IN 1915 Britain was at war with Germany and hundreds of thousands of men were fighting overseas.

To plug the gaps in police forces across the country, a decision was made to recruit women for the first time.

That year, Emily Miller became the first woman to join the City of Glasgow Police.

At the time, women still did not have the vote and many men, including senior police officers, did not regard crime fighting as women's work.

The situation was not much better by the time the war ended when Chief Constables were asked to consider appointing women "where necessary".

It was not until 1924 that women police officers were granted the power of arrest and four years later, Glasgow still had only 11 policewomen.

In 1940, Jean Malloy was promoted to detective sergeant and became the first woman in Scotland to gain rank.

Janet Gray, who transferred to Glasgow from Gloucester, became the first woman in Scotland to achieve the rank of Superintendent in 1958.

The first female traffic officers took up their roles with Dunbartonshire Constabulary in 1960 and by 1968, women were allowed to remain in post when they married.

In 1974, Avril Dempsey and Eleanor Dempster of Glasgow Police became the first female officers appointed to the mounted police branch and two years later Maureen Scott of the new Strathclyde force became Scotland's first female firearms officer.

Over the following years women scored many firsts becoming dog handlers, CID boss, driving instructors, motor cycle officers, air support unit officers and marine and dive unit officers.

Ninety years after the first woman police officer was appointed, Norma Graham because Scotland's first female Chief Constable at Fife Constabulary.

And in 2012, Rose Fitzpatrick was appointed as the first female Deputy Chief Constable of Police Scotland.

Today, there are around 5150 female officers in Police Scotland, making up almost 30% of the 17,500 serving police officers.

One of the trail blazers was Eleanor Dempster who grew up in Knightswood and now lives in East Kilbride.

She joined City of Glasgow Police in 1967 as a woman constable and joined the CID a couple of years later where she worked in the women and children's unit.

Out of the blue, Eleanor was asked to join Avril Dempsey to become the first women officers appointed to the mounted police branch.

Eleanor said: "I had my own horse at the time but didn't immediately say yes but did eventually decide I would go forward for a trial.!

The keen rider completed the necessary training and she and Avril eventually took to the streets of the city.

Eleanor said: "We couldn't move for people wanting to speak to us and take our photographs."

However she found being a women officer on horseback had its advantages when working crowd control at football matches.

Eleanor said: "In those days the crowds at matches could be as big as 60,000 and we tended to have a better rapport with the guys."

She remained with the mounted unit until she left in 1976 to start a family.

However Eleanor did not leave the law and horses behind her as she went on to graduate in law from Glasgow University before returning to work for the police in 1996 as a civilian custody officer.

And at the age of 70, she remains heavily involved with horses and still rides.