Original British Comb Top Ministry of Defence Police Bobby Helmet – Formerly Part the Yeoman Warder’s Club Collection Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. Formerly part of the decoration of the Yeoman Warder’s Club at the Tower of London comes this contemporary (Circa 1990s-2000s) British Bobby Police Helmet is of the “Comb Top” variety. The traditional Bobby helmet was named after the creator of the British Police Force, SIR ROBERT PEEL, who became Prime Minister under Queen Victoria. The particular version seen here, known as a “Comb Top”, replaced the earlier “ball top” and “rose top” helmets used in many areas. The pattern features a pronounced ridge on the top of the helmet, which is capped off by a silvered fitting bearing a coat of arms.

The enameled silver type Helmet plate bears the Heraldic Shield of the Ministry of Defence Police in the center. The dark blue enamel circle inside the starburst reads MINISTRY OF DEFENCE POLICE, and the badge is surmounted by the correct “Queen’s Crown” for Queen Elizabeth II. Condition is quite good, and the helmet still retains the liner and both chin straps. A great collector’s item!

IMA recently acquired a collection of headgear from the Yeoman Warder’s (aka “Beefeaters”) Club located at the Tower of London. The club has a strict policy of allowing only members of the Yeoman Warders and their guests entry. It has become a tradition over the years for visiting guests with any current or prior military or police service to leave one of their pieces of headgear. Over the years this collection has grown to large, leaving the Warders to liquidate the collection to IMA! Making this quite the exclusive offering!

The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) is a civilian special police force which is part of the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence. The MDP’s primary responsibilities are to provide armed security and counter terrorism services to designated high-risk areas, as well as uniformed policing and limited investigative services to Ministry of Defence property, personnel, and installations throughout the United Kingdom. The MDP are not military police and should not be confused with the Royal Military Police or any other British Service Police. Service personnel often refer to the MDP by the nickname “MOD plod”.

MDP officers are attested as constables under the Ministry of Defence Police Act 1987. All MDP officers are trained as Authorized Firearms Officers (AFOs) and 90% of those on duty are armed at any given time.

The force was originally formed in 1971 by the merger of three separate service constabularies: the Air Force Department Constabulary, the Army Department Constabulary, and the Admiralty Constabulary. The force, which consists of two divisions, is headquartered at RAF Wyton, Cambridgeshire.

The force has a number of specialized departments and also provides officers for international policing secondments; including overseas and training of resident police forces in these areas. These overseas missions are carried out under the mandates of the United Nations, NATO, or the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Most recent overseas deployments have been to Afghanistan to train Afghan National Police (ANP) forces in policing skills.

The MDP underwent a significant restructuring as part of the coalition government’s post 2010 austerity measures, and the Strategic Defence and Security Review. Its budget was cut from £360 million to £180 million and it was to lose 20% of its manpower and up to 50% of its stations by 2016. The new, smaller force will concentrate on “high end” tasks such as nuclear weapons security and mobile armed policing of the defence estate.

As of March 2019, the force had a workforce of around 2,549 police officers and 227 police staff based at numerous defence and infrastructure locations across the United Kingdom. The MDP has the second highest number of officers trained as AFOs of any police force, after the Metropolitan Police Service, who as of March 2019, had 2,623 AFOs.

In 2016, MDP officers made 61 arrests. Comparatively, in the year ending March 2017, a territorial police forces with similar numbers of officers, Sussex Police, made 17,506 arrests.