24 Facts About Ellice Eadie

Ellice Aylmer Eadie was an Irish-born English barrister and civil servant.

Ellice Eadie was called to the bar in 1937 and joined the Board of Trade's solicitor department nine years later.

Ellice Eadie drafted laws and rules for the Supreme Court and was the first woman Standing Counsel to the General Synod of the Church of England.

Ellice Eadie was taught at Cheltenham Ladies' College, and began reading law at St Hugh's College, Oxford in 1931.

Ellice Eadie was taught by the university's first female law professor Agnes Headlam-Morley, and was awarded the Winter Williams law scholarship in the 1933 Michaelmas term.

In 1934, Ellice Eadie earned her first class Bachelor of Arts degree and a first-class Bachelor of Civil Law degree in 1935.

Ellice Eadie took the first section of the bar examination in December 1935, earning a first in constitutional law, elements of contract law and tort law and legal history.

Ellice Eadie was second in criminal law and procedure and put into the first class of the final bar examinations, earning the three-year Lord Justice Holker senior scholarship.

Ellice Eadie was called to the bar by Gray's Inn on 26 January 1937 and was given the three-year Arden Scholarship.

Ellice Eadie gave tuition to women law students at Oxford and was a pupil of Lincoln's Inn's Milner Holland and Richard Lee Metcalfe; she remained with Holland as his "devil" after completing her pupilage.

In October 1939, Ellice Eadie joined the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury, becoming assistant to Harold Kent, the future Treasury Solicitor.

Ellice Eadie remained in the position for two years before joining the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in 1941.

Ellice Eadie left the WAAF as a flight officer in 1946 and joined the Board of Trade's solicitor's department that same year.

From 1960 to 1965, Ellice Eadie drafted the Supreme Court rules, produced the matrimonial causes rules, and revised the White Book on Supreme Court rules.

Ellice Eadie was appointed the CBE in 1965, and was attached to the Law Commission between 1965 and 1969, bringing about the passage of the Matrimonial Homes Act 1967 to protect the non-owning wife's right to stay in the matrimonial house and the Divorce Reform Act 1969 that aimed to radically reform divorce law.

In 1968, Ellice Eadie was promoted to Parliamentary Counsel, the first woman to hold the position.

Ellice Eadie drafted the Family Law Reform Act 1969, which lowered the age of majority from 21 to 18, introduced blood testing to establish disputed paternity.

Ellice Eadie later drafted the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act 1970 that brought about improved support for a divorced spouse.

Ellice Eadie worked on the Law Reform Act 1970, the Highways, Licensing, and Attachment of Earnings Acts 1971, Superannuation, Affiliation Proceedings, and Maintenance Orders Acts 1972 and the Friendly Societies Act 1974.

Ellice Eadie was made the first female Standing Counsel to the General Synod of the Church of England and drafted the Ecclesiastical Offices Measure of 1974 to require bishops in the Church of England and their counterparts to retire at age 70.

Ellice Eadie drafted the Patronage Measure of 1976, which modernised the process in which the successors of bishops were appointed.

Ellice Eadie formally retired in 1978 but remained busy as a church worker and treasurer of London's New Cavendish Club.

Ellice Eadie married the Canadian-born John Harold Ward Ellice Eadie on 4 December 1946 and he predeceased her in 1995.

Ellice Eadie moved to the Flowerdown Nursing Home, Winchester due to frailness in her final years, and died there from bronchopneumonia and cerebrovascular disease on 31 March 2001.