Bertha Clayden

Who is Bertha Clayden?

Bertha Clayden was a British police officer. After the London Metropolitan Police's women police were reorganised in 1922 and most were dismissed, Clayden was put in charge of the twenty who remained, becoming the first attested female officer to hold the rank of Inspector. When Dorothy Peto was appointed Superintendent in charge of women police in 1930, Clayden remained as Woman Inspector at Bow Street. On 30 April 1934 she was promoted to Sub-Divisional Inspector, the first woman to hold that rank, and became deputy to Peto at Scotland Yard. She seems to have eventually reached the rank of Chief Inspector. A motherly woman, her officers considered her to be far more approachable than the austere Peto.