Ellice Eadie

Ellice Aylmer Eadie ( Hearn; 30 June 1912 – 31 March 2001) was an Irish-born English barrister and civil servant. She was called to the bar in 1937 and joined the Board of Trade's solicitor department nine years later. Eadie went to the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in 1949, attaining promotion to become the first female under-secretary rank lawyer in the Civil Service as Deputy Counsel. She drafted laws and rules for the Supreme Court and was the first woman Standing Counsel to the General Synod of the Church of England.

Biography Early life Eadie was born Ellice Aylmer Hearn at Edmonton, St Patrick's Hill, Cork on 30 June 1912, to Robert Hearn, the Church of Ireland clergyman and future Bishop of Cork, and gynaecologist Mary Ellice Hearn (née Cummins). One of her aunts was Ireland's first qualified professional engineer, and the family was versed in field hockey and rugby. Eadie was taught at Cheltenham Ladies' College, and began reading law at St Hugh's College, Oxford in 1931. In 1968, Eadie was promoted to Parliamentary Counsel (deputy secretary rank), the first woman to hold the position. She drafted the Family Law Reform Act 1969, which lowered the age of majority from 21 to 18, introduced blood testing to establish disputed paternity. Eadie later drafted the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act 1970 that brought about improved support for a divorced spouse. She also worked on the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1970, the Highways, Licensing, and Attachment of Earnings Acts 1971, Superannuation, Affiliation Proceedings, and Maintenance Orders (Reciprocal Enforcement) Acts 1972 and the Friendly Societies Act 1974.

Eadie retired from the Civil Service in 1972. She was made the first female Standing Counsel to the General Synod of the Church of England and drafted the Ecclesiastical Offices (Age Limits) Measure of 1974 to require bishops in the Church of England and their counterparts to retire at age 70. Eadie also drafted the Patronage (Benefices) Measure of 1976, which modernised the process in which the successors of bishops were appointed. She formally retired in 1978 but remained busy as a church worker and treasurer of London's New Cavendish Club.

Personal life

Eadie married the Canadian-born John Harold Ward Eadie (1908/9–1995) on 4 December 1946 and he predeceased her in 1995. The couple did not have children. Eadie moved to the Flowerdown Nursing Home, Winchester due to frailness in her final years, and died there from bronchopneumonia and cerebrovascular disease on 31 March 2001.

Legacy Ruth Deech, the author of Eadie's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, described her as one who "unexpectedly become a champion of women seeking protection and freedom after failed marriages and a role model for other women in the law" in an era of radical law reform.