Gladys Mary Beausire

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Police Officer at the Women’s Police Service

Birthplace Lancashire Great Crosby Place of Residence at HM Factory Gretna 109 Central Avenue Gretna ScotlandPlace of Death Hawthorne House Greater London Hampstead Date of Birth: March 30, 1885 Date of Death: August 13, 1985

Biography

Information supplied through Research Project led by Nigel Crompton.

Name: Gladys Mary Beausire
DoB: 30 March 1885
Place of birth: Great Crosby, Lancashire
Parents: James & Isabella (nee Tyrer)
Parental Home: 18 Brooke Road, Crosby and 10 College Avenue, Crosby, Lancashire
Siblings: Herbert (1878), Isabel (1884), Robert (1886), Alice (1887), Percy (1889)
Spouse: Never married
Date of Wedding: Not applicable
Children : None identified
Marital home(s): Not applicable
Employment: None identified prior to Great War
1911 Census: Not located on 1911 census – see notes
Date of death: 13 August 1985
Location: Hawthorne House, Lower Terrace, Hampstead, NW3Gretna details
Name: Gladys Mary Beausire
Clock No: N/A
Date joining: Not confirmed – but officer in 1916
Date leaving: Not confirmed
Addresses: 109 Central Avenue, Gretna
Rank on start: Was a Sergeant in 1916, prior to moving to Gretna
Promotion: Shown as inspector in 1918
Newspapers: Sunday Pictorial, The Globe etc.
Career after: Market gardener
1921 Census: Listed as a market gardener alongside partner, and Chief of Women’s Police service at Gretna, Winifred Reinold.

Addresses after Gretna:
1920 – 1M Grove End House, Grenville Road, Westminster

1931 – 58 Napier Court, SW6, London

1935 – 5 Harrington Gardens, SW7, London

1939 – 47 Windermere House, Lytton Grove, Wandsworth

1949 – Hawthorne House, Hampstead

1964 – 5 Kingsthorpe Court, Raymond Road, Wimbledon

Additional information:

Along with many supporting the Suffragette movement, it is likely Gladys did not take part in the 1911

Census, choosing to ignore it. She was mentioned several times in the newspapers attending meetings but

came to prominence in 1916 when as a WPA Sergeant, and attending Marylebone Magistrates Court, she

was asked by the Magistrate to act as a Probation Officer for a particularly difficult female prisoner. This act

was widely reported in the press.

Gladys’s father was a successful Wine Merchant and members of the family went on to have success in the

timber business amongst others. At Gretna, Gladys lived in the same house as Winifred Reinold although

given that both were members of the WSPU might have previously known each other. After Gretna, they

started a market garden business in Uckfield, Sussex. We know Gladys travelled to the USA & Canada but

probably elsewhere as well. Her friendship with Winifred appears to have remained strong up until

Winifred’s death in 1949

Sources Consulted

Source
Item consulted
Ancestry UK
English/ Welsh Census 1891, 1901,

1911, 1921, 1939 registration

Census, electoral registers

Births, Marriages, Deaths, Burial/ Cemetery records

Immigration and travel
British Newspaper Archive
Local, National & Scottish Newspapers
National Archives Kew
Ministry of Munitions & Women Police Service
National Archives Edinburgh
Gretna Police Area records
Devils Porridge Museum Archives
Valuation Roll for Gretna

Electoral Register 1918-1919
Dumfries Archives
Police & Court records
Scotlandspeople
Births, Marriages, Deaths

Valuation Roll for Gretna
Court, prison and legal records
Bow Street Court and Holloway Prison
Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre
Early members of Metropolitan Police Patrol