FEATURE
Trailblazer Averil Deverell (1893-1979) was the first woman called to the Irish Bar, and led the way for future generations of women lawyers in Ireland.
Vanessa Curley and Sarah Foley, Assistant Librarians, the Law Library
On November 1, 1921, history was made at the Irish Bar. It was the first call of the newly fledged Irish Free State, the first to occur after partition and the division of the island of Ireland into two jurisdictions, and the first to see women called to The Bar of Ireland. One of those women was Averil Deverell, a remarkable personality who would go on to carve out a place at the Irish Bar for future generations of women lawyers.
Early life Averil Katherine Statter Deverell and her twin brother, Captain William Deverell, were born in Greystones on January 2, 1893. The only daughter of William Deverell, a Clerk for the Crown and Peace of County Wicklow, and Ada Kate Statter Carr, the daughter of a wealthy London solicitor, she grew up in a family familiar with the ways of the legal world. As a child Averil attended the ‘French School’ in Bray, where young Protestant ladies from all over Ireland were educated. While at school, she indulged a
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love of theatre and acting, no doubt honing skills that would stand her in good stead in the courtroom. She began her undergraduate studies in Trinity College Dublin in 1911, the same year she was presented at court in Dublin Castle to King George V, and went on to receive an LLB in 1915. At this time there was a world war raging across Europe in which Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom, was a participant. Averil had been encouraged by her father to learn to drive as a teenager, and she decided to use this skill and apply to the Queen Alexandra First Aid Nurse Yeomanry for a position as ambulance driver on the Front. Initially, she had to pass a driving test in London, which she did, but because she was unable to “re-assemble a dismantled engine” they refused her entry. This stipulation was revoked six months later and Averil drove with the ambulance corps, serving in France from July to December 1918.
Entry into the legal profession On December 23, 1919, the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act became law. It did not lead to the full emancipation of women within society; there were still restrictions on women entering the civil service, on their voting entitlements, and on the types of juries they could serve on. It was, however, an important step towards providing a public space for women to engage in professions they were previously excluded from. Prior to the passing of the Act, women had made attempts to enter the legal profession, applying to the Law Society of Ireland and the Honorable Society of King's Inns, but were repeatedly excluded, although no law formally forbade their inclusion. This
