00:00 A retired police constable that once patrolled the streets of Edinburgh's
00:04 Southside returned to her old patch to mark 70 years since she first joined the
00:08 force. 91 year old Mary Darcy Kincaid who joined Edinburgh City Police in the
00:14 early 1950s was invited for a trip down memory lane where she was shown
00:18 photographs of her time in uniform, some of which she'd never seen, before going
00:23 on a tour of her old beat. Joined by her family, Mary was hosted by officers at
00:28 St. Leonard's Police Station where she recalled how she became the first female
00:32 police officer in Scotland to drive patrol vehicles and why she made the
00:36 difficult decision to leave the force. The day I was 21 I applied to Edinburgh
00:44 City Police. I came in as a police female assistant into the aliens and
00:51 firearms department and then sat my exams and I joined the police on the 29th of
01:01 September 1953. For three years Mary's work involved patrolling the capital
01:08 streets and carrying out clerical duties until one day in 1956 when she came
01:14 across a memo in a Royal Mile police box. The internal document listed vacancies
01:19 for police drivers and an ambitious Mary applied for the job, challenging gender
01:24 role attitudes at the time where reserving driving roles for male
01:28 officers was an unwritten rule. The following day I was pulled up in front
01:32 of my chief inspector, "you know there are no police women drivers in Edinburgh, why
01:39 did you apply?" I said, "well it didn't say that, it just said constable and I applied."
01:45 And that made, that became history. I was invited down and they only gave me two
01:54 days training out of two weeks. I was very upset about that but they said it would go
02:00 against me. I loved driving. I shouldn't say this in front of the police but to me
02:09 I first drove a car when I was three years old, sitting on my father's knee in
02:16 a little back lane so there was no police in the little back lane. And I've
02:23 driven really on the back lanes since my feet could touch the pedals. It was a
02:31 great improvement in a way that women were allowed to drive. A year later Mary
02:39 would be one of four female Scottish officers to be selected for a 12-month
02:43 secondment with the Cyprus police. There she was promoted to sergeant before
02:48 returning to her former patch in Edinburgh in 1958. Mary's aptitude for
02:53 police work would see her join the CID two years later before being invited to
02:58 form a crime squad with five other officers in 1961. We started work every
03:05 night at six o'clock until we were lucky if we finished at two in the morning,
03:11 sometimes six in the morning. And we drove around a lot in our own cars. There
03:20 were no walkie-talkies, no mobile phones. All we had was a great big, like a
03:29 suitcase on the back seat which took up a whole seat, that you spoke into. Come
03:38 in, come in Braid Place, come in Braid Place or come in headquarters. And you
03:44 told them you're reporting for duty and all this. So we had to keep it down very
03:50 low if we were watching any known criminals. But quite often we got out and
03:58 did a little bit on food patrol where it was very busy. And one of that was a
04:06 famous place on Leith Street where a lot of prostitutes at night hung around.
04:14 And I was mistaken as a new prostitute many times by some of the men. It became quite hilarious.
04:26 But despite enjoying a successful career, Mary's time in the police force was cut
04:32 short owing to a convention that in today's society is considered
04:36 outlandishly archaic. Unfortunately if you got married, women had to leave the
04:43 police force. Those were the rules again. I left the day before I got married, not the
04:50 actual day I got married. Not a week before, but a few, about 24 hours before I got married.
04:59 I think that whenever you listen to Mary's stories it's actually really
05:03 interesting to hear that probably the role of policing hasn't really changed that
05:07 terribly much. But the way in which it is done, and I think certainly whenever it
05:11 comes to women within policing, I'm thrilled to be able to say that actually
05:16 we've got far more women as a result of trailblazers like Mary, really
05:22 well represented across a full range of ranks and grades within the
05:26 organisation and actually across a whole range of different departments and
05:30 functions. It's been a real pleasure to be able to have the opportunity to chat
05:34 with Mary today and to recognise the really important legacy that she's left
05:38 for so many other female colleagues but wider colleagues within policing as a
05:42 consequence of all of the actions that she's taken.
05:45 I can't believe this. I can't believe it. I think it's wonderful.
05:50 Wonderful. Record musical. Yeah, absolutely.
05:55 (motorcycle engine revving)
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