Shirley Becke

QPM
QPM
Head of A4 Branch (Women Police), Metropolitan Police
	In office; 26 May 1966 – 1973
Personal details
Born	Shirley Cameron Jennings; April 29, 1917; Westminster Polytechnic
Known for	first woman officer in the United Kingdom to reach chief officer rank

Shirley Cameron Becke

QPM (née Jennings; 29 April 1917 – 25 October 2011) was a British police officer. She was the fourth and last commander of the London Metropolitan Police's A4 Branch (Women Police), from 1966 to 1973, and the first woman officer in the United Kingdom to reach chief officer rank when she was promoted to commander

in 1969.

Early life

Shirley Cameron Jennings was born in

Westminster Polytechnic from 1935, and in 1939 became the first woman to pass the Higher Grade Examination of the Institution of Gas Engineers

. She then worked as a gas engineer for two years.

Police career

Becke joined the Metropolitan Police as a

detective chief inspector in 1959, when she was posted to Scotland Yard as the Metropolitan Police's most senior woman detective.^[1]

In 1954, she was called to the headquarters of an oil company in

South Merstham, Surrey

. She thus became the first head of London's policewomen to be married.

In 1960, Becke was promoted to

Queen's Police Medal

(QPM) in 1972.

In 1973, A4 Branch was disbanded and women police officers integrated with the general establishment. Becke, then a commander, was appointed to the Force Inspectorate. That same year Sheila Ward became the Metropolitan Police's first female station inspector.

Later life and death

Becke retired from the police on 29 April 1974 and took up a position as regional administrator for London of the

Officer of the Order of the British Empire

(OBE) in 1974.

Becke died in Chichester, West Sussex, on 25 October 2011. Her funeral was held in the Lady Chapel of Chichester Cathedral on 14 November 2011.

Footnotes

External links

Police appointments
Preceded by Winifred Barker	Commander, A4 Branch (Women Police), Metropolitan Police 1966–1973	Succeeded by Last incumbent

[tel-1] Obituary, The Telegraph, 11 December 2011

[guardian-2] Obituary, The Guardian, 8 December 2011

[1]

Authority control databases
International	VIAF
National	United States