in the early days of the regiment female members of the royal military police accompanied patrols when available to enable female suspects to be searched. there were never enough of these rmp searchers so in 1973 an act was passed in parliament to recruit women into the regiment. on 16 august 1973 a regular army officer from the women's royal army corps, major eileen tye, took up the post of "commander women" at hqudr. by september 352 women had been enrolled and the first enlistments were carried out at 2 udr's hq in armagh on the 16th. this use of women as an integrated part of the regiment preceded similar usage in the regular army by 20 years, and paved the way for the disbandment of the women's royal army corps in 1992.