A Good Victorian Painted Truncheon With Unusual Crest and Brass Base Cap

Good hardwood turned truncheon with gilt and coloured VR Crown and heraldic shield. Brass turned base cap with swivel lanyard loop and leasther lanyard complete. In 1829 the Metropolitan Police Force, organised by Sir Robert Peel, was established to keep the order in London. The force, under a Commissioner of the Police with headquarters at Scotland Yard, was essentially a civilian one: its members were armed only with wooden truncheons and at first wore top-hats and blue frock-coats. The "Peelers" or "Bobbies" were greeted largely with derision by Londoners, but they did become accepted fairly quickly. Their primary purpose was to prevent crime, and some London criminals left their haunting grounds of London for the larger provincial towns, which in turn established their own forces on the Metropolitan model. The pattern followed through to the small villages and countryside. To secure co-operation between the spreading network and establish further forces, Parliament passed an act in 1856 to co-ordinate the work of the various forces and gave the Home Secretary the power to inspect them. In the counties, under the Police Act of 1890, the police became the combined responsibility of the local authorities - the County Councils - and the Justice of the Peace, while in London, the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard remained under the Commissioner appointed by the Home Office. At the turn of the century, the British police force established a reputation for humane and kindly efficiency. Their mere existence undoubtedly did a lot to prevent crime, and they built up what was on the whole a highly effective system of investigation and arrest.

Code: 20539