Averil Deverell

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Averil Katherine Statter Deverell (2 January 1893 – 11 February 1979) was one of the first two women barristers in all of Great Britain and Ireland.

Biography[]

Deverell was born on 2 January 1893 in Dublin to William Deverell and Ada Kate Statter Carr.[1] Her father was a solicitor who would become Clerk of the Crown and Peace for County Wicklow, and her mother was the daughter of a London solicitor. She had a twin brother, William Berenger Statter Deverell (1893–1966), who also became a barrister.[2] Her cousin, Naomi Constance Wallace (1891–1980), would be called to the bar at the Middle Temple a year after Deverell, in November 1922. Growing up in Greystones, she was taught by her governess until she attended the , while socialising with Irish aristocracy at home.

Deverell attended Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), in 1911, a few years after it opened its doors to women in 1904, and was awarded an LLB in 1915.[3] She joined Trinity’s St John Ambulance VAD unit in 1912 and drove an ambulance in France during the First World War from July to December 1918.[2] When the law changed in 1919 to allow women to become barristers, she and Frances Kyle read for the bar at the King's Inns.[2][4] She was given an exemption from the full requirements because of her service during the war.[2]

When she and Frances Kyle were called to the bar on 1 November 1921, the admission of two women made international headlines.[1][5] As she was called to the bar in November 1921, which pre-dated the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and her first case being in January 1922 before the treaty was implemented, she was officially the first woman to act as a barrister in the entire United Kingdom, as all of Ireland remained within the United Kingdom until 6 December 1922.[1]

In January 1922, Deverell joined the Law Library of the Four Courts, where she was the only woman until the arrival of Mary Dillon-Leetch in June 1923. The Library was heavily damaged during the Irish Civil War and was relocated to Dublin Castle until 1931. As a financial supplement to her work, she bought a cairn terrier with her first fee, and went on to set up a kennels, becoming a breeder of the dogs.[1] Deverell was the first woman to appear in the Supreme Court of Ireland and the Court of Criminal Appeal in Ireland.[3] In 1928, she became the first Irish female barrister to appear before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) in London.[2]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Goldthrope, Liz (15 February 2018). "Deverell, Averil Katherine Statter (1893–1979)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e Goldthorpe, Liz. "Averil Deverell". Inner Temple.
  3. ^ a b First 100 Years, https://first100years.org.uk/averil-deverell/, Accessed 15 June 2018
  4. ^ "Trove belonging to Averil Deverell, Ireland's first female barrister, is saved". The Irish Times. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  5. ^ Harford, Judith; Rush, Claire (2010). Have Women Made a Difference?: Women in Irish Universities, 1850-2010. Peter Lang. ISBN 9783034301169.

External links[]

Poem: In the Four Courts

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