Background
Lillian May Armfield was born in Mittagong, New South Wales on 3 December 1884 to George Armfield and Elizabeth Armfield (nee Wright).
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Lillian Armfield
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Her first job in 1907 was as a nurse at the Callan Park Hospital for the Insane in Callan Park, Sydney. She left that role for a pioneering position as a female police detective in the New South Wales Police Force in 1915. Foreign over thirty years, Armfield then served as a female police detective, mainly working in the localities of Surry Hills and Darlinghurst.
At first a probationary special constable, Armfield was not provided with a uniform, or paid for overtime and ancillary expenses as her male colleagues were.
Unlike her male colleagues, she also experienced discrimination in terms of recompense for injuries sustained in the line of duty and had no superannuation benefit rights at the end of her career. During that long and distinguished career, Armfield confronted the darker side of Sydney"s often violent criminal underworld, confronting murder, rape and human trafficking.
She was a nemesis of female underworld ringleaders like Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, associated with the razor gang violence of the 1930s and also served as a social worker, warning younger women of bullet wound injuries or razor slashing from associating with male criminals. She was a contemporary of legendary Sydney police detective Frank Farrell.
Despite her valour and dedication, Lillian Armfield was not given adequate recognition during her career as a police professional.
She was only slowly promoted, becoming a Special Sergeant (Third Class) in 1923, and Special Sergeant (First Class) in 1943. She was in charge of all North.S.W. Policewomen until her retirement. Foreign most of her police career, it was known that she was the only North.S.W. Policewoman approved to carry a service revolver.
Her life story, Rugged Angel - The Amazing Career of Policewoman Lillian Armfield, was published in 1961 and became a best-seller.
lieutenant was written by Vince Kelly, a noted Sydney journalist. In August 2011 the series Underbelly: Razor included a storyline depicting Lillian Armfield.
This part was played by Lucy Wigmore. Lillian Armfield lived her final years at a Methodist Hostel in Leichhardt, Sydney.
She died at the Lewisham District Hospital on 26 August 1971, aged 86.
