SC Inspector's brassard

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello Everyone,

This item just arrived and as may be seen in the photos it is a brassard for an Inspector in the Special Constabulary. The belt is red and white which is different from others I've seen which are usually black and white. The plate itself is 85mm by 64mm and is much like the style manufactured by Hiatt & Co. B'ham though no such markings are on this piece. Hiatt and Company made brassards from aluminum, as is this one, and the majority are more rectangular and by that I mean the sides were straight rather than curved as in this specimen. I do have maked Haitt brassards that are round so it is obvious they were not restricted, by company design policies, to produce only rectangular brassards. There is a little design styling on this piece along the border in that there are two "points" on each side. I have an unmarked oval specimen of the Haitt style to an Inspector with the wording in a different order. As you can see this one says SPECIAL CONSTABLE INSPECTOR while my oval specimen has the word INSPECTOR in the centre of the brassard plate. It may be a good idea to mention here that these were made and used during the Great War period (1914 to 1918). I sometimes forget to mention that fact when posting brassards, assuming that the reader has been following the posts in this section. As well the reader may be new to this area of collecting and to leave out what would seem obvious would be doing a disservice to the novice collector.

I would like to say that this and my other specimens of similar bordering, background and lettering are all of Haitt manufacture but that would not be in keeping with good historical research and, of course, would be pure speculation. The same holds true with any unsupported suggestion that the red and white belting may have signified a higher ranking officer. If any of the members would like to weigh in on this topic I would be most happy to hear from them.

An interesting point here, which may only be in the dark confines of my own mind, is that we may be moving into an area of collecting and reserch equal to the German collectors on the forum. They refer to specimens as being Assman etc. and now we can refer to brassards (or at lest some of them) as Haitt. Ok, that's a stretch of my imagination, but perhaps only due to the relatively small number of collectors intetrested in brassards.

I hope you like my latest addition to the police section of my modest collection.

Regards

Brian

[Mervyn Mitton]

A very nice example Brian. Usually RED is associated with the City of London - and in fact they still wear a red Duty Armband. However, as far back as WW1 it could be for other Towns.

Hiatt's were the official armourers to the Metropolitan Police and had most of their items made in Birmingham. I have seen WW1 vintage brassards named for other companies.

Edited February 20, 2011 by Mervyn Mitton

[Brian Wolfe]

A very nice example Brian. Usually RED is associated with the City of London - and in fact they still wear a red Duty Armband. However, as far back as WW1 it could be for other Towns.

Hiatt's were the official armourers to the Metropolitan Police and had most of their items made in Birmingham. I have seen WW1 vintage brassards named for other companies.

Thanks for that information. Based on what you have said I would suspect that the probability of this being for the City of London would be high. Many of the examples in my collection that are not of the Hiatt style, sadly enough, have no maker's marks.

Regards

Brian

[The Badger]

Thanks for that information. Based on what you have said I would suspect that the probability of this being for the City of London would be high. Many of the examples in my collection that are not of the Hiatt style, sadly enough, have no maker's marks.

Regards

Brian

Brian

Thought you might like to see this one, I have never seen any other forces in colour only black or brass. Coincidence that it is Reading ?

[Brian Wolfe]

Brian

Thought you might like to see this one, I have never seen any other forces in colour only black or brass. Coincidence that it is Reading ?

Now that's a first for me (not that I've seen it all), as you have said most are black or brass.

Very nice, Badger and I did enjoy seeing this one, thanks for posting it.

Regards

Brian