Fay Allen

For the Los Angeles school board member, see Fay Allen (teacher).

Fay Allen
Allen in 1968
Born
Sislin Fay Allen

1939
Jamaica
Died5 July 2021
Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Known forFirst black woman police constable in the United Kingdom
Police career
DepartmentMetropolitan Police
Jamaica Constabulary Force
BranchMissing Persons Bureau
Service years1968–1972 (Met)
1972–? (JCF)
StatusRetired
AwardsLifetime achievement award

Sislin Fay Allen (née Patterson;[1] 20 March 1938[2] – 5 July 2021[3]), known as Fay Allen,[4] was a British and Jamaican police officer who was the first black woman police constable in the United Kingdom, serving in the Metropolitan Police in London from 1968 to 1972. She also worked for the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

Early life and family

Allen was born in Jamaica,[4][5] and moved to the United Kingdom in 1961[6] or 1962.[7] She lived in Thornton Heath, Croydon.[8] She qualified as a State enrolled nurse in October 1963, having trained at Queen's Hospital, Croydon with placements at the Purley War Memorial Hospital and Waddon Hospital, Croydon.[1] She then worked at Queen's Hospital, Croydon, a geriatric facility in south London.[9] She was married to a fellow Jamaican immigrant and had two children.[9]

Career

Allen had always been interested in the police and in 1968 saw a recruitment advertisement in the newspaper, applied, and was selected.[9] The first black officer in the British police since the 19th century, Norwell Roberts, had only joined the Metropolitan Police the previous year. "On the day I joined I nearly broke a leg trying to run away from reporters," she told an interviewer later. "I realised then that I was a history maker. But I didn't set out to make history; I just wanted a change of direction."[10]

After training at Peel House[11] for 13 weeks,[12] she was posted to Fell Road police station in Croydon, where she lived, on 29 April 1968, aged 29.[13] She experienced more prejudice from the black community than from her colleagues or from white people in Croydon,[9] and was met largely with curiosity and considerable interest from the media, although the Metropolitan Police did receive some racist mail about her appointment.[4][9] The threatening and abusive letters she received when she started working at Fell Road made her consider whether she wanted to remain in the force.[14][15][16] After a year in Croydon, she was posted to the Missing Persons Bureau at Scotland Yard for a while before being transferred back to the beat at Norbury police station.[9]

Later years

In 1972, she resigned from the Metropolitan Police to return to Jamaica with her family. There she joined the Jamaica Constabulary Force.[9] Eventually, she returned to England; as of 2015, she lived in South London.[9] In 2020, she was given a lifetime achievement award by the National Black Police Association.[17]

She died in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, in July 2021, aged 83. Her death was announced on 5 July.[18]

Legacy

Allen has been an inspiration to women wanting to join the police and especially for black women police officers such as Commander Alison Heydari.[19][20]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Roll of Assistant Nurses. General Nursing Council. 1965.
  2. ^ "Sislin Fay Allen obituary". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Britain's first black policewoman, Sislin Fay Allen, dies at 83 in Jamaica". Jamaica Observer. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  4. ^ a b c Fair Cop: A Century of British Policewomen, BBC, 2015.
  5. ^ "Sislin Fay Allen", Getty Images.
  6. ^ "The first coloured policewoman". The Guardian. 2 January 1968. p. 2. Retrieved 7 July 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Colored Policewoman Starts Work". Montreal Gazette. 20 April 1968. p. 4. Retrieved 7 July 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "FIRST BLACK LONDON WPC LIVED IN THORNTON HEATH". Thornton Heath Chronicle. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h "Sislin Fay Allen Britain’s First Black Policewoman", Black History Month, 25 August 2015.
  10. ^ "100 years of women in the Met Police". BBC Newsround. 15 February 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  11. ^ "Jamaican Policewoman Joins Force", British Pathé
  12. ^ "Immigrants urged to Show restraint". The Guardian. 30 April 1968. p. 24. Retrieved 7 July 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Coloured woman P-c for Croydon", The Times, 27 April 1968.
  14. ^ The Times, 30 April 1968
  15. ^ Ali, Tariq (1998). 1968, marching in the streets. Watkins, Susan. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-684-85360-4. OCLC 38732030.
  16. ^ "'Abuse' for first coloured policewoman". The Guardian. 29 April 1968. p. 1. Retrieved 10 July 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Sislin Fay Allen: Britain's first black policewoman dies aged 83". BBC News. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  18. ^ "Sislin Fay Allen: Britain's first black policewoman dies in Jamaica". Sky News. 5 July 2021.
  19. ^ "Black History Month: What it was like for Sislin Fay Allen, Britain's first black policewoman". Sky News. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  20. ^ Ormiston, Sam (27 April 2022). "Black mum became cop while raising 3 children to 'change the Met from within'". My London. Retrieved 10 March 2024.

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