• Lois Hancock

    Lois Hancock, formerly Lois Shawyer, died on the 5th April 2009 at the age of 102. She was a tribute to the legal profession, the first woman solicitor in [...]

  • Edith Hesling

    My great-grandmother’s life was a series of firsts for the female legal profession. Beginning her career as the first woman called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn, being the first [...]

  • Her Honour Myrella Cohen QC

    The third woman judge and fifth woman QC in the country, through the eyes of her friend and fellow judge Her Honour Dawn Freedman Perhaps the quality I most associate [...]

  • May Doris Charity Taylor

    May Doris Charity Taylor (nee Clifford) was the first female prison governor in England and Wales. Born in Woking, Surrey, on 16th September 1914, Taylor qualified in medicine at the [...]

  • Mary Donaldson

    Dorothy Mary Donaldson was the first female Lord Mayor of London. Dorothy Mary Donaldson, The Lady Donaldson of Lymington, previously known as Dame Mary Donaldson, was born in Wickham, Hampshire, [...]

  • Elsie Bowerman

    Elsie Bowerman was called to the Bar in 1924, two years after Ivy Williams became the first woman called. She was also a suffragette, a Titanic survivor, and barrister. [...]

  • Chrystal Macmillan

    Jessie Chrystal Macmillan was a Scottish feminist, barrister and politician. She was the first female science graduate from the University of Edinburgh, the first woman to plead a case [...]

  • Dorothy Knight Dix

    Dorothy Knight Dix was the first woman to sit as recorder for a jury trial and was only the second woman to be appointed to the County Court bench, [...]

  • Averil Deverell

    Averil Katherine Statter Deverell was one of the first women, along with Frances Kyle, to be admitted to the bar in Ireland on November 1st 1921. It was almost a [...]

  • Elizabeth Lane DBE

    Elizabeth Lane DBE was an English barrister and judge. She was the first woman appointed as a judge in the County Court, and the first female High Court judge [...]

  • Professor Frances Moran

    Professor Frances Elizabeth Moran was the first female law lecturer in Ireland, the first female Regius Professor at Trinity College, Dublin and the first woman to take silk in [...]

  • Frances Kyle

    Frances Kyle was one of the first women, along with Averil Deverell, to be admitted to the bar in Ireland on November 1st, 1921. They were among the first [...]

  • Georgina Frost

    Georgina “Georgie” Frost was the first woman to hold public office in the UK and Ireland. Born on the 29th December 1879 in Sixmilebridge, County Clare, Georgie was one [...]

  • Constance Markievicz

    The ‘rebel Countess’ Constance Markievicz née Gore-Booth was an Irish revolutionary, founding member of the Irish Citizen Army, suffragette and the first woman elected to the British House of [...]

  • Margaret Kidd

    Margaret Kidd was the first female member of the Faculty of Advocates and remained the only female advocate in Scotland for over 25 years. She was also the first female [...]