Helena Normanton

Helena Florence Normanton, who lived from December 14, 1882, to October 14, 1957, was the first woman to practice as a barrister in England, becoming the second woman called to the English bar in November 1922, shortly after Ivy Williams. Over her career she became the first woman to secure a divorce for a client, the first woman to lead the prosecution in a murder trial, the first woman to conduct a trial in the United States, and the first woman to appear as counsel at both the High Court and the Old Bailey. In 1949 she and Rose Heilbron became the first two women appointed King's Counsel in England. Normanton kept her maiden name after marrying in 1921, and in 1924 became the first married British woman issued a passport in her maiden name. Alongside her legal career she was a committed advocate for women's suffrage, divorce law reform and nuclear disarmament.