The law firm of Lake & Kentish is pleased to announce that one of its Founders, Dame Bernice Lake QC, has been posthumously honoured by her Alma Mater, the University College of London (UCL).
As one of the UCL initiatives marking the 100th anniversary of women attaining the right to vote in England and Wales, Dame Bernice is among 12 alumni recognised for their achievements in a “Female Firsts” exhibition launched to celebrate International Women’s Day earlier this year.
Among her distinguished accomplishments, Dame Bernice was notably a UCL law graduate. A born Anguillian, she obtained her First Degree at the University of the West Indies. Dame Bernice consistently championed the obligation of professionals to give their time and energy to support education and the promotion of a free, democratic society, of which, the right to vote is a fundamental component.
In addition to Dame Bernice Lake QC, the first woman from the Eastern Caribbean to be appointed Queen’s Counsel, the women alumni reflect the breadth of subjects spanned by UCL. They included the first woman to enroll in architecture that took her finals alongside 500 men in 1919; as well as an internationally renowned contemporary artist, UCL Slade School alumna who was also the first female winner of the Turner Prize.
In medicine and science, honourees included: the first female President of the Royal College of Surgeons; the first qualified female doctor in Britain, who went on to found the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, now a wing at the University College of London Hospitals; a crystallography specialist and UCL’s first female Professor, who was also the first woman to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society; and a UCL chemistry graduate, who was also the first black player for the England Women’s Cricket team.
In social sciences, UCL is celebrating the distinguished British sociologist and feminist who set up the Social Science Research Unit at the UCL Institute of Education; one of the most influential social anthropologists of the 20th century, who is credited with establishing anthropology as a discipline at UCL; and the first UCL psychologist to receive a DBE as a celebrated cognitive neuroscientist who was also the first woman from UCL to receive both a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the British Academy.
These women also distinguished themselves in World War II, including the first correspondent to report the outbreak of WWII; and a Bletchley Park code-breaker whose Enigma breakthrough was crucial to the success of D-Day.
Kristina Clackson Bonnington, the UCL Artist-in-Residence, has been commissioned to create 12 contemporary art works about these extraordinary women, each with a UCL connection. Using a lab-based technique that combines chemicals with ink to burn images onto surfaces, her work is focused largely on the history of social inequalities and depicts how power is encoded in buildings and environments. She will depict the women at selected doorways to emphasise the paths they have opened in their lives and work. The display will continue to the end of 2018.
(Reference: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles /0318/080317 -female-firsts)
– Press Release
