![[Flag of Fife Police]](../images/g/gb-s-fif-pol.jpg)
image located by Vanja Poposki, 7 August 2012
Last modified: 2012-09-08 by rob raeside
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image located by Vanja Poposki, 7 August 2012
I have found a bigger photograph than the one supplied by Valentin, which you
can see here:
http://www.fife.police.uk/images/logo%20F540.jpg. Sadly for such a large
image it is out of focus, but nonetheless, detail is still visible. There is
also the question of the proportion of the coat of arms on the flag, although it
is clear it is very big and (probably) not quite centred, as there is a smaller
gap at the top than at the bottom of the flag.
What is also quite
interesting is that over the years since the nineteenth century, Fife
Constabulary has had the Thane of Fife emblem has its cap badge which then got
subsumed within a Coat of Arms in 1999 and in 2001, the whole Coat of Arms
became subsumed within a logo, so the Thane became even smaller, so small that
he is almost indistinguishable, although the rather neat rhyming motto
REINFORCING THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN FIFE was added below.
Fife Constabulary was formed on 16 May 1949 from an amalgamation of eight previous local forces, including Fife County Constabulary dating from 1840, and Dunfermline City Police in 1832.
The former county of Fife is approximately 45 miles long by 25 miles broad
and is located on a peninsula between the Firths of Tay and Forth, bound on the
east by the North Sea and the west by the counties of Clackmannanshire,
Perthshire and Kinross-shire.
Historical images on the force web site
show that from the nineteenth century, the cap badge featured the Thane of Fife
on its cap badge. The force web site explains that a succession of Thanes, or
Knights, kept order in Fife on behalf of the Kings of Scotland during the Middle
Ages. In 1999 on the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the force, Lord
Lyon King of Arms granted Fife Constabulary a Coat of Arms, which still featured
the Thane of Fife emblem, though in a much reduced scale in its centre.
The Fife Police web site blazons the arms thus: "a shield containing the Police
chequered bands in the form of a Scottish Saltire, surmounted by the Thane. A
golden coronet and cross are included to represent the insignia of the old
Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy Forces, while the common Scottish Police Service badge
is used for the crest. The knight's helmet is symbolic of the right to bear arms
in defence of law and order. The supporters comprise a deer, associated with
former royal hunting forests in the area of Falkland, and a Scottish lion
rampant."
It is this coat of arms which features on the Fife Constabulary
flag, located on a dark blue field. The force flag is flown on special occasions
at the Police Headquarters building on Detroit Road, Glenrothes.
Sources:
(1) Fife Constabulary, web site, Fife Police Pictorial History, The Formation of
Fife Constabulary,
http://www.fife.police.uk/default.aspx?page=1815, as consulted 08 August
2012
(2) A History of Policing in Fife, William Brown, stated to be dated
2001, as consulted Fife Constabulary web site, 08 August 2012
(3) Fife
Constabulary, web site, Fife Police Pictorial History, Police History (1850 -
1900),
http://www.fife.police.uk/default.aspx?page=1816, as consulted 08 August
2012
(4) Rennie Ritchie, retired police officer with Fife Constabulary,
personal web site,
http://www.rlmr.co.uk/polis/polis01.htm, as consulted 08 August 2012
(5)
Fife Constabulary, Freedom of Information Disclosure Log F540, May 2012, as
consulted Fife Constabulary web site, 08 August 2012
Colin Dobson,
8 August 2012
