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AIR MINISTRY CONSTABULARY.

Photos of typical Air Ministry Constable; and Sergeant; then collar flash/badge of AMC; then cap badge.

The Air Ministry Police were civilians who were sworn as Constables under the Special Constables Act 1923 and employed by the Air Council for policing Air Ministry Premises.

They were set up at Goring Heath from its inception in 1942 and disbanded in May 1948 when the Air Ministry Constabulary were withdrawn from all Maintenance Command Units.

There were 27 in total with ranks of Constable both male and female; Sergeant and Inspector. Their uniform consisted of a black peak cap; a black tunic with buttons up to the neck and matching black trousers and shoes. The cap badge and buttons were silver with a AMC badge and wings making it distinctive from ordinary RAF badges and buttons. For all intents and purposes the uniform, except for badges and buttons, was exactly the same as the uniform worn by the civilian Police throughout the war. See 'Viewer's Photographs' for more Air Ministry Constabulary pictures.

Some accounts tell of the Air Ministry Police being armed with rifles; others and presumably relating to after the war, say they were not armed.

Molly Morris recalls the random checks and searches made on the workers as they left the sites at night. Sometimes the Police, who conducted the searches, would run down the road as the workers were boarding a bus at the stop and pull them off and ask them to come back to the Search Room (Building No.65) to be searched. Lilly Simmonds and Miss Hood, both Air Ministry Policewomen would search the female workers. Normally workers selected for a random search would pass through the Search Room on leaving the site and continue through it leaving by a special exit to make their way forwards to the bus pick up point.

Both Vera Robbins and Mollie White remember the Police and recall the Checkers Huts (Building No.33) which were positioned on the extremities of each site. The Police shared these huts and at night one would take it in turns to remain in the hut whilst the other would patrol the site. Each hut was connected by field telephone to the Nissen hut Police Headquarters which was just inside the main gates of the Headquarters Site.

Throughout their existence at 70MU the Police were kept busy with civilian thefts from the MU; driving offences by both RAF personnel and civilian workers; civilians falsifying overtime and travelling expenses; and cycling at night without lights. By the time the Air Ministry Police were withdrawn, 70MU was reduced to storing Barrack furniture and the theft factor was low.