Lane, Elizabeth (1905—)
Lane, Elizabeth (1905—)
English lawyer. Name variations: Dame Elizabeth Lane; Mrs. Justice Lane. Born Elizabeth Culborn in 1905; educated privately and attended Malvern Girls College; married Henry Lane, in 1926; children: one son.
Elizabeth Lane became a barrister at the Inner Temple in 1940, at age 35. She was also a member of the Home Office Committee on Depositions in Criminal Cases. Lane was assistant recorder of Birmingham (1953–61), recorder for Derby (1961–62), and commissioner of the Crown Courts at Manchester and a Circuit Court judge (1962–65). Created a DBE in 1965, she became the first female High Court judge in England, attached to the Family Division (the second was Dame Rose Heilbron ), and was also chair of the Committee on the Abortion Acts (1971–73). The first woman barrister to appear in the House of Lords on a murder case and the first judge to work part-time, Lane remained on the High Court until her retirement in 1979.
suggested reading:
Lane, Dame Elizabeth. Hear the Other Side, Audi ad Alteram Partem: The Autobiography of England's First Woman Judge. Butterworths, 1985.