Ann Ebsworth

Dame Ann Marian Ebsworth, DBE (19 May 1937 - April 2002) was an English barrister and judge. In 1992, she became the sixth female High Court judge, and the first to be assigned to the Queen's Bench Division.

Ebsworth's father, Arthur Ebsworth, was an officer in the Royal Marines. She was raised as a Roman Catholic [http://www.hcourt.gov.au/speeches/kirbyj/kirbyj_21feb06.pdf] and educated at Notre Dame Convent, Worth, and at Portsmouth High School, and read history at the University of London. She was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1962, where she was later a bencher. She practised mainly in Liverpool, concentrating on criminal work. She became head of her chambers, but did not become a QC.

She became a Recorder in the Crown Court in 1978, and a circuit judge in 1983. She served on the Mental Health Review Tribunal from 1975 to 1983, and on the Parole Board from 1989 to 1992.

She was appointed a High Court judge in 1992, [ [http://www.ginfo.pl/more/307068,Appointment,of,a,High,Court,Judge.html Appointment of a High Court Judge ] ] becoming the sixth female High Court judge after Elizabeth Lane, Rose Heilbron, Margaret Booth, Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and Joyanne Bracewell. All previous female High Court judges were appointed to the Family Division, although many were more experienced in non-family matters.

Ebsworth was the first to be assigned to the Queen's Bench Division, and, the following year, Mary Arden was the first (and only) female High Court judge to be assigned to the Chancery Division. Upon her appointment, as is conventional, Ebsworth was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

In later life, she was involved in teaching advocacy in Gray's Inn and for the South Eastern Circuit, particularly at an annual course at Keble College, Oxford.

She retired in 2001 due to mesothelioma,and died of cancer in 2002, aged 64. She never married.

Legacy

She left £1 million to the Institute of Child Health to fund research under the auspices of the Ann Ebsworth Centre for Childhood Epilepsy, at Great Ormond Street Hospital [ [http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/pressoffice/pressrelease_00050 Press Office Epilepsy chair ] ] . A series of lectures is held annually at the Inner Temple in her memory.

References

External links

* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/04/09/db0902.xml Obituary] , "The Daily Telegraph", 9 April 2002
* [http://www.hcourt.gov.au/speeches/kirbyj/kirbyj_21feb06.pdf First Dame Ann Ebsworth Memorial Lecture] , 21 February 2006 (PDF)
* [http://www.southeastcircuit.org.uk/46/?form_42.replyids=19 Dame Ann Ebsworth Second Memorial Lecture] , 24 January 2007