Grantham is a market town within the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Located along the course of the River Witham, twenty-four miles (39 km) to the south-southwest of the city of Lincoln, it has a total resident population of 34,592.[citation needed] in around 18,000 households, including the village of Great Gonerby.
The town is best known as the birthplace and childhood home of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and as the place where Isaac Newton went to school. The town is situated within short walking distance of an ancient Roman road, and was the scene of Oliver Cromwell's first advantage over Royalists during the English Civil War at Gonerby Moor. Grantham is also notable for having the first female police officers in the United Kingdom, who began their role together on November 27, 1914, during the First World War. Miss Mary Allen and Miss E. F. Harburn reported for duty on the beat.[1] Mary Allen was a former suffragette and had been previously arrested outside the House of Commons and later went on to be the commandant of the UK's women's police force from the 1920s up to 1940. She helped to set up women's police forces in other countries, including Germany. Edith Smith became the first female with powers of arrest in August 1915
