Ethel Ayres Purdie

Ethel Ayres Purdie ( Ayres; 2 October 1874 – 26 March 1923) was a chartered accountant and suffragist. She specialised in counselling women and women's suffragist organisations. Purdie was active in the Women's Tax Resistance League which argued that no vote meant no tax. She was the first female registered accountant in the UK.

Early life Ethel Ayres was born in 1874 in Islington, London. Her father was an engineer toolmaker. After leaving school, she worked for the Post Office in the Telegraph Department.

After her marriage, she studied accountancy at the Society of Arts. Ayres Purdie opened her accountancy firm, which she named The Women Taxpayer's Agenc, in 1908. In 1909, she finally became a member of the London Association of Accountants. In doing so, she became the first female registered accountant in the United Kingdom. Ayres Purdie was the only woman allowed to represent clients in front of the Special Commissioners of Income Tax.

Personal life and death Ayres Purdie married Frank Sidney Purdie, a commercial traveller to a silversmith, on 16 June 1897, and they had two sons, who were born in 1901 and 1902.

Publications Married Women & Tax Resistance (pamphlet), Women's Tax Resistance League, 1910 Echoes, The Englishwoman, vol. 32, 1911, pp. 224–8 A red tape comedy, The Vote, vol. VII, no 160, 16 November 1912 A red tape comedy II, The Vote, vol. VII, no 161, 23 November 1912 A red tape comedy III, The Vote, vol. VII, no 162, 30 November 1912 Married Women & Income Tax (pamphlet), Women's Tax Resistance League, 1913