Wayward drunks, murderers and lost children were all in a day’s work for Linda McKenna, who has died aged 98.

Mrs McKenna was the last matron to work with the former Bradford City Police.

She spent 13 years based in the cells at City Hall giving help when needed to criminals and victims alike.

She was born and grew up in the Manchester Road area working in textiles and munitions during the war.

After she was widowed she took up the job as matron, juggling her job with raising two daughters, Doreen and Margaret.

During her time with the police she never broke anyone’s confidentiality, not even to her closest family.

But when she finally retired aged 62 after a short stint as a courtroom usher, she eventually shared some of her experiences from the cells.

Daughter Doreen, who is 79 and lives in Thackley, said: “She had her own room near the cells. She used to get a lot of lost children to look after until they finally rumbled parents were coming into town and doing a bit of shopping or going for a pint and packing their kids off to her until they’d finished.

“If there were men in custody and their wives were in labour, she’d have to go and pick up the rest of their kids and bring them back to the station until other family could take care of them.

“Drunks who’d been fighting were always coming in. She’d have to go up to the BRI with them and get their cuts stitched up.

“She met a few murderers in her time, there was one who had hit someone over the head with a jar of sixpences.

“She’d chaperone women to the women’s prison if they were sent down, and on a Sunday she’d cook lunch for any prisoners who were in the cells – it was usually tongue pie.”

Mrs McKenna, who lived at Knowles Court in Holme Wood until she died peacefully on September 7, was also a grandmother, great-grandma and great-greatgrandma who treasured her family – and the occasional game of bingo, said Mrs Marshall.

Her funeral will be at the private chapel of Edwin Pounds & Sons, New Line, Greengates on Monday, September 20, at 10am, before burial at Bowling Cemetery.

Donations will be collected in her memory for the British Heart Foundation.