Cap badge: Commonwealth Peace Officer - G H Doxey

Place Oceania: Australia, South Australia
Accession Number REL31665
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Badge
Physical description Enamel, Silver-plated brass
Maker Stokes & Sons, Melbourne
Place made Australia
Date made c 1940s
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Description

Commonwealth Peace Officer's cap badge made of silver washed brass and blue enamel. The oval shaped badge has a voided centre containing the Australian coat-of-arms, surrounded by a blue enamel band containing the words 'COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA' and 'PEACE OFFICER'. At the top is an Imperial crown. The reverse has a pair of brazed-on lugs and the impressed maker's name 'STOKES'.

History / Summary

Associated with the service of Peace Officer George Henry Doxey, who was born in Derbyshire, England, in October 1904. Doxey emigrated to South Australia in 1923 as part of the 'Barwell Boys Scheme' for young apprentices. Owing to poor eyesight, he was rejected for active service in the Second World War, and instead became a Peace Officer, providing night time security at the Islington Railway Workshops (SA) from about 1942 until the end of the war. George Doxey died in Adelaide in May 1969. Originally established in 1935, the Peace Officer Guard organization was set up as a section of the Commonwealth Investigation Branch (CIB), the first national (rather than State) police organisation. The Peace Officers provided personnel for the guarding of Commonwealth establishments, and were the first uniformed element of national law enforcement. In 1960, they combined with the plain clothed element, the Commonwealth Investigation Service, (CIS) to form the new Commonwealth Police, which in 1979 became the Australian Federal Police (AFP).