Florence Mildred White (10 December 1873 – 29 December 1957) was an English policewoman. She became the first policewoman in Salisbury, Wiltshire in 1918, after training in Bristol and briefly serving in Bath.John Chandler (2009) The Reflection in the Pond: A Moonraking approach to History (The Hobnob Press)Woman Policing the area of Avon and Somerset Constabulary, 1916-1945 by Clifford Williams Journal of the Police History Society 31 (2017) pp50-55 She joined Birmingham City Police in 1925.
Prior to joining the police force she was a teacher of English in Germany. She later returned to England and taught German, Italian and French at a school in Salisbury, Wiltshire, reaching a senior post. In 1914, aged 41, she moved to the Bath and Bristol city area to join a group of women who had started an unofficial Women's Police Volunteers unit. She returned to Salisbury in 1918 to join the Salisbury City Police. Seven years later she moved to the Birmingham City Police where she attained the rank of Inspector.Joan Lock (2014) The British Policewoman:Her Story (Robert Hale: London) She stayed with the Birmingham force until her retirement in 1937.
Early life Florence Mildred White was born on 10 December 1873 in the small town of Warminster, Wiltshire. She was the third child and second daughter of Charles Henry White (b. 1845, in Beckington, Somerset) and Marion White (b. 1844, in Preston, near Weymouth, Dorset). Florence Mildred was baptized in the Warminster Minister Church, St. Denys, on 8 March 1874. In 1881 the family lived in Warminster in a villa with a governess, a nurse and two housemaids. Her father was a cheese factor, or manufacturer of local and traditional cheeses. There were four children in the family noted in the census of 1881. After a local education her parents sent her to a private boarding School named Duncan House in Cleveden, Glasgow, and later to a finishing school, Clapham Park Ladies College, in south London. In 1892 she took a teaching post. From June 1898 until October 1903 she attended the Grand Ducal Victorian Pension at in Karlsruhe, Germany as a teacher of English, Italian and French. She described herself as a 'Modern Language Mistress in large Schools'. In 1906 she returned to England and became a teacher at the prestigious Godolphin School in Salisbury. She is recorded as being a 'Boarder', aged 37 years and single, in the 1911 national census of England. She was an Assistant Mistress (Modern Languages). This group consisted of a Head, six female teachers, a housemaid and a cook. Three other female teachers came from South Africa, Russia and Austria respectively. She later became a Senior Language Mistress at the Godolphin school, where she remained until 1914.West Midlands Police Museum, Sparkhill Police Station, 639 Stratford Rd. Birmingham. B11 4EA
In 1914, White left the Godolphin School; her departure was so sudden that the other teaching staff wrote in the next edition of the school magazine that they were sorry not to have had the opportunity of saying 'Goodbye' to her. In a School Year Book the Headmistress of the school at the time, Miss Douglas wrote:
Patrol volunteer at Bristol and Bath Apart from London's Metropolitan Police commissioning of a report by a "female on females in custody" in 1907, there was not any consideration given to women working within the Police Force.
In 1910 five women got together as a group to draw the attention of the police authorities to the fact that there were no women constables in the force, even though many women were arrested and were temporary prisoners in police custody. Matrons were employed as civilian staff to look after women and children only. They had been established for many years and were usually the wives of serving police officers. Two women in particular sought to point out this lack of a female constable presence was wrong. They each had a relative in political high office. One of these women was Edith Tancred (1873–1957). Tancred became a campaigner for the requirement of women police. The other was Dorothy Peto (1886–1974).The Memoirs of Miss Dorothy Olivia Georgiana Peto. OBE. The Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre, The Annexe, Empress State Building, Empress Approach, Lillie Road, West Brompton, London, SW6 1TR. Published 1992. Viewed 2014. In 1912 Tancred, Peto and three other women campaigners started organising unofficial street patrols from an office in Bath, Somerset and later Bristol "to maintain public morality and decency". The creation of the Bath office in 1912 was considered to be the first in England. It was disbanded in the latter half of World War One. In 1914 Peto, as Chief, had joined the National Union of Women WorkersThe Memoirs of Miss Dorothy Olivia Georgiana Peto. OBE. The Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre, The Annexe, Empress State Building, Empress Approach, Lillie Road, West Brompton, London, SW6 1TR. Published 1992. Viewed 2014 and made patrols herself. White abruptly left her teaching post at the Godolphin School in 1914 to live and work in the office of the group in Bath, where Peto had become the Assistant Patrols Organizer.By this time the group became known as the Bristol Training School for Women with Peto becoming the Director. A full page photograph taken in March/April of a group of the Training School women in uniform was published by the Police Chronicle in its 14 December 1917 issue. Viewed November 2014. White stayed working under the supervision of Peto as a patrol officer in the city until May 1918. She was at this time 44 years old and is mentioned in an article The Women Patrols – Miss I. Douglas, Miss White and Miss G. Bagnall and others spent many evenings, wet or fine, at this most difficult and exacting work.Godolphin School Year Book Page 126. During the war Mildred White acted as a prisoner's friend at a court martial when she answered a call for 'women of a special type' to which she responded.Godolphin School archive.
