Helen Stalford

Women and Law at Liverpool in the 20th Century

In 1913, Walter Lyon Blease published his ‘The Emancipation of English Women’. During this period, he frequently gave public talks up and down the country supporting the suffragette movement. Lyon Blease had joined the Faculty of Law as a lecturer in 1910 and was appointed to the Queen Victoria Chair in Law in 1919. The monograph and speeches may have helped to encourage applications from prospective female undergraduate students to Liverpool’s Faculty of Law. A good number went on to excel in their chosen profession.

Dr Mary Selina Share-Jones graduated with an LL.B. on the 4th July 1914. She was one of three women who were the first to be admitted as student member of Gray’s Inn. She was not called to the Bar. Instead, she became a medical doctor. She went on to graduate with an M.B. and Ch.B. in 1920 and with an M.D. in 1930. Dr. Share-Jones died in January 1954.

Hilda Elsie Boyars graduated with an LL.B. in 1932. She had been the only female in her class and went on to work at Midland Bank as a clerk.

 

Rose Heilbron

Dame Rose Heilbron

 

Perhaps the most famous of our Liverpool LL.B. graduates from this period is Dame Rose Heilbron, who graduated with her LL.B. in 1935 and LL.M. in 1937 before going on to forge a highly successful career as a barrister and judge. She had a ‘life full of firsts.’ Dame Rose was the first woman: (1) to obtain a first-class LL.B. at Liverpool, (2) with Helena Normanton to take Silk in 1949, (3) to lead in a murder trial, (4) to plead a case before the House of Lords, (5) to be appointed a Recorder, (6) to sit as a Commissioner of Assize, (7) to sit at the Central Criminal Court, (8) to be elected Leader of a Circuit (Northern Circuit, 1973/74), (9) to be a Treasurer of any Inn of Court, (10) to be appointed a Presiding Judge of a Circuit (Northern Circuit 1979/82). Her daughter and biographer, Hilary Heilbron KC, followed in her mother’s footsteps.

More recently, the ‘Steel Sisters’ both became judges in Her Majesty’s courts, like their Circuit Judge father before them. Her Honour Judge Elizabeth Steel graduated from Liverpool in 1958. After qualifying and practicing as a solicitor, she went on to become a Circuit Judge in 1991. Her sister went further up the judicial hierarchy, becoming Mrs Justice Heather Steel in 1993. Dame Heather graduated from Liverpool with an LL.B. In the 1960s, having engaged with Student Guild activities, including appearing in a production of ‘Pantopera’. Dame Heather was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1963. She practiced on the Northern Circuit, joining Chambers at 14 Cook Street. She became a Recorder in 1986 and then a Circuit Judge. In 1993 she was elevated to the High Court Bench, sitting in the Queen’s Bench Division.

 

Debra Morris

Professor Debra Morris

 

We also have a number of female LL.B. graduates who went on to become law professors, including here in the School of Law and Social Justice. These include former Dean of the School, Professor Debra Morris, and Head of Department Professor Helen Stalford (pictured at top). Both are international authorities in their respective fields of charity law and children’s rights.

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