Janet McLachlan, one of the first hundred women to graduate in Law from the University of Glasgow, was born in Glasgow on 5th December 1911. Her father, James, was a butcher. Janet was a good student and her path through the curriculum was a smooth one. She matriculated in the Law Faculty in 1930, enrolling in Civil Law and Public International Law. The following year she added Law of Scotland, completing her degree in 1933 with Conveyancing, and Evidence and Procedure, in which she gained a first class distinction. The B.L. was a part-time degree, taken in conjunction with an apprenticeship in a law firm. She did not go on to petition the Court of Session for admission as a solicitor. She appears to have remained unmarried and the rarely updated records of the General Council describe her occupation as ‘secretary’, and still resident in Glasgow in the 1950s at Dowanside Road. Many of the women graduates who did not acquire the professional designation as solicitors continued to do the same work. She died in London in February 1989, aged 77.
Sources
University of Glasgow Registry & General Council Records
Scotlands People
Ancestry.co.uk
