Helena Florence Normanton, QC (14 December 1882 – 14 October 1957) was the first female barrister in the United Kingdom. In November 1922, she was the second woman to be called to the Bar of England and Wales, following the example set by Ivy Williams in May 1922. When she married, she kept her surname and in 1924, she was the first British married woman to have a passport in the name she was born with. In October 2021, Normanton was honoured by the installation of an English Heritage blue plaque at her London home in Mecklenburgh Square.
Early life and education
Normanton was born in East London to Jane Amelia (née Marshall) and piano maker William Alexander Normanton. In 1886, when she was just four years old, her father was found dead in a railway tunnel. Her mother, who may already have been separated from her father, a stigmatised position in those days, – letting rooms in the family home in Woolwich to wives of officers, before moving to Brighton to run a grocery and later a boarding house.
In 1896, Normanton won a scholarship to the York Place Science School in Brighton, now known as Varndean School, where she did well, becoming a pupil teacher by the time she left in July 1900. Following her mother's death, she became responsible for supporting her sister and helped to run the family's boarding-house before studying teacher training at Edge Hill College, Liverpool between 1903 and 1905.
She also read modern history at the University of London as an external student, She lectured in history at Glasgow University and London University and began to speak and write about feminist issues. She worked as a tutor to the sons of the Baron de Forest, a Liberal MP. She spoke at meetings of the Women's Freedom League and supported the Indian National Congress. Normanton recognised this situation as a form of sex discrimination and wished to help all women gain access to the law, which at the time was a profession only open to men.
Normanton reapplied on 24 December 1919, within hours of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 coming into force, and was admitted to the Middle Temple.
She was the second woman to be called to the bar on 17 November 1922, shortly after Ivy Williams. She was the first woman to obtain a divorce for her client, the first woman to lead the prosecution in a murder trial, and the first woman to conduct a trial in America and to appear at the High Court and the Old Bailey. In 1949, along with Rose Heilbron, she was one of the first two women King's Counsel at the English Bar. Normanton kept her name after she married in 1921.
She acted as the Honorary Legal Adviser for the Women's Engineering Society from 1936 until 1954, succeeding Theodora Llewelyn Davies in the role.
She campaigned for divorce reform, and was president of the Married Women's Association until 1952, when the other officials resigned over her memorandum of evidence to the Royal Commission on Divorce, which they regarded as 'anti-man'. Normanton formed a breakaway body, the Council of Married Women.
Personal life
Normanton was married to Gavin Bowman Watson Clark, an accountant. They lived in London. In 2015, the Helena Normanton Society was formed in her honour at the University of Sussex,
The archives of Helena Normanton are held at The Women's Library at the Library of The London School of Economics, ref 7HLN
In February 2019, 218 Strand Chambers rebranded as Normanton Chambers in her honour. This is the first instance of a barristers' chambers being named after a woman.
In 2020 barrister Karlia Lykourgou set up the first legal outfitter dedicated to offering courtwear for women, as much of the existing provision was impractical and uncomfortable. She named it Ivy & Normanton, in honour of Ivy Williams, the first woman to be called to the Bar in May 1922, and Helena Normanton.
In April 2021 English Heritage announced that Normanton was one of six women whom they were honouring with a Blue plaque, marking where she lived from 1919 to 1931 during the early part of her legal career. Normanton's nomination was made by women barristers at Doughty Street Chambers. The plaque was unveiled by Brenda Hale, the first female head of the Supreme Court on the wall of 22 Mecklenburgh Square in October 2021.
In June 2022, Normanton was honoured with a blue plaque at 4 Clifton Place, Brighton where she lived as a teenager in the 1890s, following a campaign by teenage Brighton twins, after they learned of Normanton in a school project.