The Regiment: A History and the Uniforms of the British South Africa Police

The BSAP held the honour of occupying the Right of the Line – one of the finest police forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth. In 1889 Cecil Rhodes was granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria to settle Mashonaland, in what was to become Southern Rhodesia. So was formed the British South Africa Company; its regiment of troopers raised to protect the occupying Pioneer Column dubbed the British South Africa Police, the BSAP. From the 1893 Matabele War, the 1896 Mashona Rebellion and the Jameson Raid, the Anglo-Boer War, through both world wars and finally to the Rhodesian bush war of the 1960s and ’70s, troopers and officers of this fine regiment of policemen, both black and white, were proud to the fore, in civilian and military roles … until the disbandment of the Force in 1980. Covering, in meticulous detail the 90 years of the force’s existence, it is a connoisseur’s dream and will be hard to emulate.

Inv. No: 20C