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In 1906 the word
suffragette first appeared, describing women that were
campaigning for the right to vote and still under suffrage.
This followed the launch of a movement for women’s votes when
Emmeline Pankhurst and her two daughters - Christabel and
Sylvia - founded the Women’s Social and Political Union
some three years earlier. In June 1913, Emily Davison threw herself under the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby and was killed. She was the only suffragette to die for the cause. Then in 1918, an act was passed giving women the vote if they were over the age of 30 and either owned property or rented for at least £5 per year - or they were the wife of someone who did. But the period was not one that came anywhere close to today’s equality with full voting rights for women. However, in 1922 and from premises in Lincolns Inn Fields, none of the above could stop Carrie Morrison from becoming the first woman solicitor to practice in the UK. Having graduated from Girton College, Cambridge, with First Class Honours, the university authorities still refused to award Carrie – or any other women in a similar position - with their degrees because they were women! There was no problem with them being allowed to study, attend lectures or sit exams; it’s just that women |
The DaC client and the first woman solicitor... |
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  could
not hold degrees!But in 1922 she was admitted as a solicitor and five years later, she married Ambrose Appelbe If you think you know that name but just can’t think from where, it’s either because you have at some time or other needed a solicitor, or more likely because you’ve picked up a passenger from the Ambrose Appelbe account premises at 7 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn. Carrie Morrison practised her profession there, but many years later Ambrose Appelbe himself became newsworthy as the person who guided Mandy Rice-Davies through the John Profumo / Christine Keeler affair. He also represented John Christie, who murdered six women – one of whom was his wife – at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill. Humorously, before Christie was executed, he bequeathed his reading glasses to Ambrose. Ambrose got to know his clients well, so he could help them better. |
Ambrose Appelbe also
represented Ingrid Bergman and campaigned with Bernard
Shaw against foul smells – no connection between those last two! Although Carrie’s marriage to Ambrose ended in divorce, the two continued working alongside each other from the Lincoln’s Inn office and she began specialising in family law, always taking a keen interest with the independence of women. Whilst married to Ambrose Appelbe, she always refused to use his name and omitted any reference to her married status, preferring to be known as just Carrie Morrison. She practiced up to her death in 1950 at the age of 62 and died at the account address in New Square. Ambrose Appelbe died in 1999 at the age of 95... Ambrose’ son, Felix Appelbe, now carries on the Practice, looking after private clients from all walks of life. He even remembers washing his father’s Vauxhall in order to take Ingrid Bergman to her wedding, which Ambrose was to organise in secret from the public! To hear more tales, call in at 7 New Square next time you are picking up or setting down a passenger. You will probably be offered a coffee or a chat! |
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