Marjorie Powell

First woman to be admitted to Lincoln’s Inn

(1893-1939)

On 16 January 1920 Marjorie Powell was the first woman to be admitted to Lincoln’s Inn, under a month after the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 receiving Royal Assent.

Marjorie Powell was born on 5 October 1893, in Marchamley in rural Shropshire a few miles from Market Drayton to Thomas (1866-1927) and Sarah Powell (1867-1941). Her father was a tenant farmer on the Hawkestone Estate and in 1926 he went on to purchase the freehold of his farm and a number of sub-let properties totalling over 500 acres, much of which is still in the family today. She had one brother, John Dare Powell (1891-1983) who farmed the family holding until his retirement in the 1960s. Powell attended the independent Orme Girl’s School in Newcastle-under-Lyme going on to Newham College, Cambridge in 1912 where she gained first-class honours in the Economics tripos. She went on to a teaching position and lectured in Economics at Queen’s University, Belfast between 1916-1918, clearly an interesting time to be in Ireland. In 1918 Powell returned to England and a post as an assistant lecturer in Political Economy at Victoria University, Manchester, now the University of Manchester.

Powell was never called to the Bar to practice law as she continued her academic life teaching and writing on Economics. In 1921 the now Mrs Robinson (Powell having married notable physicist and fellow Manchester lecturer, Harold Robinson (1889-1955), in 1920) took a post at the two women’s colleges, Newnham and Girton, in Cambridge. She wrote a book in the Cambridge Economics Series, entitled Public Finance, published by the Cambridge University Press in 1922, with a foreword by John Maynard Keynes. Mrs Robinson was the Director of Newnham College Cambridge during the years 1933-1938 but had re-located to London in 1930 when her husband was appointed to London University as a lecturer. In addition to her continued involvement with Cambridge, Mrs Robinson lectured at Birkbeck College, London from 1930-1936, the institution holding lectures largely in the evening to allow access by working and mature students.

The Robinsons had two children, Anne (b 1922) and Andrew (b 1924). The Royal Society’s Biographical Memoirs of Harold Robinson note that Marjorie