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Chief Constable; Mr William J. Davey

Police Medals and Awards

How a modern helmet is made

The Museums that make us who we are

The East Riding Constabulary Order of Dress

No problem here with names

Pillars and Boxes update

Photo Gallery

Motor Patrolling

Pam's Postcards

The Air Beat

What is a collector?

I am delighted to say that Jim is feeling better and has once again been working extremely hard on producing this magazine.  I hope his recuperation continues and he is soon back to rude good health!

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I was on a video call this week with two long-time collectors..... 

We were 2,000 miles/3,000 kilometres apart, but that is the wonder of making technology work for you!

One asked me, "What do you actually collect?". 

"All of it", was my answer.

At one end of the scale I have "Rupert" tie pins and Specials lapel badges.  At the other end I have retired police motorcycles.

In between I do have some complete sets. 

Things like every door decal from the UK, including the non-geographic forces.  They do take up a lot of real estate to display. 

Also every California Sheriff's Dept patch, all 58 of them, most of the California State agencies, and all 50 US State Police patches.  They make a colourful display.

Then there are a few thousand photographs and negatives.  I wrote about restoring one of my earliest, an 1855 Ambrotype in magazine 322, still available on the club website - http://www.pmcc-club.co.uk/club/.

So what do you "collect"?  In fact what is a "Collector"?

The OED defines "collector" as - noun; someone who collects certain things and a job or as a hobby.  Tax collectors are mentioned in both the Bible and the Quran, so collecting as a job has been around for a VERY long time.

Quite a few of us have used our profession to further our collecting and of course for many, our collection is inextricably linked with our careers.

Collecting is an incredibly enriching experience. Finding and researching the history of a rare or unusual item adds to our individual and collective knowledge. This appeals to both our brains and our hearts.

I found a thought provoking paper on-line, “Evocative Objects: Things We Think With” by Sherry Turkle @sturkle (2011), a collection of essays by various authors on the way we interact with our things.

A little further in this magazine is the story of one of my "collections". 

Collecting really is a "Never ending story";

Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel. 

Norman

<Bridgwater Borough Police

Established: 10th November 1839
October 1940: Became part of Somerset Constabulary

Strength:  Initial: 2 - Final: 20

Bridgwater Borough force, 1890

Bridgwater Borough force, 1905

What would you like to see?

What would you like to see in the club magazine or on the website? Don't keep it to yourself. Let Norman or Jim know and we will do our best to publish your request.

How a modern helmet is made

Are you looking to repair a modern helmet? Then it helps to know how they are made. This 5 minute video will show you how.

The museums that make us who we are

We received this message in early April from Keith Heather:

It is with sadness that after 24½ years as the voluntary curator, I wish to inform all members that the MDP Museum, Wethersfield closed its doors for the last time today, 31st March 2023.

When it was announced that the MDP HQ was moving, the MOD and DIO informed the Chief Constable that there would be NO buildings available for the MDP history museum and vehicle museum. Since this date several attempts have been made to relocate the museum to another location, without success.

An offer was received from the National Emergency Services Museum (NESM), Sheffield to house MDP’s Historical collection and possibly a few vehicles, which has now been taken up.

Over the coming months NESM will log all items taken from Wethersfield and begin to put together a display. At some point I will be visiting NESM to assist in any way possible.

This has been a very difficult time for those involved in the museum to come to terms with, but we felt this was the best and only solution available to keep some of MDP’s history alive.

Anyone interested in following NESM should visit their website www.visitnesm.org.uk for any updates.

It has been a pleasure being the custodian of MDP’s history and look forward to the future at NESM.

Keith Heather

An MDP armoured Land Rover and a Ford Escort Estate car on their way to Sheffield.  Sadly a number of vehicles which because of their nature are considered a "security risk" and can only be displayed on MOD premises will be cut up.

There is a lot of politics involved in this announcement.  The history of RAF Wethersfield, in north Essex is well describes on Wikipedia.

In April 1991, the Chief Constable of the Ministry of Defence Police (MDP)  assumed responsibility for the site. A small, joint civilian-uniformed team was established to oversee the refurbishment of a number of buildings to prepare for the relocation of the Ministry of Defence Police Training School and Firearms Training Wing from Medmenham, Buckinghamshire, and the headquarters from Earl's Court in London by March 1993. The Training Centres commenced operation on 1 April 1993.

In 2016 as the Ministry of Defence was trying to make savings, it was announced that the whole site would be closed by 2025.  However this year, that closure has been put on hold indefinitely because the site is to be used to house asylum seekers.

The new location for the force HQ and training centre has not been disclosed.

