Person    | Female  Born 27/11/1844  Died 7/8/1934

Mary Harris Smith

Categories: Gender Issues, Other

Accountant. Born in Kingsland, the area around where Dalston Junction station now is. She became interested in accounting by helping her father who was a banker. In 1887 she set up her own accounting firm, and applied to join the Society of Accountants and Auditors, but was rejected many times.

It wasn't until May 1920, when in her seventies, she was finally admitted to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, becoming a fellow and the first woman chartered accountant. During her lifetime she supported many causes devoted to furthering women's rights. Died in St Leonards-on-Sea.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales's booklet, 100 Years, Celebrating Women in Accountancy, quotes Smith: ‘Require of me what you would require of a man and I will fulfil it.’ Mary Harris Smith, The Woman’s Signal, 1895.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Mary Harris Smith

Commemorated ati

Mary Harris Smith

The plaque was scheduled for unveiling on 5 May 2020, exactly 100 years since...

Read More

Other Subjects

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Born in Dublin as Oscar Fingal O'Flaherty Wills Wilde. 'Importance of Being Earnest', 'Picture of Dorian Gray', etc. A flamboyant aesthete, he may have been Grossmith's model for the character Bunt...

Person, Gender Issues, Literature, Poetry, Seriously Famous, Theatre, France, Ireland

7 memorials
Ellen Wilkinson

Ellen Wilkinson

NUWSS in Manchester, Labour MP for Jarrow. As Jarrow MP she played a prominent role in the 1936 Jarrow March. Minister of Education from July 1945 until her death. Born Manchester. Had a close per...

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Caroline Norton

Caroline Norton

Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton, Lady Stirling-Maxwell, was an active English social reformer and author. She left her husband in 1836. He sued her close friend Lord Melbourne, then the Prime Minis...

Person, Gender Issues, Law

1 memorial
Dr Arthur Farre

Dr Arthur Farre

Eminent obstetrician and physician extraordinary to Queen Victoria.  Born Charterhouse Square.  As a friend of Baron Rothschild and obstetrician to his wife, helped him set up the Evelina Children'...

Person, Children, Gender Issues, Medicine

1 memorial
Priss Fotheringham

Priss Fotheringham

Some details of Priss's sorry life are given at HistoryWeird: Born in Scotland, she was in London by 1656 and had married Edmund Fotheringham.  "In the late 1650s Priss took up residence in a taver...

Person, Gender Issues, Scotland

1 memorial