POLICEWOMEN
Dec 15, 2020
4 minutes
The first two women to be employed by London Metropolitan Police in 1883 did not investigate crime. Instead, the role of these ‘police matrons’ was to search and generally oversee female suspects and convicts in police stations and in courts. Their other responsibility was to prepare women’s bodies in the mortuaries for their inspection by the police surgeons. Other forces also appointed matrons in the second half of the 19th century, often selecting them from police sergeants’ wives.
As was the case in many other professions, women stepped forward to fill the gap when policemen were called up to fight in the First World War. In London, the force reacted swiftly.
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