Original British Rose Top British Transportation Police Bobby Helmet – Formerly Part the Tower of London Yeoman Warders Club Collection Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. IMA recently acquired a collection of headgear from the Yeoman Warders (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 too large, leaving the Warders to liquidate the collection to IMA! Making this quite an exclusive offering!
 
The Traditional Bobby helmet was named after the creator of the British Police Force, SIR ROBERT PEEL, who became Prime Minister under Queen Victoria. This version is known as a “Rose Top” which was replaced by the later “Comb Top” versions.
 
The front Helmet plate has a “Queen’s Crown” to top, over a starburst, with BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE in a blue enameled circle. The “Queen’s Crown” indicates issue sometime after 1952, when Queen Elizabeth II assumed the throne.
 
The helmet interior is rigged with its Riot Gear liner with web hook and loop fastener chin cup, but the actual liner is completely missing. The Helmet also is fitted with it’s everyday patent leather chin strap as well. The original label is missing as well as the size label. The size is approximately 57 cm.
 
In very nice overall condition and ready to display.
 
The British Transport Police is a national special police force that polices railways and light-rail systems in England, Wales and Scotland, for which it has entered into an agreement to provide such services. The force is funded primarily by the rail industry, and does not receive central government funding. British Transport Police officers do not have jurisdiction in Northern Ireland unless working under mutual aid arrangements for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, in which case any duties performed on a railway will be merely incidental to working as a constable in Northern Ireland.
 
The first railway employees described as “police” can be traced back to 30 June 1826. A regulation of the Stockton and Darlington Railway refers to the police establishment of “One Superintendent, four officers and numerous gate-keepers”. This is the first mention of railway police anywhere and was three years before the Metropolitan Police Act was passed. They were not, however, described as “constables” and the description may refer to men controlling the trains rather than enforcing the law. Specific reference to “constables” rather than mere “policemen” is made by the BTP website article “A History of Policing the Railway” which states “The London, Birmingham and Liverpool Railway Companion of 1838 reports ‘Each Constable, besides being in the employ of the company, is sworn as a County Constable.'” Further reference is made by the BTP to “an Act of 1838…which according to J. R. Whitbread in The Railway Policeman was the first legislation to provide for any form of policing of the railway whilst under construction, i.e. to protect the public from the navvies more or less.”
 
The modern British Transport Police was formed by the British Transport Commission Act 1949 which combined the already-existing police forces inherited from the pre-nationalisation railways by British Railways, those forces having been previously formed by powers available under common law to parishes, landowners and other bodies to appoint constables to patrol land and/or property under their control. This is distinct from the establishment of a police force by statute, as applicable to the Metropolitan Police in 1829; BTP did not have jurisdiction on a statutory basis until the enactment of the Transport Police (Jurisdiction) Act 1994, which was subsequently amended by the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003.