Catalogue description Wartime Sussex Police Force

Records of War Duties Department

Summary of codes used in the reports

Code: ARD; Meaning: Air Raid Damage; Relevant records: 1/1/7, 1/1/10, 2/21/1-6, 2/21/10-31, 2/21/41-43

Code: ARI; Meaning: Air Raid Incident; Relevant records: 1/1/7, 1/1/10, 2/21/1-6, 2/21/10-31, 2/21/41-43

Code: BB; Meaning: Barrage Balloons; Relevant records: 2/21/7, 2/21/33

Code: CA; Meaning: Crashed Aircraft; Relevant records: 1/1/1-3, 1/1/10, 2/21/45

Code: GEA; Meaning: (Unknown); Relevant records: 2/21/32

Code: MD; Meaning: Misdirected (Fire); Relevant records: 1/1/14

Code: MI; Meaning: Miscellaneous; Incidents Relevant records: 1/1/5-6, 1/1/13

Code: MO; Meaning: Miscellaneous; Objects Relevant records: 1/1/5-6, 1/1/11-12

Code: PAC; Meaning: Pilotless Aircraft; Relevant records: 1/1/4, 2/21/44

Code: PI; Meaning: Personal Injuries; Relevant records: 2/21/38

Code: RAF; Meaning: Royal Air Force; Relevant records: 1/1/10, 2/21/9

Code: SM; Meaning: Sea Mines Relevant; records: 2/21/8, 2/21/34

A police authority was established in 1943 by amalgamating all the county and borough forces within the geographical area of Sussex, to provide a co-ordinated approach to the wartime emergency. The headquarters of the new force was at Haywards Heath and the records listed below originated in its War Duties Department. The Authority was disbanded in 1947.

Area 1, as East Sussex became, retained a considerable degree of autonomy and its record series continued unchanged in most cases. The wartime records of Area 1 have therefore been listed as part of the records of the East Sussex Constabulary (see SPA 2/21-23); however, where a new series was begun in 1943, then the records have been listed.

For the Authority's minutes, 1943-1947, see C/C12/12, SPA 2/13/1; for Clerk's Department files, see C/C89/1-5; for a photograph of the Information Room, c1946, see SPA 1/45/3; for personal papers of constables in the Wartime Force, see SPA 10/7-13.

For war duties files relating to East Sussex or Area 1, 1921-1950, see SPA 2/23/1-14; for records of wartime incidents in East Sussex, see SPA 2/21/1-50. For the Number 3 District (Hove) service register, 1943-1947, see SPA 9/2/2.

The documents listed as SPA 1/1/1-19 (ACC 6990) had escaped from official police custody sometime after 1945; they were given by a former officer to an officer in East Sussex who was known to be interested in the study of wartime crashed aircraft. The records were subsequently given to a serving officer in West Sussex who returned them to the Chief Constable in 1997.

The 1986 Protection of Military Remains Act applies to any aircraft which has crashed while in military service. The Secretary of State can designate a vessel which appears to have been sunk or stranded while in military service (provided that this occurred after 4 August 1914) and also designate as a controlled site any area which appears to contain a place comprising the remains of, or a substantial part of, an aircraft or a vessel (provided that less than 200 years have elapsed since the event and that the owners and occupiers of such land to be designated do not object to the terms of the designation order). The act makes it an offence to excavate or tamper with any crashed aircraft or vessel which is covered by the act unless a licence has first been obtained from the Secretary of State.

Cards were compiled for every wartime occurrence. Sometimes supplementary narrative reports were completed in addition to the cards. Map references given use the war office Cassini Grid and not the Ordnance Survey National Grid; for a set of Ordnance Survey 1-inch sheets overprinted with the Cassini Grid, 1940-1942, see AMS 6172/1-43.

These are original reports, signed by the reporting officer and stamped on receipt at divisional office and East Sussex HQ: they bear divisional reference numbers and the HQ numerical reference.