First Woman to be Lord Justice of Appeal
May 2011, House of Lords, London
b.1933, Buckinghamshire
Baroness Butler-Sloss became Lord Justice of Appeal in 1988, aged 55 – the first woman in 112 years to do so. Until 1994 she was also the highest ranking female judge in the UK. She became a high court judge aged 45 – also making her the first woman to head a high court division, one of only four top judicial poses in England and Wales. She remains one of the tiny number of senior judges without a university degree.