Celebrating a Century of Women at The Inner Temple

‘The law will not suffer women to be attorneys, nor infants nor serfs’ stated a medieval treaty written by an unknown person, but despite its inaccuracies and legal fictions, it was used as a weapon to deny women entry to the legal profession until the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919. Three key moments in the collective histories of the “Inns of Court” mark the fearfulness of established barristers in admitting women: Gray’s Inn’s rejection of Bertha Cave’s application in 1903, Lincoln’s Inn’s rejection of Christabel Pankhurst in 1904 and Middle Temple’s rejection of Helena Normanton’s request for admission in 1918. Women’s entry signalled change and competition to an established order. May 1922 finally saw a woman called to the Bar, Dr Ivy Williams at The Inner Temple. Women’s formal entry was secured, but substantive discrimination continues to this day.

It was used as a weapon to deny women entry to the legal profession.

The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 was hard fought for by the women’s movement. The first evidence we have of an organised campaign challenging the male exclusivity of the legal profession was in 1873, when Maria Grey, an educationalist and suffragist, organised a petition demanding the right to attend lectures arranged by the Council of Legal Education, which was rejected. A more indirect challenge was made in 1860 by Maria Rye (friend of Grey), who opened a law stationer’s office to train female legal clerks. So did Eliza Orme, who managed to practise law without being professionally qualified. Daughter of suffragists, friend of John Stuart Mill (MP, philosopher and advocate of women’s rights, later husband to Harriet Mill – suffrage campaigner and whose daughter, Helen Taylor, paid for Orme to become a pupil). Orme was the first woman to graduate with an LLB in 1888 and opened a law office, where she worked for twenty-five years as a quasi-lawyer, Orme’s life illustrates the anomaly facing women: they could complete law degrees, which technically exempted them from certain parts of the professional exams and yet could not enter the legal profession. Miss Day also sought an indirect method of practising law in 1891, by attempting to become a licensed conveyancer ‘under the Bar’ and was rejected.

Others took a more direct course of action, such as 18-year-old Margaret Hall, who in 1900 applied and was refused permission to sit the Scottish solicitors’ preliminary exam. At court she declared not to be a person for the purposes of the legislation. Later in 1903 a servant’s daughter, Bertha Cave, also made a direct challenge by applying to join Gray’s Inn and was rejected, despite being supported by two Masters. Her later appeal was heard (and rejected) in the House of Lords, when she appeared as a litigant in person before a formidable group of judges.

The following month Cave appeared with Christabel Pankhurst in a debate demanding women’s admission to the legal profession and later, a dinner in her honour was held by the “Women and Local Government Society”, in which Lady Strachey presided. This was Lady Jane Maria Strachey, suffragist, disciple of Mills, and friend of Millicent Fawcett (member and leader of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies – NUWSS). Her daughterin-law was Ray Strachey, whose sister was Karin Costello (one of the litigants in Bebb v Law Society [1914] 1 Ch 286). Ray Strachey attended Cambridge in 1908. Her sister-in-law was Philippa Strachey, feminist organiser and NUWSS member. So, Cave was an accepted part of a network of feminist organisations.

The month after Cave’s hearing, Christabel Pankhurst, of Women’s Social and Political Union fame, applied to join Lincoln’s Inn and was rejected (despite support from Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy). Daughter of a barrister, Pankhurst graduated from Manchester University with a Law degree in 1906.

This was Lady Jane Maria Strachey, suffragist, disciple of Mills, and friend of Millicent Fawcett. Christabel Pankhurst, of Women’s Social and Political Union fame, applied to join Lincoln’s Inn and was rejected.

Ten years later four women would bring the infamous Bebb litigation, demanding to sit the solicitor’s preliminary exam. This case would be used as a precedent to deny women entry to the legal profession until 1919. The Bebb litigants announced their intended legal action at a dinner in March 1913. Speeches were given by many, such as, Holford Knight MP (friend and supporter to Normanton) and Chrystal MacMillan (suffrage campaigner). Stanley Buckmaster KC appeared for Gwyneth Marjory Bebb, and they appeared before Joyce J, who was at Cave’s hearing. The litigants were all Oxbridge graduates and one of them would become a solicitor at the same time as Morrison. Everyone was interconnected. Buckmaster later, in February 1919, introduced the Barristers’ and Solicitors’ Bill, which would have allowed women into the legal profession. Whilst it passed through the Lords, it was considered unnecessary by the government because of the passage of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Bill.

Helena Normanton made history by becoming the first woman to be admitted to an Inn of Court on Christmas Eve 1919 and there were other ‘firsts’, for example: Olive Clapham (first woman to pass the Bar Finals), Dr Ivy Williams (first woman to be called to the Bar at The Inner Temple), Monica Geike Cobb (first woman to practise at the Bar), not to mention Averil Deverill and Frances Kyle called to the Dublin Bar in 1921.

Whilst we celebrate women’s achievements we should pause to reflect on the ‘supportive’ men who fought alongside would be women barristers because there were many. Together both men and women enabled women to enter the legal profession in 1919. For example, Edward Bell offered Miss Bebb articles to support her litigation, Buckmaster KC represented Miss Bebb at her trial, and Mr Withers was Bebb’s instructing solicitor. Likewise, Buckmaster (MP, later Lord Chancellor and peer) had always been committed to opening the legal profession to women, and he introduced two bills to Parliament: the 1917 Solicitors’ (Qualification of Women) bill, and the 1919 Barristers’ and Solicitors’ (Qualification of Women) bill. Other men also tried to introduce enabling legislation to Parliament, but ‘failed’: Lord Wolmer, Jack Hills MP, Benjamin Spoor MP, and Lord Cecil. Holford Knight MP and KC supplied Helena Normanton with a reference for her Middle Temple application, and both in 1913 and 1917, proposed motions to the Bar Council to admit women, which were rejected.

Samuel Garrett, solicitor and brother to physician Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Millicent Fawcett, was chair of the Committee to open the legal profession to women. Cecil Chapman, a London Magistrate, was chairman of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage, until his employers, the Home Office, forced him to stand down.

Ivy Williams did not practise law, but her Call to the Bar blazed a trail for other women to follow, and this volume will demonstrate how far we have come in just 100 years.

Dr Judith Bourne

Professor, St. Mary’s University

Ivy Williams did not practise law, but her Call to the Bar blazed a trail for other women to follow.