Olive Catherine Clapham

Olive Catherine Clapham (married name Miles; 21 January 1898 – 7 March 1973) was a British barrister. She was the first woman to pass the bar finals examinations in England and Wales.

Biography Clapham was born on 21 January 1898 in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, to a Roman Catholic family. Her mother, Catherine Clapham (née Gill; 1862–1951), had been a schoolmistress and her father, Walter Clapham (1858–1902), was a printer, part proprietor of the Wakefield Free Press, and a Liberal councillor. Following the death of her father, the family moved to Kingston upon Hull to live with her paternal aunt. She was educated at the French Convent School in Hull run by canonesses of St Augustine. She also studied at the Hull and East Riding College of Music.

In October 1916, Clapham registered as a member of the Society of Oxford Home Students (this would later become St Anne's College, Oxford). She lived in the St Frideswide hostel for Roman Catholic women students. She studied English Literature, before switching to jurisprudence in the second year. Having fulfilled the required dining terms at Middle Temple, Clapham was called to the bar on 17 November 1924. The details of her practice are not known, but when she emigrated to Ceylon on 31 December 1926, she gave her profession as "barrister".

In Ceylon, Clapham married George Cockburn Miles (1898–1980), a member of the Ceylon Civil Service. Together they had five children: four sons (born 1928, 1929, 1933, and 1936), and one daughter (born 1943). They returned to England in 1935. She died on 7 March 1973 of heart disease in Aldbury, Hertfordshire, England.