The Bermuda Police Service now takes for granted that women police officers play an integral role in the operation of the Service, but that was not always the case, and retired WPC Tracey Armstrong recently hit on the brilliant idea of honouring all those early women police officers who blazed the trail for those who are now following.  

Tracey organized a special event to "recognize the police women who have broken the glass ceiling in the Bermuda Police Force. The event was held at the Bella Vista restaurant at Port Royal Golf Course on Saturday 1st June  2019. Plaques were made for 21 retired female officers, bearing their names and in Tracy's words, "whatever ceiling they broke."

You can read more about the event in an article published by the Royal Gazette on 3rd June 2019, which can be viewed at http://www.royalgazette.com/news/article/20190603/female-police-officers-honoured

Amongst those honoured was retired Inspector Jean (Mathis) Vickers who joined the Police Force in 1962 as our first Bermudian policewoman and retired in 1987 as the Inspector in charge of the then Policewomen's Department.  Those of us who served during the 1960's will remember that policewomen were orginally all operating from the Policewomen's office and dealt with such matters as offences against children and sexual assaults.    

Jean, who turned 85 the day after this presentation, remembered being chosen by Commissioner George Robins from a group of 13 female applicants.  Jean and two other ladies, Gwendolyn DeGrilla and Betty Osborne, attended the first ever local Police Training Course held in 1962. 

Jean wrote about her experiences in an article published in the "Then and Now" column which you can view at http://expobermuda.com/index.php/tan/27-jdvickers 

We have requested the list of those 21 pioneering women police officers from Tracey and will publish their details as soon as possible.