Mary Sophia Allen (12th March 1878- 16th December 1964) was born in Cardiff, one of the
ten children of Thomas Isaac Allen, Chief Superintendent of the Great Western
Railway. Mary was very close to her sisters, all of whom had a tendency to
religious mysticism. She left home at the age of thirty, after a disagreement
with her father about women's suffrage, and joined Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union, becoming an organizer in the South West, and later in Edinburgh. She was
imprisoned three times in 1909 for smashing windows; went on hunger-strike twice,
and was force-fed on the last occasion, for which she was awarded a
hunger-strike medal by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence.
At the outbreak of World War One,
militant suffragist activities ceased. Mary turned down an offer of work with a
Needlework Guild, and looked around for a more active occupation. She heard
that a number of women were trying to set up a women's police force and, in
1914, she joined Nina Boyle's Women Police Volunteers, which was taken over by
Margaret Damer Dawson in 1915 and renamed the Women Police Service (WPS), with
Mary Allen as second-in-command. They designed their own uniform, and opened
training schools in London and Bristol. They saw their role as mainly dealing
with women and children, and rescuing women from vice and ‘white slavery’. Mary
served at Grantham and Hull, overseeing the morals of women in the vicinity of
army barracks. She went on to police munitions factories which employed large
numbers of women. She also worked in London, where ‘khaki fever’ was perceived
as a problem. Child welfare work led the WPS to set up a Benevolent Department
and a home for mothers and babies. Mary was awarded the OBE for services during
the War.
Mary and Margaret Damer Dawson
cropped their hair and assumed a severe military appearance. Mary wore her
police uniform in public for the rest of her life. In 1915, Dawson made a Will
leaving everything to Mary; when she died suddenly in 1920, Mary assumed the
role of Commandant of the WPS. After the War, the WPS was expected to disband:
the authorities saw no further need of them. The Metropolitan Police set up
their own women’s division, and accused the WPS of masquerading as Metropolitan
policewomen. Mary and her officers were summonsed to appear at Westminster
Police Court, accused of impersonation, and instructed to cease wearing the
uniform they had designed themselves. The WPS changed their name to the Women’s
Auxiliary Service (WAS) and, with minor modifications to their uniform, carried
on as before, setting up a further training school in Edinburgh. The Government
appointed the Baird Committee to investigate the activities of the WAS. Despite
no longer being recognized by the authorities, Mary was invited by the
Government to go to Germany, and advise on the policing of the British Army of
the Rhine. This semi-acceptance encouraged Mary to represent herself overseas
as chief of the British women police. She travelled in uniform, and was welcomed
by police authorities in Europe and in South and North America.
In November 1922 she stood
unsuccessfully for parliament as an Independent Liberal candidate for St
George’s, Westminster. During the General Strike of 1926, Mary mobilized large
numbers of women to work against what she perceived as an imminent Communist
coup.
Mary learned to fly. She attended
international police congresses in Austria and Germany. She also visited
Holland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Turkey and Brazil, advising on the training
of police women. She went to Egypt in 1936 on holiday (wearing her uniform),
but was received as if sent by the police authorities in Britain. Her interest
in vice and white slavery continued to be a preoccupation, and she attended the
League of Nations conference in Geneva on the traffic in women. Wherever she
went, Mary was welcomed as the leading British policewoman, and she made
contact with police chiefs and political leaders all over Europe.
The Home Office began to take an
interest in Mary’s activities in 1927. She was becoming an embarrassment and a
nuisance to the Government, partly because of her acceptance abroad as
representing the British authorities, and partly because she was mistaken for a
Metropolitan police officer at home. Home Office records, covering the period
1927-1934 reveal that she keeps dossiers on people she suspected of activities
connected with vice and white slavery. She was also suspected of fascist
activities, and articles by or about her in national newspapers increased the
Home Office surveillance.
Mary met a number of fascist
leaders abroad, including O’Duffy in Ireland, Franco in Spain, Mussolini in
Italy, and Hitler and Goering in Germany. Although her links to Oswald Mosley’s
British Union of Fascists were unofficial until 1939, she engaged in various
right-wing activities, including the formation of the Women’s Reserve in 1933,
which was intended to serve the country in the event of subversive forces
taking over. The publicity for the Women’s Reserve reveals her fascist
sympathies, and her fear of communism.
She met Hitler in 1934, and
discussed women police with him. She was captivated by Hitler, and expressed
her admiration for him in public. Once she had joined the British Union of
Fascists, she wrote numerous articles for its newspapers, and openly declared
herself to be a fascist. A Suspension Order under the Defence of the Realm Act
was made against her when suspicions arose about her contacts with Germany. Her
home was searched, and internment was considered, but not implemented. She was
suspected of making flights to Germany, and acting as a spy for the Nazis, but
this was never proved.
Mary was known as ‘Robert’ by her
close circle of female friends, and she was called ‘Sir’ by her officers. Her
friends and lovers included Margaret Damer Dawson, Isobel Goldingham and Helen
Bourn Tagart, all of whom she met in her policing days.
Mary wrote three volumes of
autobiography: The Pioneer Policewoman (1925), A Woman at the Cross Roads
(1934), and Lady in Blue (1936). A Woman at the Cross Roads is revealing of
aspects of her life and philosophy, but reticent about personal matters. It was
written at the time when Mary met Hitler, and her political views are made
plain: she was at a crossroads in her life because she was toying with fascism
as a solution to the world problems she perceived. She also wrote numerous
articles for newspapers and magazines, and founded The Policewomen’s Review,
which ran from 1927 to 1937, to which she was a major contributor.
Little is known of Mary’s life
after the Second World War. She continued to be associated with Oswald Mosley
and other fascists. Mary always had a strong interest in religion, without any
particular affiliation. She converted to Roman Catholicism in 1953, and died in
a nursing home in Croydon at the age of 86, attended by her sister, Christine.
People either loved or hated Mary
Allen: nobody was indifferent to her. Despite her eccentricity and unfortunate
political associations, her friends and family valued her warmth and loyalty.