Page 112 - GAHS Journal Volume 9

A QUIET WOMAN?

According to Averil, it
was her father who
encouraged her to train as a
barrister. It must also have
been good to have her twin
brother alongside her for
part of the way, even if he
never went into practice.
But it seems hard to believe
that she did not derive
support and, possibly,
inspiration from other male
relatives, and the numerous
lawyers in Greystones.
Most significantly, she had
a close relationship with her
paternal uncle George
Wallace, an English barrister
in London. In an extra-
ordinary genetic double
first, his daughter Naomi
Constance was to become
one of the first women at
the English Bar in 1922.

Her war service stood
her in good stead as King’s Inns gave her exemptions from part
of the qualifying training, (just as they did for the returning men).
Lectures, dining requirements and exams over, by January 1922
she was in the cramped confines of the Law Library, the place of
work for all barristers.

In 1928 she scored another notable milestone - the first
woman barrister to get a much coveted ‘red bag’ to carry her

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