Olive Catherine Clapham (married name Miles; 21 January 1898 – 7 March 1973) was a British

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

. She was the first woman pass the bar finals examinations in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

Biography

Clapham was born on 21 January 1898 in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

, Yorkshire, England, to a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

family. Her mother, Catherine Clapham (née Gill; 1862–1951), had been a schoolmistress and her father, Walter Clapham (1858–1902), was a printer, part proprietor of the Wakefield Free Press, and a Liberal councillor. Following the death of her father, the family moved to

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually shortened to Hull, is a historic maritime city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Est ...

to live with her paternal aunt. She was educated at the French Convent School in Hull run by canonesses of St Augustine. She also studied at the Hull and East Riding College of Music. In October 1916, Clapham registered as a member of the Society of Oxford Home Students (this would later become

St Anne's College, Oxford St Anne's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. ...

). She lived in the St Frideswide hostel for Roman Catholic women students. She studied English Literature, before switching to

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

in the second year. As such, she became one of only three female law students at the university. She achieved

second-class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

in her final exams in 1919, but women were not yet allowed to graduate from the University of Oxford. She then went on to study for the

post-graduate Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

Bachelor of Civil Law Bachelor of Civil Law (abbreviated BCL or B.C.L.; ) is the name of various degrees in law conferred by English-language universities. The BCL originated as a postgraduate degree in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge; at Oxford, the BCL contin ...

(BCL) degree, achieving third-class honours in June 1920. With women having been allowed to join the University of Oxford in 1920, she

matriculated Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term ''matriculation'' is seldom used now ...

on 30 October 1920 and graduated with her

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) degree the same day. On 28 June 1923, she graduated with her BCL degree and, as per tradition, had her BA promoted to a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(MA Oxon) degree. The

Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexual reproduction, sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an o ...

allowed for women to become legal professionals, and Clapham was admitted to

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

, one of the Inns of Courts, on 17 January 1920 while still studying for her BCL degree. In May 1921, she became the first woman to pass the bar finals examinations, thereby qualifying as a barrister in

. She was not, however, the first woman

call to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call t ...

(this was Ivy Williams in May 1922), and it was incorrectly reported at the time that she was the first woman barrister. Having fulfilled the required dining terms at Middle Temple, Clapham was called to the bar on 17 November 1924. The details of her practice are not known, but when she emigrated to

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

on 31 December 1926, she gave her profession as "barrister". In Ceylon, Clapham married George Cockburn Miles (1898–1980), a member of the

Ceylon Civil Service The Ceylon Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym CCS, was the premier civil service of the Government of Ceylon under British colonial rule and in the immediate post-independence period. Established in 1833, it functioned as part of th ...

. Together they had five children: four sons (born 1928, 1929, 1933, and 1936), and one daughter (born 1943). They returned to England in 1935. She died on 7 March 1973 of heart disease in

Aldbury Aldbury () is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, near the borders of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire in the Bulbourne valley of the Chiltern Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The nearest towns are Tring and Be ...

, Hertfordshire, England.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clapham, Olive Catherine 1898 births 1973 deaths British barristers 20th-century British lawyers 20th-century British women lawyers British emigrants to Sri Lanka People from Wakefield People from Kingston upon Hull British Roman Catholics Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford Members of the Middle Temple