Ethel Watts (1895 – 1963) was an English accountant who is remembered for being the first woman to become a chartered accountant through examination.[1]
Early life edit
She was born in London on 3 January 1895, the eldest of three daughters of police officer John Watts and his wife Caroline, née Poole, a police matron. She was educated at Coburn Girls’ School, Bedford College, and Royal Holloway college, where she graduated with a BA in history in 1916.[2]
During World War I, she became an administrative assistant at the Ministry of Food, serving for a period as the private secretary to the Director of Oils and Fats. She had intended to train as a lawyer, but her time at the Ministry of Food gave her an interest in business, so she trained as an accountant on the advice of Sir Harry Peat.[3]
Accountancy career edit
Watts passed the British Institute of Chartered Accountants' exam in 1924.[4] She served her articles with S. Williams of Manchester and Aberystwyth before joining W.B. Peat and Co. After receiving a practising certificate in April 1925, she briefly served in Homersham & Watts with Miriam Homersham, before setting up her own firm, E. Watts & Co, which mostly provided tax advice.[5]
She remained committed to helping other women enter accountancy: taking on women clerks herself, speaking and writing about her experience, and in 1945, founding the Women Chartered Accountants’ Dining Society.[5] She offered her services as an accountant to the London and National Society for Women's Service, where she had sat on committees since the 1920s, and which she continued to support when it became the Fawcett Society.[6][7]
Personal life and death edit
In 1929, Watts married medical doctor Oscar Tobin. They had a son, Richard, in 1934. The couple hyphenated their surnames but Watts continued practicing under her maiden name.
See also edit
- Mary Harris Smith, who became the first female chartered accountant in May 1920 when she was admitted to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in her seventies after practicing as an accountant since 1887, but without having been allowed to sit the examination.[8]
References edit
- ^ "KPMG Pioneers - KPMG UK". KPMG. 2023-12-08. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
- ^ a b Crawford, Elizabeth (2020). "Watts [married name Watts-Tobin], Ethel (1895–1963), chartered accountant". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.111904. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
- ^ The Vote (8 Feb 1924)
- ^ "Of Interest to Women". The Nevada Daily Mail and the Evening Post. 26 Feb 1924. p. 2. Retrieved 3 Jan 2024.
- ^ a b "Ethel Watts: Paving the way for women in Chartered Accountancy". East End Women's Museum. 2020-09-30. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
- ^ "Papers of Ethel Watts - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
- ^ "Female firsts". www.icaew.com. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
- ^ "Mary Harris Smith: the first female Chartered Accountant". East End Women's Museum. 2020-09-09. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
External links edit
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