Quirm City Watch
The police force charged with keeping the peace and performing accepted Watch duties in Quirm. One is Captain Emile, who is on long-term loan to the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, where he is apparently revolutionising the catering. The senior officer in the Quirm Watch appears to be Commandant Fournier, a man with a very great respect for Sam Vimes. There is apparently a central Watch-House in Quirm that fulfils the same functions as Pseudopolis Yard. Its catering facilities are superb and the Gendarmerie are especially proud of serving lavish quantities of avec. Its cells are very strong with very thick walls and the very best locks possible and nobody ever escapes from them. (Iron masks may be a thing of the past, though). Vimes is critical of their uniform; a tall fussy crested helmet which he considers highly impractical, too heavy, and too easily knocked off in a fight.
Named members:-
Annotation
- The Quirmian watch helmet as described can only be the Adrian helmet made famous by French forces in WW1, which was also used by firemen and policemen and which is still a ceremonial helmet used by French policemen and servicemen today, in various forms. it was introduced in the very late 1800's as a romantic gesture to classical Greek helmetry - hence the name - and retired as military (and police) front-line headwear in the late 1940's. The British did not even consider adopting a steel helmet for the army until late 1915 when the prevalence of head injuries to men in the trenches forced it upon them. The Adrian helmet was considered, but rejected for exactly the same reasons that Vimes quoted. (Britain eventually adopted a basinet helmet reminiscent of those worn by British men-at-arms fighting in France five hundred years earlier. Not just the French could be romantically swayed by history.) The Americans also rejected the French helmet for the same reasons. (although they thought the German coalscuttle was superior, there were practical reasons for not adopting it). The US Army fought in British-pattern helmets until early 1942, interestingly enough.