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linseed — Shanghai Municipal Police Sergeant
#colonial #historical #law #police #uniform #enforcement #shanghai
Published: 2018-06-13 19:12:32 +0000 UTC; Views: 3843; Favourites: 56; Downloads: 14
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Description
The Shanghai Municipal Police (SMP), was the organization that enforced the law in the Shanghai International Settlement between 1854 and 1943. The SMP was a multi-national & multi-ethnic police force. Promotion from the lower ranks of the force was limited with most of the SMP's commanders recruited from British domestic or colonial police forces.
During the interwar years especially, Shanghai was one of the most dangerous cities in the World to police. suffering from high levels of armed violence, organized crime and political unrest.
The SMP pioneered police combat pistol and hand-to-hand combat training and deployed arguably the World's first SWAT teams under the command of Assistant Commissioner William Fairbairn (who went on to train British & American special forces in combat techniques during WWII)
This police sergeant has unholstered his Colt 1911 in preparation for some 'unpleasantness'.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_…
www.hpcbristol.net/exhibitions…
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Comments: 12
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It's always fun ... well, it's always INTERESTING to learn something new about History; thank you for the head's up!
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Nice work! Do you if there is any rank chart for the SMP?
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Thanks, I haven't seen a rank chart but it is clear from photos of officers and books I've read on the SMP that they used British police ranks, and similar or identical rank insignia.
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Some substitute would have been used instead of a crown, but I have not seen a clear photograph of what was used as an alternative. For the most part in British police only the rank insignia for Superintendent, Chief Superintendent and Chief Constable included a crown.
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I think the most likely substitute would be the SMP star in a smaller scale, since it's similar to the Bath star. It's weird that there is no records of such an important detail of Colonial Shanghai History.
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Is the patterned cuff on his left arm purely decorative, or is it some sort of reflector?
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It's a police duty armband that some British, Dominion and Empire police officers wore when on duty.
They started being worn by police constables in the 1830s when London officers had to wear their uniforms both on and off duty. The duty armbands became a recognized part of a police officers uniform and they were only phased out from use in the late nineteen sixties, the Shanghai Municipal Police wore them during their existence.
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