Federation of Malaya Police (1948-1963 Pattern) Button – 19mm

Federation of Malaya Police button in white metal, produced in the pattern worn from 1948 to 1963 by officers and other ranks of the Federation of Malaya Police. This British colonial police uniform button displays the recognised force device in clear relief, incorporating a tiger passant over ground vegetation as the central device within a plain raised inner circle, with the circumference of the outer border inscribed “F · OF · M” around the upper arc and “POLICE” around the lower arc in raised block capitals. The white metal finish is consistent with the production standard for Federation of Malaya Police uniform buttons of the period, the tiger device being the principal symbol of the Malay states drawn from the coat of arms of the Federation.

The Federation of Malaya was formally constituted on 1 February 1948 through the amalgamation of the nine Malay states and the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca under a single federal administration, replacing the short-lived Malayan Union that had been established in 1946 following the Japanese occupation. The Federation of Malaya Police was constituted under the same instrument, absorbing the existing state police forces into a unified federal constabulary under a Commissioner of Police. Within months of the Federation’s formation, the Malayan Communist Party launched its armed insurgency, with the murder of three European plantation managers at Sungai Siput, Perak, in June 1948 precipitating the declaration of the Malayan Emergency on 7 July 1948. The Federation of Malaya Police bore the primary burden of the counter-insurgency campaign throughout the Emergency alongside British and Commonwealth military forces, raising specialist Jungle Squads — later Jungle Companies and subsequently the Police Field Force — to pursue the Malayan National Liberation Army into the jungle, and providing the intelligence infrastructure through its Special Branch that proved decisive in the eventual defeat of the insurgency. The force was strengthened significantly during the Emergency by the secondment of British police officers with colonial service experience, many of whom rose to gazetted rank within the Federation force. Following Malayan independence in 1957, the title “Royal” was conferred on the force on 24 July 1958 by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in recognition of its service during the Emergency and its 151 years of continuous policing service. The force was merged into the Royal Malaysia Police on the formation of Malaysia in 1963, at which point the “F of M Police” button was superseded.

Manufactured in white metal consistent with Federation of Malaya Police uniform button production of the 1948 to 1963 period, this example provides a well-defined representation of the force’s service dress button as worn throughout the Malayan Emergency and the post-independence period. Federation of Malaya Police buttons are collected as examples of British colonial police uniform hardware, insignia of the Malayan Emergency period, and militaria associated with one of the most significant counter-insurgency campaigns of the post-war British colonial era.

Condition Good