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Another closure happened in April when the Metropolitan Police Historic Vehicle Collection was moved from the Hendon Driving School, to the Met Police training centre at Marlow House, Sidcup. 

The Met museum and archives are already located there.

In a highly coordinated move involving several Met Pol recovery vehicles, all the historic vehicles were moved, severing the last link with Hendon as a police driving school and vehicle centre.

The new accommodation is in secure, climate controlled garages, where the vehicles can be maintained and cared for.

At the moment, the public are unable to visit the collection, but it is hoped that in the future, this may be possible.

The East Riding Constabulary
Order of Dress 1923

The East Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary was formed on the 6th January 1857.  It remained as a proudly independent force for 111 years and six months, until 30th June 1968.

North Bar, Beverley with one of the special East Yorkshire buses, made to fit through the bar.

The original headquarters was in the Sessions House, just outside the North Bar, the last remaining Borough Gate in Beverley.  At the time Beverley had its own borough force, until their amalgamation with the East Riding in 1928.

The Sessions House is still in use today, as the Divisional Headquarters for Humberside Police.

After the formation of the York & North East Yorkshire Police on 1st July 1968, the uniform stores remained, above the garage and workshops at the back of Sessions House.

For another six years Paddy Hannon, the storeman in charge, issued uniform and equipment to officers in the East Riding area.  Similar stores continued in York and at Solberge Hall, Northallerton.

The next amalgamation happened on 1st April 1974, when most of the East Riding, Kingston upon Hull, parts of the West Riding and the Lindsey area of Lincolnshire became the new County of Humberside.

I first met Paddy when I was a Cadet in 1970.  I was already "collecting" and arranged to visit him one Saturday morning.

Upon climbing the narrow stairs from the car wash to the stores, you were confronted with a long highly polished counter.  Hanging on the wall behind the counter was a large framed photograph of the East Riding Constabulary Order of Dress- 1923.

I was intrigued by the frame of photographs which showed winter and summer uniforms, for all ranks from PC to Superintendent.

Later as a newly minted Constable, I was posted to a rural station in the East Riding, so used to visit Paddy whenever I was in Beverley at Sessions House.

Soon after the formation of Humberside Police, Portacabins were erected on a bomb site in Charlotte Street in Hull.  These were for classrooms, for the force training school, and for the uniform stores.  Stores in Beverley, Grimsby and in the former Hull HQ building were centralised in one place

This large formation of portacabins quickly became kjnown as "lego-land".

One day I was called in by Paddy and given the frame of photographs.  It had been damaged.  The glass was broken and the card mount around the photographs was coming apart.

He asked me to take care of it, because no one else was interested and he was afraid that if left, it would be thrown out.

I brought it home and dismantled the frame, carefully removing each individual cabinet card photograph.  I preserved the Chief Constables signature and the original titles, but the card backing was decaying through age.

Each cabinet card was individually approved and initialled by Major Dunlop.

Two original cabinet cards before scanning - front

Rear of the same cards with the CC's approval in the top left corner

Using my contacts I was able to trace the widow of the sergeant who was photographed.  She gave me more post cards of her husband, and other officers, which had never been published.

Early in the 21st century, as my retirement approached, I decided that the frame should once again be hung, visible in the Humberside Police stores.

I scanned all the post cards and digitally restored the fading images.  I polished the oak frame and treated it against woodworm, then recreated the labels using the exact typeface of the original.

A local picture framer made a new support frame, using acid free mounting card.  The restored photographs were printed onto acid free paper, then finally the original signature of Major Dunlop and the heading were added to the frame.

Tucked inside the back I added a DVD, with the history of the frame and digital copies of all the photographs.

When I handed in my uniform at the Derringham Street stores, I presented the frame to the staff, so future recruits could see what uniforms were like in the 1920's.

Move forward to the second decade of the 20th century, and Humberside formed a strategic partnership with the South Yorkshire Police, and all stores and purchasing were centred on Sheffield.  The Derringham Street police stores were closed and sold.

It took a lot of time and effort, invluding Freedom of Information Act requests, to discover that the photograph didn't go to Sheffield, but is instead in a store somewhere in Beverley, unloved and out of sight.

A centenary is always worth celebrating, however despite multiple attempts by me, I have been unable to get anyone in Humberside to take any interest.

This is the only known Order of Dress, of any UK police force.  It would not be until 1933 that the Metropolitan Police, at the instigation of the Home Office, also produced a similar set of photographs, to try and standardise UK police uniforms and head dress.

Here below, published for the first time ever, are all the photographs in the frame and the unpublished images as well.  You can download the original unabridged story as a pdf from this link.

