Penang Police Button

[shanghaigirl]

I have attached a photo of a Victorian Penang Police button .

Does anyone have any other items of Penang Police memorabilia ?

Shanghai Girl

[Mervyn Mitton]

Shanghai Girl ( do you have a name we can call you ?) Penang is an interesting town - to my mind a 'pestilential' place which I have never been fond of - and neither were the original settlers. (Hugh, what did you feel about the place ?)

Originally setup by the East India Company to control trading and the pirates in those parts - one of the Lt. Governor's was Sir Stamford Raffles. When he later became Governor, he took the opportunity to move the settlement to what is now Singapore. Much better for trade and also, gave better control of passing ships. I think the move was in the early 1830's - so, King William 1Vth. However, Penang continued as a trading post and has grown to be a large town - it is , of course, an Island.

The word Police would not have been used at that time, so the button is probably 1850's - a nice early Crown.

Apart from founding Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles is famous for founding the London Zoo, the Scientific Institute and the Great Library. Even today , the Zoo is (theoretically) run by The Fellows. I was elected some 35 years ago and at that time we had to vote on every major resolution - there were under 2500 of us. Times have changed and we passed control to the paid staff.

Amazing how a small - old - button can run to 4 paras...

[kitinsignia]

Hi Shanghai girl,

I have some Straits Settlements police and Unfederated Malay States police items as well. However, none of my collection bears the word "Penang" or "George town" on it.

Regards, Kit