the number "1789".Use
Used by special constabulary Chief Divisional John BartlettContext
It has long been practice for senior police officers to have rank insignia on their uniform caps as well as on their uniform tunics. Since the 20th century, officers of the rank of inspector and above have had some form of insignia on their caps.
A single black coloured plain band normally designates either an inspector or chief inspector. However less frequently they are also used to designate the equivalent ranks in the special constabulary of divisional officer and chief divisional officer. This cap is known to have been used by Sussex Police Special Chief Divisional Officer John Bartlett and has his number "1789" is written inside.
John Bartlett was a long serving special constable, joining at Hove in 1979 and rising to the rank of divisional officer. Much of his time was spent preparing the special constabulary operations for Brighton and Hove Albion football matches at the old Goldstone Ground. In 1989 he was promoted to chief divisional officer and moved to Brighton. There he took responsibility for more closely integrating the divisional specials with regular officers and introduced a number of new initiatives to increase their effectiveness. He retired in 1997 and sadly died in 2004. In 2008 his family donated a number of items of his, including this cap, his tunic (item 2463) and a presentation box given to him on his retirement from the specials (item 305), in order to preserve his memory. Interestingly, John's brother Gordon was a traffic officer at Brighton, having initially served in Brighton Borough Police, and John's son, Graham went on to be a police officer, eventually commanding the Brighton and Hove Division by the time he retired as a Chief Superintendent in 2013.
This particular cap has the Sussex Police all ranks solid centre enamelled cap badge that was introduced in 1995 and was used until a similar but voided version was introduced in 2002.
Prior to the introduction of this badge constables and sergeants had a different cap badge to the ranks of inspector and above. The museum has a photo (item 423) of John wearing his divisional officer uniform with this old style senior officer's cap badge on his cap.