Bertha Clayden was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 officer. After the London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 Metropolitan Police

Metropolitan police

Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...

'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

Police Oath

It is usual for Police officers take an oath to uphold the law. The following is a selection from different countries.- Hong Kong :English version according to Chapter 232, schedule 1, Laws of Hong KongI, .. ....

 female officer to hold the rank of Inspector

Inspector

Inspector is both a police rank and an administrative position, both used in a number of contexts. However, it is not an equivalent rank in each police force.- Australia :...

. When Dorothy Peto

Dorothy Peto

Dorothy Olivia Georgiana Peto OBE KPFSM was a pioneer of women policing in the United Kingdom who served as the first attested Woman Superintendent in the London Metropolitan Police from 1930 to 1946....

 was appointed Superintendent

Superintendent (police)

Superintendent , often shortened to "super", is a rank in British police services and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries the full version is superintendent of police...

 in charge of women police in 1930, Clayden remained as Woman Inspector at Bow Street

Bow Street

Bow Street is a thoroughfare in Covent Garden, Westminster, London. It features as one of the streets on the standard London Monopoly board....

. On 30 April 1934 she was promoted to Sub-Divisional Inspector

Sub-Divisional Inspector

Sub-divisional inspector was a rank used in the London Metropolitan Police from the 1870s or 1880s until 1949. A sub-divisional inspector ranked above an inspector and below a chief inspector. As the title suggests, he or she commanded a sub-division or held an equivalent administrative position...

, the first (and possibly only) woman to hold that rank, and became deputy to Peto at Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

. She seems to have eventually reached the rank of Chief Inspector

Chief inspector

Chief inspector is a rank used in police forces which follow the British model. In countries outside Britain, it is sometimes referred to as chief inspector of police .-Australia:...

. A motherly woman, her officers considered her to be far more approachable than the austere Peto.