In 1915 the NSW Police Department advertised for two female special constable positions. Around 400 women applied, with the successful applicants being Maude Rhodes (an inspector for the State Children Relief Department) and Lillian Armfield (a nurse at Callan Park Mental Hospital). At the time there were 2,661 police officers in the NSW force. Rhodes and Armfield were not only the first women employed as police officers in NSW, but also the first in Australia.
This register is not dissimilar to the modern day television program Missing Persons Unit. Just like today, people did go missing during the early days of the colony. With limited resources, investigations on missing persons were carried out and this register is a record of the process.
In the Police Service Registers John Vance Blain is listed as a Foot Police officer (not Mounted Police), born in Ireland in 1850. He was 5 feet 11 and a half inches tall with blue eyes, fair hair, and a fair complexion.