Pioneering female police detective celebrated in new book

A book chronicling the career of a pioneering policewoman in Maidenhead and Windsor has hit the shelves.

Calling Detective Crockford is the latest instalment in a police trilogy covering the life of Gwen Crockford, believed to be the first female detective in Berkshire.

The story is told by Gwen’s daughter, author Ruth D’Alessandro, who grew up hearing countless tales of her mother’s daily encounters.

Gwen died in 2004 and Ruth has since dreamed of committing the stories of her mother’s working life to paper.

Ruth told the Advertiser: “The one thing I never ever thought about doing was sitting her down and asking for a complete chronology of her career.

“I had these very fragmented stories in my head and I thought how on Earth am I going to be able to put those together as a story?

“I researched all the local newspapers in the British Library and I found a lot of her stories that she told me about and was able to track her whole career through the newspapers.”

Gwen moved to Sperling Road, Maidenhead, in 1957, and served as a detective constable based at both Maidenhead and Windsor police stations.

She had previously worked as one of Berkshire’s first women police constables.

Her career saw her deal with grisly crimes including murders and abuse of women and children.

Ruth added: “There was no psychological support at all for the police. You just dealt with the job, got on with it and if you were upset by something you just had to get over it and carry on.”

Calling Detective Crockford details the challenges Gwen faced which made her decide to go back into police uniform to try and make a difference.

The book, published by Welbeck Publishing, was released on March 2.