About six years after Edith was born, the family were living at 18 Palm Hill, where she spent most of her young life, and from where her father ran his business in the shop attached to the building next door. The shop also doubled as a Post/Telegraph Office.
On the 5th December 1897 Edith married William Smith who came from Wainfleet, Lincolnshire. By 1901 they were living at the Post Office in Wellington Road, Oxton where Edith worked as the sub-post mistress. William ran a stationer's and tobacconist's shop from the premises. Wiliam died in 1907 aged just 42, leaving Edith to bring up their four children Frances (b.1899), Victorine (b.1900), Annette (b.1900) and James.
In 1911 Edith had moved to London to be trained as a midwife. She would subsequently become Matron in a nursing home in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in which town two of her daughters were later married.
It was while she was living in Grantham that she became Britain's first warranted policewoman in 1915, serving as such for three years. Edith would later tour Britain showing how the concept of women in policing could succeed, as well as writing books and pamphlets to support, and to inform people about, the cause. Not only did Edith have to face the inherent danger associated with being a police officer, but as one can easily imagine, she also had to put up with ridicule and chauvinist comments from some of her male officers and the general public.
Edith retired from her police work in 1917 due to ill-health. Her resignation letter from the 4th January of that year states that she had '...chest trouble, which becomes worse in the winter owing to late hours in the fog and the damp'. She consequently returned to nursing, becoming Matron of the Lindis Nursing Home, Grantham, in January 1919.
After leaving Grantham, Edith made her home in the almshouses in Castle Road, Halton Village, Runcorn, Cheshire. These houses, designed by Pusey Brooke, were demolished in the 1960s. Perhaps she chose to live in the almshouses because she had little money to support herself, or maybe she wanted to be close to her patients, working as she did as a nurse for the Halton & District Nursing Association. Edith would work tirelessly to improve the financial situation of this association.
Unfortunately, in time, issues sprang up between Edith and her employers who would ultimately ask for her resignation. The Halton & District Nursing Association had received complaints from the County Superintendent of the Cheshire Nursing Association regarding Edith's methods of nursing.
She was so distressed by this decision that on the 26th June 1923 she took her own life from an overdose of morphia. The coroner returned the verdict that Edith had taken her own life whilst 'temporarily insane'. This ensured no issues with inheritance in Edith's will, reduced the stigma of suicide and allowed Christian burial rites to be performed.
Edith was buried in an unmarked grave in Halton Cemetery, near Holt Lane, Halton Village.
Her suicide note read:
'I give my midwifery bag to the Halton Nursing Association, as a memorial to the nurse who lived and died for her patients. I have no sense of having wronged anyone. God is more merciful than Man. He won't misjudge me nor condemn me unproved. I love my patients and it cuts deep that they have cruelly mistreated me. I have never harmed them, my whole thought was to save their pain and suffering. Goodbye. God bless you for all you have done for me. I shall lie waiting on the other side and will work out our way together through Purgatory to the feet of Jesus Christ, Our Saviour'.
‘We shouldn’t underestimate what these pioneers (such as Edith Smith) achieved. They were very courageous. They were determined to do their duty. These days, it’s impossible to imagine what a police force would be like without women'.
- Writer and former WPC302C Joan Lock, author of 'The British Policewoman, History of Women in the Force'.
About a quarter of all police officers in England,Scotland and Wales are now women. The prefix 'woman' was phased out of WPC in 1999.
Edith Smith has been a revelation to me. In less than a year she has come from being completely unheard of in Runcorn's history to being one of the most important people ever to be associated with our town.
I will be producing a blue heritage plaque for Edith in the near future.
My thanks to:
Bob Knowles and Alan Telfer Chape of The Oxton Society.
Mr Knowles has put together a wonderful booklet about Edith called 'Edith Smith - Britain's First Warranted Policewoman' with help from Courtney Finn (Grantham Civic Society) and David Sterry (Runcorn & District Historical Society). The booklet, priced at just £3, can be purchased from both The Oxton Society and Grantham Civic Society.
https://theoxtonsociety.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/793825564028001/
John Manterfield, of Grantham Civic Society.
http://www.granthamcivicsociety.co.uk/public/index.php
https://www.facebook.com/groups/846022188803781/
Jacqueline Bates.
David Sterry, Vice-Chairman of The Runcorn & District Historical Society. I am indebted to Mr Sterry for introducing me to Edith Smith's story.
http://www.runcornhistsoc.org.uk/EdithSmith/EdithSmith.html
Peter Blackmore, Chairman of The Runcorn & District Historical Society.
The Runcorn & District Historical Society meet on the first Friday of every month at the Church Hall, St John's Church in Weston at 7.30 p.m. New faces are always welcome. It is only £2 for guests to get in on the night or £10 for a full year's membership.
http://www.runcornhistsoc.org.uk/
The Runcorn Family History Society meet on the first Wednesday of every month at Churchill Hall in Cooper Street at 7.30 p.m. New faces are always welcome. It is only £2.50 for guests to get in on the night.
https://www.fhsc.org.uk/about-the-group-runcorn”
Thank you very much Stuart. See Stuart’s Facebook post with photographs here https://www.facebook.com/stuart.allen.3538/posts/678728029179190
