14 Facts About Elizabeth Lane

Dame Elizabeth Kathleen Lane, DBE was an English barrister and judge.

Elizabeth Lane was the first woman appointed as a judge in the County Court, the first female High Court judge in England, and the first female bencher.

Elizabeth Lane was educated at home and lived with her family in Switzerland for a year immediately before the outbreak of the First World War.

Elizabeth Lane spent time with her brother in Montreal in 1924, where she met Randall Lane.

Elizabeth Lane became a student member of the Inner Temple in November 1937 and she was called to the bar in summer 1940.

Elizabeth Lane completed her pupillage with Geoffrey Howard as her supervisor and began practising on the Midland Circuit, specialising in civil work.

Elizabeth Lane was appointed King's Counsel in 1950, the third female KC in England after Rose Heilbron and Helena Normanton took silk the previous year.

Elizabeth Lane was Assistant Recorder of Birmingham from 1953 to 1961, when she served as Chairman of the Mental Health Tribunals in 1960 and Commissioner of the Crown at Manchester in 1961.

Elizabeth Lane was made a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1966, becoming the first female bencher of any Inn of Court.

Elizabeth Lane's husband became legal adviser to the British Council and died in 1975.

Elizabeth Lane continued to sit on the Court of Appeal from time to time and became an honorary member of the Western Circuit.

Elizabeth Lane became an honorary fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge in 1986.

Elizabeth Lane wrote an autobiography, Hear the Other Side, which was published in 1985.

Elizabeth Lane died in Winchester on 17 June 1988, aged 82.