Constance Mitchell, who was one of the first hundred women to graduate in Law from the University of Glasgow, was the daughter of a well- known Scottish lawyer and politician. She was born in Glasgow on 8th October 1910 to Constance and Edward Rosslyn Mitchell. Her father was a lawyer and a Labour M.P. who represented Paisley from 1924-1929, advocated temperance and made stirring speeches. He founded one of Glasgow’s oldest law practices. Constance began on her father’s legal path in 1928 when she matriculated at Glasgow, as Edward had done. She included Constitutional Law, and Political Economy in her Arts degree, both of which counted towards a Law degree. She graduated M.A. in 1931. As an Arts graduate she was able to enter the LL.B. curriculum, a year longer than the two year B.L. and offering more exemptions from the Law Society’s professional requirements. She gained a first class certificate of distinction in Forensic Medicine and a second class merit in Jurisprudence. She graduated in November 1933. Three years later, in 1936, she petitioned the Court of Session for admission as a solicitor. Constance may have continued to practise, albeit that the General Council records routinely omit any occupation for women graduates after marriage. She married John Pirie Glen in 1937 and had a family. The name Constance Rosslyn Mitchell appears on the title of a book of drawings and verse, ‘Head and Tails’. She died in Edinburgh in 1977, aged 67.
Sources
University of Glasgow Registry & General Council Records
Scotlands People
CoSS Petitions List CS46 1935/12/50
