The Making of a Police Officer Pt 2.
by Roy Ingleton
Women Police

Women Police It is certain that, when he formed the Metropolitan Police in 1829, Sir Robert Peel had no thought of including women in his new law-enforcement body. It took the best part of a century before the first women were employed on what might be regarded as police duties, following calls (mainly by the Suffragette movement) for the appointment of females to deal with women and children. Various ad hoc arrangements were made in the different forces to cater for the occasional female prisoner, and a 'Matron' was often appointed and paid a small retainer to attend the police station whenever a female was arrested. In the Kent County Constabulary, in 1899, the wives of the lock-up keepers were paid a shilling a day or part thereof for their services. The cells were double locked, one key being held by the matron and the other by the lock-up keeper.

On the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 there was a national appeal for special constables and two women were appointed in Sandgate 'to keep a look out for suspicious persons and lights on the beach'. It was about this time that a Women's Police Volunteers organisation was formed in London by a leading Suffragette, Nina Boyle, and a wealthy philanthropist, Mrs. Margaret Damer Dawson and the Metropolitan Commissioner of Police agreed that they could train women and patrol in London on a purely voluntary and unofficial basis.

In 1915 the organisation was renamed the Women's Police Service and in December of that year Mrs. Damer Dawson attended a meeting of the Folkestone Watch Committee to explain its work. It was resolved that two Women Police be appointed, one Constable on 30/- a week and an Inspector on 42/- a week, subject to two weeks' notice, the object being to deal with the prostitutes and 'enthusiastic amateurs' attracted to the area by the large concentration of troops awaiting embarkation for the Western Front. In the event, Sergeant Stella Fife of the WPS was appointed, together with Constable Gertrude Cooke.

In February 1916 these Women officers submitted a report on their activities to date. The Watch Committee considered this and informed the Borough Council that it did not consider the employment of Women officers to be necessary but the Council over-ruled this recommendation.

The situation was reconsidered in November 1916 in the light of the resignation of Miss Kirby (who it is assumed replaced Miss Cooke). The continued employment of women police was strongly supported by the Joint Conference of Clergy and Ministers, which expressed a hope that Miss Kirby would be replaced. The Watch Committee was not in favour of this and went so far as to recommend the dismissal of Sergeant Fife but the Borough Council did not support this latter proposal. Eventually, the situation was resolved by the resignation of Sergeant Fife in February 1917. It appears that Miss Kirby was not replaced and so the force was without any policewomen. The Chief Constable therefore recommended that one woman be appointed as a 'Female Enquiry Officer' the make enquiries and deal with cases where women and children were involved. Her pay should be not less than 30/- a week (a constable started at 26/- a week). This proposal was approved but no action appears to have been taken to implement it until March 1919 when it was resolved that the Chief Constable should invite applications and a Miss Stephens was appointed in May 1919 but was not sworn.

In fact, it was not until 1916 that the Police Act allowed for the employment of women as constables although Home Office policy was that they should not be sworn in. A few forces took advantage of this opportunity but many of these experiments were abandoned because of the swingeing economies imposed by the so-called Geddes Axe in 1922. The Chief Constable of Kent had already reported in September 1920 that he did not consider there was any necessity for the employment of women police in the County.

Despite this resistance and the financial constraints, the Home Secretary of the day sent a letter to all Police Authorities in November 1924, suggesting that consideration should be given to appointing women officers to deal with cases involving women and children. The reaction of the Chief Constable of Rochester was perhaps fairly typical of the way in which this proposal was received by most of the intensely conservative police forces. Chief Constable Arnold declared firmly that, in view of the few cases that arose in which Women Police could be of material assistance, he did not consider it necessary to employ any in the city. Arrangements had already been made for Sister Jones of the Church Army to undertake such duties as the taking of statements or obtaining evidence where sexual offences had been committed. In fact, as early as 1901, the City Force had employed a Mrs. Foord as a 'Searcher of Female Prisoners'.

The subject refused to go away, however, and in 1927 the Rochester Diocesan Board of Women's Work urged in a letter to the Watch Committee '… the great need for Women Police in the Diocese'. The Chief Constable remained unmoved.

A Royal Commission in 1929 (i.e. a century after the formation of the Metropolitan Police) recommended the employment of women officers to take statements in sexual cases, etc. and this was reinforced by the passing of the Children and Young Persons Act in 1933.

