Dame Margaret Myfanwy Wood Booth, DBE (11 September 1933 – 1 January 2021) was a British

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

Education and career

Her father was told by a cousin in the early 1950s, "Don’t put your daughter in to law; there is no place for women in the law” but the family ignored this and Margaret Booth was called to the Bar in 1956 after studying law at University College London, having won a scholarship from Middle Temple. In 1976 she took silk, becoming only the tenth woman appointed a Queen’s Counsel. In January 1979, she became the third woman to be appointed as a High Court judge. Like her predecessors,

Elizabeth Lane Dame Elizabeth Kathleen Lane, DBE (née Coulborn; 9 August 1905 – 17 June 1988) was an English barrister and judge. She was the first woman appointed as a judge in the County Court, the first female High Court judge in England, and the firs ...

and Rose Heilbron, she was assigned to the Family Division. In 1980, she chaired a committee that unanimously called for no-fault divorce, yet the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill only reached the House of Lords in the days following her death. She retired from judicial office in 1994. She was awarded an honorary LLD by the University of Liverpool in 1992, and served as the Vice-President of its Council from 1996 to 1999. She became a fellow of University College, London in 1992. She was president of the National Family and Parenting Institute in which role she was deeply critical of the way in which family courts fell short of the mark, considering Britain to be decades behind other countries. From 2004 she was President of the

Family and Parenting Institute The Family and Parenting Institute is an independent charity that exists to make the UK a better place for families and children. It works with charities, businesses and public services to offer practical help to families. Its campaigns and research ...

, having been Chairman from 1999–2004. Dame Margaret Booth died on 1 January 2021.Booth
/ref>

Personal life

Booth married twice, her second husband Peter Gluksman, died in 2002. Booth was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease later in life.

References

Senior Judiciary List
from the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary 1933 births English women judges Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire People associated with the University of Liverpool Family Division judges 2021 deaths {{UK-law-bio-stub