Ivy Williams

Who was Ivy Williams?

Dr. Ivy Williams was the first woman to be called to the English bar in 1922. Frances Kyle was called to the Irish bar in November 1921, on the same day as Averill Deverell; Ethel Benjamin became a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand in 1897, a few months after Clara Brett Martin in Canada.

Williams was born in Newton Abbot in Devon and educated privately. Her father was a solicitor. Her brother became a barrister, but was killed during the First World War.

She studied law at the Society of Oxford Home Students. By 1903, she had completed all her law examinations, but was prevented by the prevailing regulations concerning the qualification of women at Oxford from matriculating or receiving her BA, MA and BCL until the regulations were reformed in 1920. She obtained an LLD from London in 1903.

After the Sex Disqualification Act 1919 came into force in December 1919 and abolished the prohibition on women becoming barristers, she joined the Inner Temple as a student on 26 January 1920. She was called to the bar on 10 May 1922, having received a certificate of honour in her final bar examination in Michaelmas 1921 which excused her from keeping two terms of dinners. Her call to the bar was described by the Law Journal as "one of the most memorable days in the long annals of the legal profession". She was soon followed by other women, including Helena Normanton.