Edith Smith (21 November 1876 – 26 June 1923) was the first female police officer in the United Kingdom with full power of arrest.

This was more than the oldest male police constable in the force due to the fact that her "duties were most onerous", and taking into account that she was also a qualified nurse.

Smith wrote of her time in Grantham: "The appointment has made such a vast difference – the prostitutes have found that it does not pay and the frivolous girls have bowed down.

At the National Union of Women Worker's (NUWW) conference in 1916 she said that "a large portion of police work is of a sordid character but even then it has its interesting side - the study of human nature at its worst.

Their role was left in the hands of individual chief constables leading to extreme conservatism in some areas and to daring innovations in others.

[11] Smith left the WPS (renamed the Women's Auxiliary Service after the war) after working seven days a week for a period of two years.

Finding it to be low on funds, she gave lectures, organised whist drives and conducted shorthand classes to raise money.

[13] She shares the grave with her niece, Marjorie, who died aged two years on the tenth day after Smith's death.

[14] On 8 March 2019 a blue plaque was erected on St Mary's Church Hall, Halton, Runcorn, on the site of the old almshouses where Edith had been living at the time of her death.