Nemone Lethbridge

Lethbridge was born in Quetta (pre-partition India, now Pakistan) in 1932. She was the daughter of John Sydney Lethbridge, an India-born British Army officer, and his wife Katharine Greville Maynard, who was also India-born. At nine years old, Lethbridge boarded at Sacred Heart Convent School in Chew Magna, Somerset. Afterwards she attended Tudor Hall School, Banbury. She read law at Somerville College, Oxford, from 1952. She was one of only two women studying Law at that time. She had a tutor from Keble College, as Somerville did not have a tutor in Law. Lethbridge intended to go into politics, but got pupillage from Mervyn Griffith-Jones. This was achieved through a contact of her father, at that time Chief of Intelligence for the British Army of the Rhine, who had a connection with David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, one of the prosecutors at the Nuremberg trials. Later in her training she was placed at 3 Pump Court, alongside Rose Heilbron. Lethbridge’s pupilmaster was Norman Broderick. ==Career==

Lethbridge was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1956. In 1957, she was taken on as a tenant at 3 Hare Court. She was the first woman at Hare Court, where she was barred from using the facilities. When the government started its assault on public funding in 1995, she set up Our Lady of Good Counsel Law Centre in Stoke Newington. Lethbridge published her autobiography in May 2021 - Nemone: A young woman barrister’s battle against prejudice, class and misogyny. Her controversial marriage. In December 2021, Lethbridge released her second book, Postcards from Greece, a collection of her poems which are intended to be read alongside the first part of her autobiography Nemone. Nemone appeared on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs on Sunday 2 February 2025. Her luxury item was her doll, Sarah Jane, which Nemone has had since she was one year old. Her favourite record choice was Mozart's Marriage of Figaro final duet. She did the interview from home after a recent fall. She still works pro bono, giving legal advice. She has stated that she would still value her deceased ex-husband being pardoned, as he and she have always believed he was innocent of murder. ==References==