Ramsgate was one Borough that was quick to consider using women officers and in June 1919 the Watch Committee agreed to the appointment of a Miss Whitelegg. She resigned in October 1921 through ill health and was not replaced. In 1925/26 there was considerable pressure from various women's organisations calling for the appointment of another policewoman but they were all told that the Watch Committee did not consider the present time 'opportune'. Nevertheless, in the light of renewed pressure from the Home, a Mrs. Baldwin was appointed in 1927 'to assist the police' at £30 p.a. . Mrs. Baldwin served for some six years before resigning and was replaced by Annie Robinson. It is not clear what happened to Miss Robinson as there is no further mention of her. Despite the force's experience with police women, the Chief Constable of Ramsgate is on record as saying in February 1941 that he considered that none were necessary at that time. Given the fact that the country was at war and there were large numbers of troops around, this seems a rather strange decision.

Folkestone continued to be a pioneer in the matter of Women Police and, anticipating Miss Stephen's retirement in July 1936, Sybil Browning was appointed the town's Woman Constable in April of that year but she quickly left, to be replaced by Vera Restorick in September 1936. WPC Restorick remained in post until shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War and was replaced by two other women in fairly quick succession.

Despite the efforts of the Home Office and various social organisations, by the time the Second World War began in 1939, less than 25% of the existing police forces employed women police and many of these were unsworn. But the war caused a radical rethink regarding the employment of women on all sorts of jobs, hitherto regarded as the preserve of the male, and the police were no exception. In 1941 the Home Secretary stated that he wanted to see more women enrolled in the police, either as regulars or as aides in the Women's Auxiliary Police Corps:

"It is true that police duty is, for the most part, a man's job but such work as driving cars, typewriting and attending the telephone can be done by carefully selected women. There is no reason why canteen duties should not be taken over entirely by women"

The Kent County Constabulary had not been one of the pioneers in the matter of women police and it was not until 1942 that an advertisement in the Police Review for a woman inspector indicated a somewhat reluctant decision to conform. In the event, this post was not filled until May, 1944 when Sergeant Barbara Denis de Vitre was appointed on transfer from Leicester City and promoted to Inspector. She was to be in charge of all policewomen and WAPCs for the purposes of discipline, training and welfare. Upon her appointment, any unmarried or widowed WAPC who wished to be considered for appointment to the Women Police was invited to apply. An original "high-flyer", with previous service in Cairo and Sheffield, Miss de Vitre remained with the force less than a year, before being appointed staff officer to His Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary and ultimately became the first woman Assistant HMI. Nevertheless, she was instrumental in setting up a new policewomen's department and nine new female recruits were appointed on 8 July 1944.

In July 1945, Woman Constable C MACKENZIE was transferred from the Lanarkshire Police on promotion to W/Sergeant. She was further promoted to W/Inspector on 13/8/1945 - Constable to Inspector in just over a month! In February, 1946, one of the first of the new women constables, Woman Constable Lewis, was promoted to Sergeant with some eighteen months service and became the second-in-command of the women police department. The female contingent then consisted of one Inspector, one Sergeant and 17 Constables.

In 1952 the post of W/Inspector was upgraded to Chief Inspector and five Women Sergeants were appointed. In 1964 the post of head of the Women Police was upgraded to Superintendent Class II and two more Sergeants were appointed. An additional Chief Inspector was provided from 1967. The uniform worn was based on that worn in the ATS and WAAF during the war, a rather severe and unflattering, military style tunic with a belt and four pockets which did nothing for the figure. This was changed in 1961 to a more feminine style with a short, cut-away tunic and a shaped cap with (similar to that worn by the WRAC at the end of the 20th century).

Further changes were made in 1970 when a pill-box type cap with a peak was introduced, a chequered band being added in 1972. Later the 'Robin Hood' type hat with a white top was taken into use. Finally, in 1988, the now familiar 'bowler' appeared on the scene.

In 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act was passed and so, from January 1976, the Women Police ceased to exist as a separate specialist body and all women were absorbed into the general police system. The Woman Superintendent was appointed Staff Officer to the Chief Constable with special responsibility for women staff. The role of the Women Sergeants was temporarily unchanged but all female members of the force were now able to apply for postings to CID, Traffic and other specialist units, in the same way as their male counterparts. The distinction between males and females in the Force no longer existed with the exception of small Women's Specialist Units that later came under the control of the Detective Inspector for the Sub-Division on which they were based. In 1989 these were absorbed into Special Investigation Units, comprising both male and female officers, and set up to deal with serious sexual offences, child abuse and missing persons.

Next pasttimes article in this series is "Training" an will be added to the site late October