As the end of the First World War was approaching there were several other groups of women's police voluntary patrols in other major cities in Great Britain. These consisted of 'well-bred' women patrolling the city streets to help women and children who needed assistance or who became involved in crime.
Sir Leonard Dunning, (1861–1941) knighted on 14 February 1917, His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary between 1912 and 1930,Life history article, The Police Review and Parade Ground Gossip, May 1930, Pages 346 and 347. Viewed July 2014.Last Force Inspection was at Brighton, Sussex on 13 June 1930. The Police Review and Parade Ground Gossip, June 1930. Page 454. Viewed Aug.2014. wrote an article in a police magazine in 1918.The Police Review and Parade Ground Gossip Article ' Women Police' Page 110. 22 Feb 1918. Viewed June 2014. About two of the six pages of his annual report concerned the employment of women into professional police work, including the possibility of them having the powers of arrest. Many chief constables saw the role of women as clerks and chauffeurs and thought women could possibly be employed as special constables. The Chief Constable of Wolverhampton wrote an article in Police Review and Parade Ground Gossip in which he listed a range of duties women could undertake within the force.The Police Review and Parade Ground Gossip, 5 July 1918. Viewed July 2014.
Salisbury City Police
With the possible end in sight of World War One there was much discussion within the male dominated British police force about the role women were going to play. His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Sir Leonard Dunning who seven years later would give Mildred White a reference for a post within the Birmingham City Police, concluded that such employment was a matter for individual police authorities.Police Review and Parade Ground Gossip British Library, Euston Road, London. 5 April 1918. Page 110. Viewed June 2014.
Mildred White moved to Salisbury to join the Salisbury City Police as its first female member.The editor of a police periodical wrote: " In 1918 there was one policewoman in Salisbury, but none in the Wiltshire Constabulary." The Policewoman's Review. July 1930. Viewed November 2014. She worked at the police station in Endless Street which was purpose built in the 1880s as the third police station within the city; it housed all the offices needed for the city force, a parade ground in its centre and it had several stables at the back. The chief constable had his accommodation there. Like all chief constables, Frank Richardson employed the wives or close relatives of serving officers to accommodate the needs of women and children who came into police custody. He decided a dedicated policewoman was best suited for this task in his force. Later, in June, at an important meeting in London, his decision was vindicated. Lady Nott-Bowes addressed the Chief Constables Association held at the Waldorf Hotel, London, on 23 May. She stated she hoped that those who tried the experiment of Women Police would do their best to get their full status recognised.Article. Women Police. Police Review and Parade Ground Gossip . British Library, Euston Road, London 14 June 1918. Page 190. Viewed June 2014.
On 26 May 1918 White joined the Salisbury City Police and was attested immediately. Because she was attested she had the same rights as a male constable. Her appointment was confirmed by the Salisbury Watch Committee and also by her new employer, The Birmingham Watch Committee, when she took up the appointment there in 1925.
She joined as a constable and was promoted rapidly. Her commencing salary on joining the force was £210. per annum. On 3 April 1919 she was transferred to the same pay and allowances as that of ordinary (male) constables of the ForceSalisbury Police Force Register FS/905/5. These pay and allowances notes are inserted on every promotion. and she was promoted to 11th class constable with an increase in salary of £2 per week. On 22 May 1919 she was promoted from 11th class constable to 10th class constable to take effect from 25 May 1919 at an increase of £2.1s.0d per week. This was again revised when she was transferred from 10th class constable old scale to 12th class constable, new scale, back dated to 1 April 1919 with a salary increase of £3.12s 0d per week. By 1920 she was a sergeant.White's promotion and salary in 1918 and 1919. Salisbury Police Register F5/905/5. Wiltshire County Museum. Her duties were plainclothes work in the mornings and city patrol work, in uniform, in the evenings.A most unusual situation. Reference to Whites 'smart' uniform was made in the local newspaper when she moved to Birmingham. The Salisbury Journal May 1925. In February 1919 she attended a Salisbury City Court hearing as a prosecution witness at an alleged bigamy trial.Salisbury Bigamy Charge. Western Gazette 28 February 1919. Viewed April 2014. Because she was attested she had the power of arrest; in contrast, Dorothy Peto remained an unattested Lady Enquiry Officer. Memoirs of Dorothy Peto, The Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre, The Annexe, Empress State Building, Empress Approach, Lillie Road, West Brompton, London, SW6 1TR. Viewed August 2014. Dorothy Peto maintained she would not accept a rank below inspector, whereas White did accept the lower rank. Most important of all to constable and then Sergeant White was that she now could receive a pension like her male counterparts. Chief Constable Richardson took steps to ensure she would get her pension by clearing her with the Salisbury Watch Committee on appointment as someone who was superannuated, writing a letter to her chief constable at her next posting in 1925 stating "Miss White is entitled to reckon the period between 26 May 1918 and 26 May 1925 as 'Approved Service' within the meaning of Section 8 (1) of the Police Pensions Act 1921."