Jean Harvey, born in Glasgow on 12th March 1926, was one of the first hundred women to graduate from the University of Glasgow. Her father, James, was a master butcher. The family home was in Vardar Avenue, Clarkston when Jean went up to study in the Arts Faculty at Glasgow. She was an excellent school pupil and had achieved a place in the university bursary exam which gained her a Dundonald Bursary of £40 per annum. Her undergraduate record continued to demonstrate her academic ability. She took second prize in Intermediate Latin and when she graduated M.A. in 1946 it was with a Bell Bursary, awarded to a student of academic merit who would go on to study in the Law Faculty. Still just twenty she went on to combine an apprenticeship in law with the LL.B. curriculum, passing all subjects well at the first diet and earning certificates of distinction in Public International Law and Jurisprudence. In 1950 she was admitted as a solicitor. Three years later she married Alexander Imrie McAlpine, also a solicitor and a Glasgow Law graduate who had held the distinguished Faulds Fellowship from 1952-55. The couple had two sons. Prior to marriage she continued to have a practising certificate. She may have taken a career break but returned to practice in the firm of Crosthwaite, Forsyth & Co. alongside her husband. The couple later moved to Chichester, Sussex, where Jean died on 23rd May 2016, aged ninety.
Sources
University of Glasgow registry and General Council Records
Scotlands People
Law Lists
CoSS Petitions List Cs46/1950/6/74
