UK Mega 2021: Lincolnshire
25 Lincolnshire Legends: Edith Smith
This a straightforward series which was published for the 2021 UK Mega, held at the nearby Lincolnshire Showground. The series celebrates the many famous people who were either born in, lived in or associated with the glorious county of Lincolnshire!
Edith Smith, the UK's first female police constable
Edith Smith was born on 21 November 1876, in Oxton, Birkenhead. She worked as a sub-postmistress until, after the death of her husband, she moved to London and trained to be a midwife. She was an early volunteer for the Women's Police Volunteers, later the Women's Police Sevice and in 1917 she was appointed as the first ever female police constable. She was concerned with trying to reduce the number of prostitutes in Grantham who were attracted there by the nearby army base. She was paid more than the oldest male police Constable in the force due to the fact that her "duties were most onerous" and took into account that she was also a qualified nurse. Smith travelled around Britain giving talks about women's policing at conferences and writing pamphlets.
Smith left the WPS (renamed the Women's Auxiliary Service after the war) after working seven days a week for a period of two years. She left in 1918 due to chest trouble. Until January 1919, Smith was also the matron nurse at Lindis Nursing Home, Dudley Road in Grantham where she worked seven days a week.
Her life is commemorated in Grantham Museum. In 2014, a blue plaque was unveiled on the wall of the old prison building between the Grantham Guildhall and the Grantham Museum where she had worked as a policewoman. Deputy Chief Constable Heather Roach, of Lincolnshire Police, said: "She spent time getting to know the people in her area and thoroughly understood the concept of 'neighbourhood policing'.”
