IN THE PROFESSIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 85, 10 April 1926, Page 7

IN THE PROFESSIONS

THE ONLY WOMAN STOCK-

BROKER

COUNSEL" FOR "BREACH" , SUIT.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, 12th February.

Speaking at a dinner given by the Women's Advertising Club, Miss Gordon Holmes, managing director of the National Securities Corporation, Ltd., and the only woman stockbroker in this country, told the story of how she had risen from a shorthand-typist earning thrity. shillings a week to her present positipn in the financial world.

"I started my business career in the offices of the biggest egg merchant in the w.orld,". declared Miss Holmes. "In 1912 I was looking for a new job. I was getting £2 a. week, and I wanted £2 5s a^ week. I succeeded in obtaining a job in the City in a financial business at £2 ss. When I asked my new employer about finance, he began to tell me, then stopped, and added, 'With all due respect to women, the female mind is not capable of understanding finance.' Years afterwards, when I ran his business for him, I reminded him of these words. After the Armistice, I and a gentleman went into business on our ■ own. We started with two small rooms 1 and about two typists. Now we have a staff of eighty, girls."

Miss Holmes declared there were plenty of opportunities for girls in the financial world, but the difficulty was for them to obtain the necessary experience. This could be gained in various offices, and than it was advisable for them to start business on their own, but to do this the very minimum of capital required was £10,000. Deferring to her work in the City, Miss Holmes said in the financial world they regarded mines in the same way as Mark Twain, who had described them as "holes in the ground, owned by liars." (Laughter.) . Miss Charlotte Mary Young, a barrister, made legal history when she conducted a breach of promise case before Mr. Justice M'Cardie at the Law Courts. This was the first time a woman barrister had conducted such a case. Men barristers flocked into the Court to hear MisS Young, and packed rows of people listened to her opening words with rapt attention. The interest which she excited did not perturb Miss Young in the least. She presented her .client's case in a clear girlish voice. Her wig accentuated the unexpected youthfulnesa of her face. She wore the ordinary barrister's gown and snowwhite collar. Her legal opponent, Mr. 6. Lincoln, towered above her when he rose to cross-examine, but she gazed i benignly and calmly at him as he thundered out his questions. Her appearance is that of a girl in the-early twenties. Witnesses called the woman barrister "Miss," and Mr. Justice M'Cardie, when he failed to hear an answer, asked, What did she say, Miss Young? r . Miss Young's method of •cross-examin-ation was no less severe than her opponent's. She made vigorous use of the nhrase, "I put it to you," and looked wonderingly round the-Court when a witness hesitated in answering.