Maggie Bird (curator)

Maggie Bird (13 July 1949 – 17 July 2009), was an archivist and lecturer for the Metropolitan Police and curator of the Metropolitan Police Historic Collection.

As curator of the Metropolitan Police Historic Collection, Maggie transformed what had become a disorganised hoard into a well structured and well ordered collection.

Maggie worked hard to secure greater public access to the Metropolitan Police archives and her efforts culminated in the first public exhibition being opened by the Commissioner at the Police’s Empress State Building in Brompton in 2009. Maggie was notable for her extensive knowledge of the Metropolitan Police archives and was frequently a source of information to those researching the Jack the Ripper murders.

Childhood
Margaret Edwards Bird was born on the 13th July 1949 in Barry in The Vale of Glamorgan, the only child of Peggy and Emrys. Emrys' job as a mental health nurse kept the family moving about and as a child Maggie lived in Malvern in Worcestershire, Fareham in Hampshire and Stockport in Cheshire. She remained proudly Welsh and her Welsh accent would come out when speaking to anyone from her home country.

Early career
Aged sixteen Maggie announced to her mother that she was going to the police station, to sign up as a police cadet. On the 24th January 1966, Maggie became a member of the Stockport Borough Police Force and began a life-long association with policing.

Maggie became a woman police constable in the in the West Mercia Constabulary working at Little Comberton. She was medically retired in 1973 following an injury whilst arresting a prisoner.

Marriages
Maggie had married a fellow police officer, Roger Barker, they later divorced and Maggie moved from Stockport to London where she worked in the office of St. Bartholomew's Hospital Nurses Home. Whilst waiting outside a pub to escort home an inebriated room-mate, Maggie met John Bird, who was due to go to Australia to get married, but as a result of meeting Maggie he went to tell his fiancé that his plans had changed, promising Maggie that he would return to marry her. John and Maggie were married on the 3rd July 1981 at Finsbury Registry Office. Their son George was born on 11 November 1981.

Metropolitan Police
Maggie joined the Metropolitan Police civil staff on 17 April 1979 beginning her career at Islington Police Station. She moved in 1993 to the archives branch forging connections right across the organisation and beginning her interest in, and notable appetite for, police history. Maggie was a recognised expert on the history of the Metropolitan Police and frequently lectured on the subject.

Maggie’s approach to her work combined a passion for police history and heritage, with friendliness and a sense of humour, especially for the absurd: colleagues who consulted her could find themselves conducting further telephone discussions in the style of characters from the radio series Round The Horne.

Curator
Maggie’s vast knowledge of the subject, her dedication to the work and the high regard with which she was held within and outside the Metropolitan Police, led to her appointment in 2005 as the curator of the Metropolitan Police Historic Collection, a post she called ‘The best job in the world’.

The job also could be something of an ordeal, on one occasion sorting through the stores Maggie discovered 100 old crates containing 1,500 redundant police truncheons, which Maggie had to contextualise.

Maggie became the public face of the Police archives, not only for the on-going interest in the case of Jack The Ripper, she also appeared on television in the series Who Do You Think You Are in which she had to explain to actor Jeremy Irons that his policeman ancestor was a bit of a black sheep.

Maggie was secretary of the Police History Society. A job she originally took on for three years, and continued until her death. She was also vice chairman of the Metropolitan Police History Society, assisting the chairman in efforts to broaden the Society and increase the membership.

Inspector Abberline
Developing her involvement with the Jack the Ripper elements of the archive, Maggie was actively involved in a campaign to mark the formerly anonymous headstone of Inspector Frederick Abberline, who headed the police investigation into the Victorian murders. Maggie attended a dedication of the new headstone in Bournemouth, as a representative of the Metropolitan Police.

Private Life
Maggie was an associate Samaritan, supporting her husband John in his work for that organisation. Maggie charm and character were apparent even if she just turned up at training sessions to make the tea, John found that the trainees rarely remembered what he had taught them, but they all remembered Maggie. Maggie was also a long-term member of the Cliff Richard Fan Club, and through her lectures, she playfully promoted an interesting theory that Jack the Ripper was a woman.