Name/Title
Unusual length standard style wooden truncheon c1960Entry/Object ID
2325Description
Medium weight brown coloured wooden truncheon 18 1/4 inches (46.5cm) long, with a flat top, and riveted leather wrist strap. No maker's marks.Use
For a male police officer to use as protectionContext
From the late 1880s until the mid 1990s most male uniformed British police officers were issued with plain undecorated wooden truncheons of a similar style to this. These were typically 15 to 16 inches in length and had a grip made up of 4 large groves. Because such similar styles were used over such a long period of time they can be difficult to date. However the earlier examples are usually made of tropical hardwoods, such as ebony, lignum vitae, rosewood and mahogany, amongst others. This made them heavy and dense. In the period before and after the Second World War cheaper woods were used, making the truncheons progressively lighter in weight. By the 1980s new truncheons tended to be more cumbersome, lighter and much less well made than those from the first quarter of the 20th century. They were also usually heavily stained to hide the fact that they were made of lighter coloured, cheaper wood.
This truncheon, whilst being of the standard 20th century design is longer than you would normally expect, too long to fit into a truncheon pocket. Long truncheons were used for mounted officers and occasionally in some public order situations but they tend to be longer at around 24 inches. This one appears to be of post war manufacture and the unusual size suggests it may not be for civilian police use and could be from the military, or designed for specialist use.