Agnes Henderson, born in Hamilton in 1919, was one of the first hundred women to graduate in Law from the University of Glasgow. Her father, Walter, was a solicitor in the town. Agnes attended Hamilton Academy where she was an excellent pupil. She took 34th place in the University Bursary competition and began her studies in the Faculty of Arts with a Mitchell Trust Bursary worth £50 a year for three years. She excelled in Latin, earning Certificates of Distinction. After graduating M.A. she went on to study in the Law Faculty where she passed all degree exams first time and graduated LL.B. in 1940. Agnes was very well equipped for a career in the legal profession but did not do so in Scotland. In 1941, a year after graduating, she married William Harrison Fisher in the University Memorial Chapel. She was 21. He was 35 and a director in the family firm of Harrison Fisher, a famous cutlery manufacturer, whose products remain collectable. Marriage took Agnes Henderson to Sheffield. The records of the General Councils, which rely on self-reporting, did not routinely record the occupation of women graduates after they married. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they gave up on work. Further information may become available.
Sources
University of Glasgow Registry and General Council Records
Scotlands People
Ancestry.co.uk
