As if the work of a guard force is not hard enough, it can be a struggle to get equipment and uniform. A file at the National Archives tells the troubles of the security guards at the Treasury in central London.
The Treasury file T 199/1035 begins with the hot summer of 1959. Some of the 90 in-house guards of the Whitehall building complained about having to wear heavy serge jackets. A Treasury official described this as ‘understandable bearing in mind the high average age of the men’. Unfortunately, the Post Office supplies department (that served the central government department) did not have light jackets in stock. The nearby Admiralty gave a light tussore jacket to their messengers for summer, and offered to supply the Treasury, at a cost of £2 1s 3d per jacket.
Guards and messengers got a jacket and two pairs of (navy blue) trousers every 18 months; and a waistcoat and a light jacket every three years. While the Treasury might have been the department in control of spending, it had to put the proposed new uniform or any such idea to the ‘staff side’, as the civil service was unionised. A new guard would be sent to the Post Office supplies department at Chessington, to be measured by a tailor.
Apology
In February 1961, the Admiralty apologised; it could not deliver any light (black) jackets before May. This was put back to July; and then September. Size of jackets ranged widely, which gives a clue to how small and large some of the men (guarding then was very much a male preserve) were. Of the first 13 that the Admiralty at Gosport supplied, five were misfits. Gosport apologised in June 1962. Gosport sent one jacket without buttons or buttonholes, and two jackets without buttons.
Smog
As for kit, guards had between them 21 whistles; and 36 truncheons, which were described as ‘light and of doubtful operational quality’. Mr SC Firman at the Treasury’s security office suggested having shorter, 12-inch, police truncheons. In December 1962, Mr Firman asked for ‘smog masks’ for the men on the Treasury doors; the Ministry of Works (which would supply such kit) refused. As background, London had infamous days-long smoky fogs in 1952; and December 1962. The Treasury responded in a letter of January 8, 1963 that medical opinion was in favour of masks in fog, and the guards had already had ‘one or two fog casualties this year’. Although such masks were in stock on the high street at Boots and other chemists, the Treasury could not find them in stock at Chessington. In November 1963, the Treasury gave permission to buy six washable smog masks from Boots, costing four shillings each.
Truncheons
Meanwhile the Birmingham manufacturer Hiatt wrote to the Treasury in March 1963 that it made a new, security man’s truncheon, ‘specially suitable for beating off attack’. It was made of hickory wood, and 26 inches long, and came with a leather wrist strap. The product cost 12 shillings each, compared with a police 15-inch truncheon costing nine shillings; or a shorter stave for the plain-clothes man costing eight shillings. The Treasury during 1963 queried what sort of whistles and truncheons Mr Firman wanted for his guard force. The MD of Hiatt, HH LaTrobe, advised the Treasury by letter that it was proceeding on the wrong lines if it was seeking short truncheons for guards; ‘naturally the men always prefer to carry shorter truncheons because they are easier to manage but bear in mind the recent Air Ministry cash robbery (the trial for which is now on) there is little doubt that if those Air Ministry guards had been equipped with 26 inch truncheons they would have been able to hold off their attackers until help arrived and the £60,000 would not have been stolen’.
Free issue
The Treasury in March 1963 asked for light truncheons nonetheless. In June 1963, WJ Derbyshire of the Treasury noted to another official that ‘the security guards are constantly on show …. Indeed generally speaking they are the first persons of the Treasury to be seen by our visitors and other callers to the building – and it is essential that they look as smart as we can possibly make them …. They sport a fair variety of shirts and ties. Firman the head of the security guard tries hard all the time to maintain a good standard of smartness but it is not easy with some of them of course’. Hence Derbyshire suggested a free issue of clothing; the Treasury turned this down, because the civil service feared repercussions – others, notably the postmen, and museum warders and park keepers, might hear and ask for the same. Firman related in June 1963 that he had bought some black, ex-police ties out of his own pocket, and offered them free to his men, ‘and had met no willingness to wear them’. In September 1963, the Post Office gave in, and in November the Treasury proposed to issue blue-grey poplin shirts with collars to match, and black Terylene ties, as issued to the RAF. In December 1963, the Treasury was still waiting for three of the light jackets.
