Welcome to the website of my collection.
My name is Ross Mather. I live in Bridgend,
South Wales U.K. I retired from South Wales Police after 30 years service in the South Wales and
Manchester areas. My police helmet collection (approximately 110 helmets) has been built up during those years.
My
other collecting speciality is police insignia and police badges of the former, old police
forces of Wales, which now are just names in the past that refer to the older Welsh counties, towns and
boroughs. Apart from the four current and relatatively modern Welsh police forces, all those that were, are
no longer and are now but distant memories and resigned to the history books. Currently in my collection,
there are about 220 different items of insignia from those older Welsh police forces, some items of which date
back into the 19th Century.
Currently, I am researching Welsh police history,
and am keenly searching for any items that I could use - can you help??? I am looking especially for photographs. In
time I would like to publish an informative historical record and reference book about the police forces of Wales.
Most of the police helmets you will see come from older
Borough and City police forces which sadly no longer exist, swallowed up in amagamation after amalgamation. There
are a number of County police force helmets, mainly dating from the 1950's and 1960's. A few date as far
back as the late Victorian period c.1890.
You will see many older Welsh police helmets. My quest
is to preserve as many police helmets as I am able, so that in the future, people will have reference
to these older items, which in the main no longer exist. Without doubt, this will become significant and historically
important collection and one that needs to be preserved for the future.
COULD YOU ADD A
POLICE HELMET TO THIS COLLECTION???
SEEKING OLD POLICE PHOTOGRAPHS,
EQUIPMENT ETC.
DO YOU HAVE ANY OLD POLICE
BADGES ???
PLEASE DO
GET IN TOUCH AND HELP PRESERVE THESE ITEMS FOR THE FUTURE. THIS IS ONE OF THE LARGEST AND HISTORICALLY
IMPORTANT COLLECTIONS OF ITS KIND IS AND CONSTANTLY BEING ADDED TO.
e-mail
rossmather@btinternet.com
The vast majority of older helmets have been
lost forever, mainly due to the fact that most were handed back in and destroyed at force level. Surviving helmets
were often discarded after the badge was removed i.e. by insignia collectors. From personal experience I
know it is easier to display a frame full of badges, rather than display them on the original helmets.
If you have a police helmet, or military helmet,
it is very important that you give thought to the environment and atmoshphere in which you
intend to keep it. An attic or garage usually seems to be the place where one stores a box away in a corner...
a decision you may later regret. Extremes in temperatures, especially in an attic, or a damp garage, a variety
of 'creepy crawlies' that enjoy eating soft helmet materials, will quickly reduce grandad's police
helmet into something which is a far cry from what it might have been when you initially stored it away
in the box. You can't replace the past. I do hope that
you enjoy viewing the collection. I created this website for no other reason than to give others
the opportunity to see these historical items.
Do
you have a question regarding British police helmets, or Welsh police insignia?
If so, please contact me on my email link below.
