South West Africa Police before 1939

[sabrigade]

SWA Police Badge 1.jpg

This badge is a very recent acquisition and I have not encountered many examples of them.

It is obviously based on the similar South African Police cap badge that was worn during the same period.

According to Owen's book, it was used prior to 1939, does anybody have more information on the badge and its use?

[Traist]

Hi William, a very nice piece indeed. I only have the title in my collection. I have been told that the SWA Police were closed down at the onset of the Second World War. Many in SWA were openly supporting the Nazis, so our government closed down the SWA Police and transfered many SA Police up there. All this I was told, so if you dig up proof of this or find out that this is not true, I would be glad to hear. Regards Andrew

[Arthur R]

William,
An interesting badge. An example of early Afrikaans spelling too: 'west'
instead of 'wes', and 'poliesie' instead of 'polisie'. The SWA Police
existed from 1920 to 1 June 1939.

Andrew,
I believe you're right about the circumstances in which the SWA Police
were disbanded in 1939. The story has been told in (IIRC) Hans
Strydom's The Fourth Reich, and/or in Visser's
Ossewa Brandwag - Traitors or Patriots?. The SWAP was too
small and under-resourced to deal with the Nazi situation in SWA, and
so the territory had to be assigned to the SAP instead. When WWII
began, SWA was also proclaimed a military command, so that the UDF
could function there too.

[sabrigade]

Thanks for the responses.

I have gone through all my references and resources and have found VERY little information regarding them.

There are also no reference to them in Curzon or Tylden's books so I accept the badge to be rather rare as is the shoulder title?

I will also ask a specialist SAP researcher for some inputs.

Regards,

Will

[Traist]

Thanks for the confirmation Arthur. William, I do believe they are rare badges. Regards Andrew

[sabrigade]

I have requested my researcher to see what she can find, I think it is worth the effort.