These are the unpublished images, never before seen

Sadly no photographs of Major William Hugh Dunlop, ERC Chief Constable from 1899 until his death on 28/11/1924, in his police uniform seem to exist..

Known unknowns

Following on from the last issue of the magazine when we talked about the difference between looking at and examining photographs, this photograph is of a group of recruits in training taken in 1950. 

However the location is not known.

It did remind me of the quotation by Donald Rumsfeld in 2002: 

“There are known known's — these are things we know we know.” 

“We also know there are known unknowns — that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know."

"But there are also unknown unknowns, the things we don’t know we don’t know.”

Does that quotation sound familiar?

Identifying the forces the officers are from is somewhat easier than establishing the date.  Some badges stand out and are like no others.  In the centre of the back row is a City of Newcastle upon Tyne officer.

Keen observers will note that there are several officers who, as well as the Sergeant, are wearing open neck tunics.  They are relatively easy to identify as York City Police.  There are also North Riding, East Riding and Kingston upon Hull City officers too.

Some collar numbers are visible, especially on the closed neck tunics.

362, 381, 387  etc.  The different collar insignia also help to identify the Hull and East Riding officers.

Some forces have an almost complete records of their officers, the East Riding and Hull being two.  Recently North Riding personnel records have been discovered at the County Archives.  Others like York City Police have nothing remaining.

But look closely at the uniforms.  For example, how whistle chains are worn.  The front row first and third from the left are different.

York City uniforms are easily identified.  The coat of arms "Five Lions" shield is worn on the epaulette, above the number.  But the officers on the back row 2nd left and front row 3rd left have no epaulette shields, or collar emblems.

You can only enlarge these old photographs so much, but the caps and badges are slightly different so.  Just enough to give a clue to their identity.

With almost all of the officers force's identified, I started going through my reference material to look for Yorkshire forces who did not wear collar or epaulette insignia.  There are only two, Wakefield City and Doncaster Borough.

Their cap badges have a shield centre, but with very obvious large areas of voiding.

So I looked a bit further and discovered that Northumberland Constabulary also did not wear any shield or CoA. 

Enlarging the badges of the two officers as far an I can, they look similar to the St Edward Crown Northumberland cap badge.

So I turned to the various Facebook local history and police groups.

There are huge numbers of police groups, representing every force in the country and many of the former colonial forces.  However these are usually closed, for very understandable reasons.  Closed group means that you have to apply to join it, unlike a public group, and there will be a membership criteria.

But there are also thousands of local history groups, like the very active York Past & Present group .

From existing records and with the help of many people in different facebook Groups, I have been able to name the following:

Back row:  Hull City 469 Jon Spence; Northumberland?; Newcastle upon Tyne PC Bob Swift; North Riding 507;  Hull City 381 Ken Smith

Middle row:    East Riding 129;  Hull City 471 Denis Ellerington;  East Riding 107; York City 51 Bill Andrews;  York City 44 Brian Holland; Hull City 362 Stan Fieldhouse; Hull City 413 Jack Ransom

Front row:    York City ?;  Hull City 360 Bill Hodgeson;  Northumberland?;  York City Sgt?; Hull City 470 John McGovern; York City 150 Geoff Mooring; Hull City 387 Charlie Spandler

In York and Hull groups I have traced close relatives of some of the officers and even copies of the same photograph.  However sadly all have passed away and none of the photographs have names.

Kevin Holland, the son of York City officer PC 44 Brian Holland tells me that his dad was trained at Solberge Hall, Northallerton.

The North Riding Constabulary purchased Solberge Hall, and the surrounding estate in 1950.  The history of the North Riding records that the first course was run beginning on 2nd October 1950.

It is possible that this photo is of that first course?  I am still looking for written confirmation...

No problem here with names

I have only come across a couple of forces where they have comprehensively photographed and named officers and few of those images have been published.

Recently I came across a website recording the history of the Gateshead County Borough Police, at https://gatesheadpolice.org/

The entire Gateshead County Borough Police in 1895

The Gateshead Police Fire Brigade in 1914

A much enlarged Gateshead police in 1929

The force was established on 1st October 1836 and 132 years later the force was amalgamated on 1st October 1968 along with the South Shields Police and Durham County Constabulary, forming the Durham Constabulary.

Photos courtesy of George Marshall
https://www.facebook.com/groups/gatesheadcbp

For collection only!

For collection only!

One of our Australian members Tony Roberts, has this very nice 1930's helmet from the Netherlands for sale  on the PMCC Facebook group.

The only problem is that it is for "collection only" from Adelade, South Australia!

When I look at it, although the makers name is no longer visible, it looks as though it was made in the UK.

Pillars and boxes update

Our Pillars and Boxes Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/policepillarsandboxes continues to find and publish photographs of police pillars and boxes in out of the way places, from around the country.

