Sislin Fay Allen: celebrating our policewomen

... doing the right thing not the easy thing

Sislin Fay Allen was an inspiration for many when she became the first black female police officer in the Met and the UK in 1968.

Sislin was working as a nurse at Croydon’s Queens Hospital when she decided to switch careers after seeing a recruitment advert for male and female officers.

She trained at Peel House and her first posting was at Fell Road police station in Croydon, so she could be stationed near her family and where she lived. Following her appointment, the Met received hate mail from the public.

After spending a year at Croydon, she was posted to the Missing Persons Bureau at Scotland Yard. She later transferred to Norbury police station.

In 1972, Sislin resigned from the Met and returned to Jamaica with her Jamaican-born husband and two children. In Jamaica, she continued her policing career and joined the Jamaica Constabulary. She later returned to the UK with her family and moved to south London.

Sislin has since returned to Jamaica again where she now lives – her daughters still live in the UK.