Edith Mary Peckham Sheppard
| Edith Mary Peckham Sheppard | |
|---|---|
| Edith Revell | |
| Born | 1900-08-03 Toronto, Ontario |
| Died | 1934-11-16 Bangalore, India |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Father | |
| Mother | |
| Partner | |
Edith Mary Peckham Sheppard (3 August 1900 – 16 November 1934 (aged 34)), later known as Edith Revell, was a Canadian lawyer and one of the first women to hold a salaried position at a major corporate law firm in Canada.[1]
Early life and family
Sheppard was born on 3 August 1900 in Toronto to Charles Henry Sheppard and Ellen Frances Stocking. Her family's prosperity derived from her paternal grandfather, William Joseph Sheppard, who had built and led the Georgian Bay Lumber Company, the dominant pine-timber operation in Ontario during the latter nineteenth century. The firm ran its final mill in 1920 at its Waubaushene headquarters, but diversified family investments preserved the family's comfortable circumstances.[1]
Her father held firm views about female education, believing it was negligent for parents to allow daughters to grow up without practical skills. Sheppard attended Havergal College in Toronto, where she earned the gold medal for general proficiency in 1918, and subsequently enrolled at the University of Toronto, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1921.[1][2]
Legal career
After completing her undergraduate studies, Sheppard enrolled in the three-year program of the Law Society of Upper Canada at Osgoode Hall, articling concurrently under Leighton Goldie McCarthy at the firm McCarthy and McCarthy. She was called to the bar with honours in January 1925, becoming Ontario's forty-third female lawyer.[1][3]
Rather than striking out on her own, Sheppard remained at McCarthy and McCarthy on a salary — a position that placed her among the first women to hold such a role at a prominent Canadian corporate-law practice. She was realistic about the constraints facing women in law, observing that a woman practising independently would struggle to attract clients. Her work at the firm focused on matters for Canada Life Assurance Company and the family's own business affairs. She also noted the gendered structure of the firm's staff: the lawyers and articling students were predominantly male, while the stenographers — drawn from families of reduced means — were almost entirely women.[1][4]
McCarthy and McCarthy's practice of hiring women also extended to Gretta Jean Wong, who became the first Chinese-Canadian woman called to the bar in Canada.[1][5]
Sheppard was active in the Women's Law Association of Ontario, through which she connected with other professional women, including her sister Ellen Margaret Buchanan Sheppard, a chemist, and law school friend Vera Lillian Parsons, an early specialist in criminal defence work. A 1927 WLAO survey found that approximately half of Ontario's women lawyers — most of whom had qualified after 1918 — had left practice for marriage.[1][6]
Personal life and death
In 1928 Sheppard became engaged to Alfred John Revell, an Englishman she had met while on a European holiday. Revell held the rank of captain in the 1st Madras Pioneers of the Indian Army. Sheppard resigned from McCarthy and McCarthy in the spring of 1929 and surrendered her Law Society membership; she sailed to India in May of that year. The couple married on 14 June 1929 in Bombay and settled in Bangalore. They had two children, a daughter and a son, both of whom later pursued academic careers in Canada.[1]
Sheppard died on 16 November 1934 in Bangalore following complications from an appendectomy. She was thirty-four years old.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Christopher Moore."Christopher Moore, "Sheppard, Edith Mary Peckham," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16."[website].Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16 (University of Toronto/Université Laval).2023.University of Toronto/Université Laval.Link.(Rights: copyrighted | Access: open)
- ↑ "University of Toronto Graduate Records, box 412."[record].University of Toronto Archives.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Law Society of Ontario membership records; "Crossing the bar" exhibition files."[record].Law Society of Ontario Archives, Toronto.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Sheppard file with letter and diary excerpts, 1925–29; partnership agreements, 31 May 1928; 1995 interview recording."[record].McCarthy Tétrault LLP Archives, Toronto.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Constance Backhouse."Constance Backhouse, "Gretta Wong Grant: Canada's first Chinese-Canadian female lawyer"."[book].Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, vol. 15.1996.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Women's Law Association of Ontario fonds (PF58), 1919–1934 scrapbook."[record].Law Society of Ontario Archives, Toronto.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)