Retired police constable, Marcy D’Arcy Kincaid, joined Edinburgh City Police in 1953, serving as a constable before joining CID – she also challenged her male superiors on outdated conventions to become the first female officer in Scotland to drive police vehicles. To mark 70 years since she first joined the police force Mary returned to her old beat in the city’s Southside where she met current officers to celebrate her career and legacy.
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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)