Beatrice Honour Davy

Beatrice Honour Davy (13 December 1885 – 18 April 1966) was a British barrister and later solicitor in the first British law firm run exclusively by women. In 1937 she became the first woman qualified to practice as a solicitor in both England and Scotland.

Beatrice Honour Davy
Born13 December 1885
Exeter
Died18 April 1966 (1966-04-19) (aged 80)
Woodmancote
NationalityUnited Kingdom
EducationKing’s College, London
Occupationbarrister and later solicitor
Known forearly woman lawyer

Life

Davy was born in Exeter in 1885. Her father was a physician and the Sheriff of Exeter in 1887 and he was Sir Henry Davy after the war when he was knighted for his work. Her mother was a solicitor's daughter Beatrice Mary (born Tucker) who was her father's first wife as she died in 1906.[1]

During the first world war her only brother was killed and she assisted Dame Georgina Buller in organising the Devon Group of War Hospitals.[2]

The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act was passed in 1919 allowing women to be lawyers and in 1921 she graduated from King’s College, London with a LLB law degree. She became a student member of the Middle Temple on 24 January 1920.[3] In 17 December 1922 she was admitted to the Middle Temple among the first eight women to be allowed entry.[4] In 1923, she was the first woman to be a barrister at the Devon Assizes in Exeter.[2] She won the divorce case for the abandoned husband in Weber v. Weber & Payne. Three years later she joined The Inner Temple, ad eundem.[4]

Davy practised law in London in the first British law firm run exclusively by women, with legal partner Edith Annie Berthen in 1931[4] Later Madge Easton Anderson was articled to that firm.[5] Anderson would become the first woman qualified to practice as a solicitor in both England and Scotland in 1937 and in the same year she would become a partner in Berthen's and Davy's law firm.[4]

Davy practised law until 1951.[4] She died in Woodmancote in 1966. She left her estate to a friend, Elizabeth Hunt.[3]

References
  1. "Sir Henry Davy | RCP Museum". history.rcplondon.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  2. "ExeterMemories - Southernhay House Hotel". www.exetermemories.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  3. "Davy, Beatrice Honour (1885–1966), barrister and later solicitor". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.111933. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. "Beatrice Davy | Inner Temple". 2019-12-10. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  5. "Anderson, Madge Easton". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.111935. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
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