Name/Title
Sussex Police special constabulary male chief divisional officer's tunic c1989 -1997Entry/Object ID
2463Description
Black wool open necked tunic with four large buttons to the front, two breast pockets and two hip pockets, all pockets having small buttons. Attached to each shoulder are three silver coloured bars over an embroidered cloth badge marked "Special Constabulary" in white lettering. Each lapel has a chrome plated Sussex Police coat of arms shield badge. All buttons are chrome plated and marked "Sussex Police" with a Queen's Crown. Over the left breast pocket is a white, black and red coloured medal ribbon. Inside is a label marked, "J.Compton Sons and Webb Ltd by Appointment to HM The Queen Uniform Makers" and a size label marked "J.Compton Sons and Webb Ltd Sussex Police Jacket Male size 8A Chest 108 Length 76".Use
For use by Chief Divisional Officer John BartlettContext
After the name of Sussex Constabulary was changed to Sussex Police in 1974, male officers continued to be issued with exactly the sort of belted tunic as previously, with the exception that the buttons were marked "Sussex Police".
In the mid 1980s a simpler style of tunic like the one pictured was introduced. This tunic had no belt or epaulettes and the officer's warrant number was instead directly attached to the shoulders. This type of tunic also had simpler pockets flaps to those previously used. Lapel badges with the Sussex Police coat of arms continued to be worn. This particular example dates from c1989 and there is an earlier version made by a different manufacturer which has a distinctive protruding upper lapel (item 2026).
This particular tunic has the three bar rank insignia of a chief divisional officer of the special constabulary, equivalent to the rank of chief inspector in the regular police, and shoulder badges identifying the wearer as being a member of the special constabulary. It was issued to long serving Sussex Police special constable Chief Divisional Officer John Bartlett, who was promoted to this rank in 1989. The medal ribbon is for the Special Constabulary Long Service Medal which was first instituted in 1919 and is currently awarded after at least 9 year's service.
John Bartlett joined Sussex Police as a special constable in 1979 at Hove and rose 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 to the museum to preserve this memory, including this tunic, his cap (item 2012), and a presentation box given to him on his retirement from the specials (item 305). 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 type of tunic was replaced in the mid 1990s with a simpler version with much inferior buttons only decorated with a crown and no wording. The museum has a photo (item 423) of John wearing his earlier divisional officer's tunic, which is the older belted style used in Sussex Police until the mid 1980s.