Ethel Watts

Ethel Watts (1895 – 1963) was an English accountant who is remembered for being the first woman to become a chartered accountant through examination.

Early life She was born in London on 3 January 1895, the eldest of three daughters of police officer John Watts and his wife Caroline, née Poole, a police matron. She was educated at Coburn Girls’ School, Bedford College, and Royal Holloway college, where she graduated with a BA in history in 1916.

During World War I, she became an administrative assistant at the Ministry of Food, serving for a period as the private secretary to the Director of Oils and Fats. She had intended to train as a lawyer, but her time at the Ministry of Food gave her an interest in business, so she trained as an accountant on the advice of Sir Harry Peat.

Accountancy career Watts passed the British Institute of Chartered Accountants' exam in 1924. She served her articles with S. Williams of Manchester and Aberystwyth before joining W.B. Peat and Co. After receiving a practising certificate in April 1925, she briefly served in Homersham & Watts with Miriam Homersham, before setting up her own firm, E. Watts & Co, which mostly provided tax advice.

She remained committed to helping other women enter accountancy: taking on women clerks herself, speaking and writing about her experience, and in 1945, founding the Women Chartered Accountants’ Dining Society. Committees she supported with her services included the Equal Pay Campaign Committee.

Personal life and death In 1929, Watts married medical doctor Oscar Tobin. They had a son, Richard Watts-Tobin, in 1934; in later life, Richard would become a physicist and co-author on key scientific work to understand the genetic code of DNA. The couple hyphenated their surnames but Watts continued practicing under her maiden name.

She died in Wimbledon, London, on 19 November 1963.