OBITUARIES
Former Auxiliary Territorial Service (Provost) and Royal Ulster
Constabulary George Cross Sergeant Maud Musselwhite BEM (Gallantry).
Maud Musselwhite BEM who died on 10 June aged 92, has a special place in
the history of policing in Northern Ireland. On 24 May 1957, just over sixmonths after the outbreak of an IRA campaign that was to last almost six-years,
Sergeant Musselwhite became the first policewoman in the Province to be
decorated for gallantry. However, before joining the Royal Ulster
Constabulary, Maud Musselwhite had served in the
ATS (Provost). Volunteering for the ATS in 1940
aged 19, she served in the Provost Branch in which
she attained the rank of Sergeant. The nature of her
wartime military service helped her gravitate
towards the police in the post-war years and in
January 1948, she entered the Royal Ulster
Constabulary (RUC) Depot at Enniskillen,
becoming Policewoman ‘29’. At a time when promotion was relatively slow in
a small force, with an even smaller Women’s Branch, Maud was promoted to
sergeant by the mid-1950s and posted to Victoria police station in Londonderry.
In December 1956, the IRA began a campaign of bombing and shooting – the
so-called Operation Harvest – that was aimed mainly at border areas but also
included targets in Londonderry, then a major naval base. The city’s electricity
generating station was also close to the docks and was a target for the IRA. On
the night of 24 May 1957, Sergeant Musselwhite was on plain-clothes duty in
the Queen’s Quay area of Londonderry Port, accompanied by Constable Alex
Forsythe. Their task was to look out for anyone behaving suspiciously in the
locality. At about 11.00pm they spotted three suspicious individuals
approaching an electric rectifier. One of them was carrying a parcel. Sergeant
Musselwhite alerted the nearby police headquarters while Forsythe followed the
men, two of whom went behind the rectifier. The officers arrested the terrorists
and defused the bomb they had been carrying. Leaving Constable Forsythe to
guard the prisoners, Sergeant Musselwhite searched the area for any more
suspicious individuals. As she rejoined her colleague, there was a ‘terrific
explosion’ and all lights nearby went out. Sergeant Musselwhite continued her
search until a patrol car arrived for the prisoners whose bomb had contained
15lbs of gelignite. Constable Forsythe was awarded the George Medal and
Sergeant Musselwhite the British Empire Medal for gallantry. She thus became
the first policewoman to be decorated for gallantry in Northern Ireland. In fact,
she has the distinction of being the first policewoman in Ireland to be as
decorated as the Garda Síochána in the Republic of Ireland had no female police
officers until 1959. At a time when there were no permanent female staff at the
RUC Depot, women sergeants were drafted to Enniskillen whenever a recruit
squad of women was in training. Those who had the benefit of Sergeant
Musselwhite’s instructional skills never forgot their mentor, not her beautiful
singing voice as she entertained her protégées. Her reputation as an instructor
was of the highest as was her willingness to assist and guide young officers.
Maud served in the RUC GC until 1973, giving a quarter century of service to
the force and the Province. Having lived in London for some years, she
returned to spend her later years in Northern Ireland, close to her family and
friends. A truly remarkable lady, Maud Musselwhite was born in Belfast on
16th June 1921, and died on the 10th June 2014. She was buried at Glendermott
Parish Church, Londonderry.
[Note: The Regimental Secretary is most grateful to the renowned historian and author
Richard Doherty for this obituary].