Ethel Houston

Ethel Houston (19 April 1924 – 30 November 2017) was a solicitor, Enigma code breaker, and the first woman to become senior partner at a Scottish law firm. She served on the Law Society's Council between 1975 and 1981, one of the first women to hold the position.

Houston's parents moved to Edinburgh in 1931, and sent her to James Gillespie's High School for girls.

Career She was recruited to work in Bletchley Park in Hut 6 during the final year of World War Two.

In 1949, Houston was made partner of Scottish law firm Balfour and Manson. She was one of only four partners at the firm, and the first woman to be made senior partner at a Scottish firm.

In 1981, she was awarded an OBE,

Personal life and interests Her parents' Christian faith, which Houston inherited, shaped her sense of justice and of obligation to the less fortunate in society. Her clients included a number of charities, and she worked with doctors to set up several medical charities. Houston was also a supporter of the arts and helped to establish Leith School of Art in 1988.

Houston enjoyed travel, including to Canada, where her family lived; she owned a flat in Nice and also rented a cottage in Berwickshire. After she retired, she was one of the first women to be admitted members in their own right of the New Club, Edinburgh.

Death and legacy Houston died in Edinburgh, aged 93 and is survived by nieces and nephews. She was described in her obituary as a "non-conformist, feisty and a fiercely independent thinker".