A trailblazing woman – who was Edinburgh’s first ever female police driver – has revisited her old beat almost 70 years on from when she began her career.

Mary d’Arcy Kincaid, 91, broke gender barriers when she applied to become a trained driver for the force in 1956, having seen an advert encouraging officers to apply.

Police Scotland said the advert had been intended to attract male applicants, but as no gender had been stated, Mary applied and was accepted for the course following a discussion with the chief inspector.

The following year, Mary became one of four women from Scotland to take up a 12-month secondment in Cyprus.

As well as helping to recruit and train female Cypriot officers, she also worked within the control room and assisted with the searching of women stopped at roadblocks.

During this time, Mary was promoted to sergeant.

Upon her return to Edinburgh in 1958, she went back to working in the southside before joining the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in 1960.

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In 1961, she was one of two women and four men selected to form the city’s crime team.

After leaving policing, Mary would later serve as a magistrate in Westminster and now lives in Gloucestershire with her husband of 53 years.

During a visit to St Leonard’s Police Station in Edinburgh on Friday, Mary spoke fondly of her time in uniform.

She said: “I was so excited when I sat my entrance exams and passed, and so began my city of Edinburgh police journey.

“When the memo circulated inviting applications for police drivers, I thought ‘why not?’. After all, they had not specified male or female constables, so I took my chance.

“I loved driving and knew I could do it well as part of my role.

“Despite some reluctance from some colleagues, I couldn’t believe it when I was invited to go for my driver training.

“I passed with flying colours, and so my driving as a police constable began.

“This really meant that I no longer needed a male police constable to drive me to a job, take a bus, or walk – I could drive one of the many CID vehicles.”

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Senior officers from Police Scotland, including Assistant Chief Constable Emma Bond, were in attendance at the station to greet Mary and her family before taking her on a tour of her former beat on 29 September.

ACC Bond paid tribute to the former officer for leading the charge for change for women in policing.

She said: “Welcoming Mary and listening to her experiences and perspective was a real pleasure.

“Much has changed to improve the representation of women in all ranks and roles in policing over the course of the last few decades thanks to inspirational figures like Mary, quite literally, driving progress.

“Police Scotland is absolutely determined to continue to build on the progress led by trailblazers like Mary, to address sexism and discrimination in policing and across society and improve experiences for our officers and staff and the people who we serve.”

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