British Guiana Police cap badge by Dowler.Cica 1952-66

Large high quality white metal and blue enamel cap badge by DOWLER.

By the late colonial period the force was explicitly militarised: the Colonial Office in 1938 described it as “an armed semi-military force” used for crime prevention, “the repression of internal disturbances,” fire protection, and even colonial defence against external aggression.

• The force stayed closely linked to the colony’s military reserves. In 1957, the British Guiana Militia Band was actually transferred into the British Guiana Police Force, later becoming the Guyana Police Force Band.

• When independence approached, the force helped seed the new national army: the Guyana Defence Force was formed on 1 November 1965, with its first members drawn from the British Guiana Volunteer Force, the Special Service Unit, the British Guiana Police Force, and civilians, and British instructors provided the training.

On the name change: British Guiana became independent from Britain in 1966 and took the name Guyana; the police force was renamed the Guyana Police Force at that point, which is presumably roughly when your badge went out of active use, sitting as it does between 1952 (Queen’s crown) and 1966.