From June 1898 until October 1903 she attended the Grand Ducal Victorian Pensionat in Karlsruhe, Germany as a teacher of English, Italian and French.
Far distant in quite another sense, for who can judge what must have been the change of climate when she passed from a school packed with youth and vigour where she always seemed to be one of the youngest, the happiest, and the most vigorous—to being a policewoman?
[6] In 1912 Tancred, Peto and three other women campaigners started organising unofficial street patrols from an office in Bath, Somerset and later Bristol "to maintain public morality and decency".
White abruptly left her teaching post at the Godolphin School in 1914 to live and work in the office of the group in Bath, where Peto had become the Assistant Patrols Organizer.
[9] During the war Mildred White acted as a prisoner's friend at a court martial when she answered a call for 'women of a special type' to which she responded.
[10] As the end of the First World War was approaching there were several other groups of women's police voluntary patrols in other major cities in Great Britain.
[14] About two of the six pages of his annual report concerned the employment of women into professional police work, including the possibility of them having the powers of arrest.
The Chief Constable of Wolverhampton wrote an article in Police Review and Parade Ground Gossip in which he listed a range of duties women could undertake within the force.
[15] With the possible end in sight of World War One[16] there was much discussion within the male dominated British police force about the role women were going to play.
[20] Like all chief constables, Frank Richardson employed the wives or close relatives of serving officers to accommodate the needs of women and children who came into police custody.
Chief Constable Richardson took steps to ensure she would get her pension by clearing her with the Salisbury Watch Committee on appointment as someone who was superannuated, writing a letter to her chief constable at her next posting in 1925 stating "Miss White is entitled to reckon the period between 26 May 1918 and 26 May 1925 as 'Approved Service' within the meaning of Section 8 (1) of the Police Pensions Act 1921."
The Home Office in London set up the Baird Committee in 1920[31] on selection, control on the future employment conditions and attesting of women in the Service.
[35] White very quickly made contact with Sir Leonard Dunning (17 June 1860–8 Feb 1941),[36] still the Chief Inspector of the Constabulary, asking him if he would give her a reference for the post in Birmingham.
Dunning duly wrote to the Chief Constable of Birmingham City Police, Sir Charles Rafter (1857– 23 August 1935), from his home in Horsham.
Chief Constable Rafter replied with a personal letter to White giving very precise details of what would be expected of her in her duties as a Lady Enquiry Officer in the Birmingham City Police Force.
Two women, Evelyn Miles (1867–1939) who would become a sergeant later and Rebecca Lipscombe[40] were policewomen since 1918 but were not attested and therefore did not have the same powers or status as their male counterparts.
Peto was very pleased with the outcome: she wrote in her Memoirs that on her resignation she had the consolation of promoting the appointment in her post of Sergeant White of Salisbury, who had trained at the Bristol School and was admirably qualified, in her view, to take over and develop the work in Birmingham.
[46] Chief Constable Frank Richardson wrote an open letter certifying White has his "written sanction to take up office" with the Birmingham City Police.
White, now aged 51 years, officially joined the Birmingham City Police on 1 June 1925[58] as a Lady Enquiry Officer (an attested sergeant) in R Division in the Criminal Investigation Department.
On 18 June she passed her course with the note from her instructor, "A keen hardworking woman with a very high standard of intelligence and should make a reliable person for her class of work.
"[59] The Birmingham Watch Committee were very interested in her and as early as May a councillor, Miss Wilson, had written to Sir Charles Rafter saying she wanted to make her acquaintance on arrival as soon as possible.
On 23 June 1925, White took up her full duties when an internal memorandum[60] was circulated that she should be notified of all cases of indecent assault where women were witnesses.
[23] Later, on 8 July 1925, the chief constable asked the Judicial subcommittee that:[62][63] she be appointed under the Health Acts to work where there were cases of indecency and where women might make statements.
The Watch Committee should confirm with the city council that she be allowed to enter and inspect premises where the Registry of Servants and other books are kept.In her first year White dealt with 577 investigations and wrote to her Superintendent that her experience of the last six weeks had convinced her that her work as a C.I.D.
[68] Meanwhile, her colleague Dorothy Peto, whom she had known since her 1914–17 days in Bath and Bristol, had taken a post in Liverpool, not in the uniform police service, but as a director of ten policewomen in 1930.
At the end of 1933 there were many amendments to the Vagrancy Act 1824 which came under review;[82] the protection of women was quite dominant and White's personal importance in CID increased.
Peto was credited with using the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 to take ownership of cases involving child abuse and based on that establish a special role for policewomen.
Again, her chief constable came to her aid: he suggested she should be considered a special case, quoting a section of Stone's Justices' Manual, and that she had been of great benefit to his force.
Corporation Street he says : "During the whole of her Service she has carried out her duties in a most efficient and capable manner as an Officer of great skill and ability."
Sometime later, probably just before or at the start of the London blitz of the Second World War, she moved to a retirement cottage in Wimborne Road, Bournemouth, then in Hampshire.