This armband, worn on the police officer's right arm, would have shown that he was on duty. As many police officers were on active service in the armed forces, this left many constabularies staffed only by older officers. To fill this gap the war reserve police was set up; many retired officers returned to work and men from the reserved occupations were recruited as special constables. Boys bewteen the ages of 14 and 18 were recruited as Police Auxilliary Messengers.