There are whole websites and Facebook groups dedicated to vehicles, roads and street scenes, where newly found photographs are posted daily.

Sometimes hiding in plain view in one of these photographs will be street furniture.  Seldom will the pillar or box be the subject of the photo, rather the photographer just captures it, along with everything else in the scene.

Uxbridge Road, West Ealing and a Met Police is there n the edge of the photo

Astute observers recognise what is in the corner and then repost the photographs in specialist interest groups like ours.

The City of Sheffield had an extensive network of police boxes and pillars and this photo of Wicker Arches, shows Sheffield trams with a British Railways EM2 electric locomotive, 27001 'Ariadne', built in 1954, on the famous Woodhead line  above.

Nestling in the corner next to the Telephone Box is one of the Sheffield Police Boxes.

This street view image shows the location today. 

The trams and police and telephone box are all long gone, the bridge has been cleaned of its industrial grime and the once double track main line to Manchester is now a long spur running to the Liberty Speciality Steels Fox Valley works at Stocksbridge.

Another find has been a couple of copies of the Metropolitan Police Telephone Box System guide.

These were in numbered editions, this being the eighth issue, dated 1st December 1931 and was issued to the Clapham sub-division.

From these dates we can tell when the police box system was extended across the Metropolitan Police District.

How many more editions were/are there and how many still exist?

You can download a pdf copy of the Metropolitan Police Police Boxed Guide here.  Thanks to our member Jon Wright for scanning it for us.

Photo gallery

(click on photograph to enlarge)

A pocket wireless set for policeman. Such sets would enable police officers to receive crime news, whilst they walk their beats. (Note the aerial attached to the helmet). (Photograph: Daily Mirror, 1931) 

Nottinghamshire Constabulary. Photograph from a 1960's Christmas Card. (Submitted by: Audrey Sullivan).

Barnstaple Borough Police advertisement. (Submitted by: Peter Hinchliffe)

Blue Anchor Police Station nr Newquay. 1940/42. Left believed to be Constable Tom Fox, riding Sunbeam Patrol Bike index DRL 814 and Constable 212 Leonard Richards. (Submitted by: Peter Hinchliffe)

St Austell Police Station, 1951. Delivery of three new AJS Patrol Bikes. (Submitted by: Peter Hinchliffe)

Send your photos to Jim admin@pmcc-club.co.uk

Our Continental colleagues

By Brian Homans

It is the middle of summer in the northern hemisphere, a time when people are going on holiday or remembering past holiday trips...

This month we thought we would look at some of the vehicles used by overseas, especially Commonwealth forces.

All the former colonial powers exported their well known and understood policing systems to their colonies and dominions around the world.  All the former British dependencies and territories wore badges with the Royal Crown above a circlet with their name, just as in the UK.

As countries rightly gained their independence, their ties with the United Kingdom remained intact and this is represented today in their vehicles, even if the actual model is not from Great Britain.

Ascension Island Police Land Rover

Ascension Island Police are recruiting Constables - from their poster

Australia ( Australian Capital Territory) - Ford Falcon Panel Van

Australia ( New South Wales) - Ford F150 Paddywagon

Australia (New South Wales) - Toyota Landcruiser

Australia (Queensland) - Ford Falcon Highway Patrol

Australia (Queensland) - Holden saloon

Bermuda Police Service Jeep 4x4

Bermuda Police Service "battenberg" livery and door decal

Canada (RCMP) - Chevrolet Caprice

Canada (RCMP) - Chevrolet Impala

Canada (RCMP) - Chevrolet Lumina

Canada (RCMP) - Ford Crown Victoria

Canada (Royal Newfoundland Constabulary)

Canada (Nova Scotia) Ford Mustang Mach-E

Cyprus - Kia

Cyprus - Mitsubishi 4x4

Cyprus - Sovereign Base Area Police Hyundai

Hong Kong Police - Audi A6

Hong Kong Police - Mercedes Sprinter

Malta Police - Hyundai 4x4

Malta Police - Land Rover Freelander

New Zealand - Holden Commodore Estate

New Zealand - Holden Commodore

Royal Falkland Islands Police Service - Land Rover 4x4's

Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police - Luxgen5 saloon car

Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police - Mercedes 4x4 Mobile Command Unit

Singapore Police Service - BMW 3 Series

Singapore Police Service - Ford (Mazda) Minibus

Singapore Police Service - Nissan Sunny

Vanuatu Police Force - Isuzu D-Max (very Australian looking)

WANTED

Your news, views, stories, pictures from your collection.

Any item that you think will be of interest to other collectors.

Email either Norman or Jim