Reportage revisited

In 2019, former Woman Police Constable (WPC) Sharon Bird opened the Daily Mail’s YOU Magazine and turned to an article celebrating 100 years of women in the Metropolitan Police. She recognised herself in the photograph taken by Tom Stoddart in 1984 and had never seen it before. Sharon is seated fourth from right during a break securing the area near the Libyan Embassy in St James’s Square during the 11-day siege. ‘Working in central London during the 1980s and being photographed was fairly common place. It was considered a part of the job. I didn’t give much thought to it, as I was unlikely to ever see the end product,’ explains Sharon. WPCs were only issued with impractical police skirts to wear, the flimsy hats were more decorative than protective. It wasn’t uncommon for WPCs to turn up at an incident to be told they had called for a policeman not a woman.

‘I had heard of that happening, as well as female officers purportedly