Role: Women Police Volunteers, Baird Commission
Margaret Damer Dawson was a prominent anti-vivisectionist and philanthropist who co-founded the first British women’s police service.
In 1914 she and Nina Boyle founded the Women Police Volunteers (WPV), but a year later the pair split due to disagreements over the organisation’s role. Dawson founded and led a new organisation, the Women’s Police Service (renamed the Women’s Auxiliary Service after the First World War), though Boyle’s WPV continued some patrols. Dawson and her second-in-command Allen were both awarded an Order of the British Empire in 1918.
Dawson was also asked to advise the Baird Commission when it looked at the role women in policing. She and many of her followers had been excluded from being on the Baird Commission on the advice of the Police Commissioner who disliked lesbians and in particular Dawson. Dawson thought that the women’s police force should be entirely separate from the male service. Her view did not prevail and she died prematurely of a heart attack in 1920. Her leadership role was taken over by Mary Allen, who had been Dawson’s assistant for many years. They had lived together during World War I, having a close professional and personal relationship. Dawson died on 18 May 1920 and left her house and most of her money to Allen.
Dawson was buried in Lympne on 22 May 1920 after a funeral attended by other women police officers. A memorial was erected in the corner of Lympne churchyard. Her finances had dwindled as she had spent money on the voluntary police service. The home she shared with Mary Allen was left to her.
