The Fair Arm of the Law: The Pioneering Women Who Changed British Policing

dconn40

Sep 8

3 min read

Today, seeing women serving at every level of the police service is entirely unremarkable. Just over a century ago, the idea of a woman police officer was anything but.

For this year's Tavistock Heritage Open Days, former police officer, author and police historian Simon Dell MBE returns to the Guildhall Courtroom with The Fair Arm of the Law: The Pioneering Women Who Changed British Policing.

It is the remarkable story of the women who challenged convention, prejudice and sometimes outright hostility to establish a place for women within British policing.

And there can be few people better placed to tell it.

A lifetime in policing

Simon Dell spent 32 years with Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, serving at stations across Devon and Cornwall and on the Isles of Scilly. Seventeen of those years were spent at Tavistock Police Station as a community constable, making him a familiar figure to generations of local residents. In 1997 he was awarded the MBE for services to the community and mountain rescue.

Since retiring from full-time policing, Simon has become a prolific local historian, writer, speaker and guide, with a particular interest in the history of policing in Devon and Cornwall. His published work includes Policing the Peninsula, a photographic history of West Country policing from 1850 to 2000.

For The Fair Arm of the Law, however, the spotlight falls firmly on the women.

A revolution in uniform

The story takes us back to the extraordinary social changes of the early twentieth century.

The campaign for women's suffrage was challenging established ideas about the role of women in society. Then, in 1914, the First World War transformed British life almost overnight.

As men left for military service, women took on jobs and responsibilities previously regarded as exclusively male. The same upheaval helped create the circumstances in which women began to establish a role within policing.

Simon traces the origins of organised women's policing through this period, including the establishment of the Policewomen's Department in 1915, and explores the connections between early policewomen, the Suffragette movement, the Great War and wider changes in women's lives.

Their arrival was not universally welcomed.

These pioneering women had to overcome resistance, prejudice and ridicule while demonstrating that there was an important role for women within a profession that had previously been overwhelmingly male.

The West Country story

This is not simply a national history.

Drawing on his extensive research into policing in Devon and Cornwall, Simon brings the story home to the West Country, celebrating some of the women who helped change policing across the peninsula.

That local dimension makes the talk particularly appropriate for the setting.

The audience will be sitting in Tavistock's historic Guildhall Courtroom, a building intimately connected with the administration of justice and the history of policing in the town.

It is difficult to imagine a better place to hear how one of the most significant changes in the history of the police service unfolded.

An Everyday History that changed Britain

The Fair Arm of the Law also fits beautifully into this year's Heritage Open Days focus on Everyday Histories.

History is not only made by monarchs, politicians and generals. Sometimes it is made by people who turn up for work and quietly begin changing the rules.

The first generations of policewomen did exactly that.

Their determination gradually transformed not only policing, but expectations about the kind of work women could undertake and the responsibilities they could hold.

The uniform may have changed enormously since 1915, but the legacy of those pioneering women remains visible in every police force in Britain today.

Join Simon Dell in the Courtroom

Expect a fascinating evening combining social history, women's history and police history, delivered by someone who knows the world of policing from the inside and has spent decades researching its past.

The Fair Arm of the Law: The Pioneering Women Who Changed British Policing

Simon Dell MBEFriday 18 September 2026 - 6.30pmTavistock Guildhall Courtroom

The talk is part of Tavistock Heritage Open Days 2026 and is completely FREE, but advance booking is required.

There are currently still places available.