The Australian Women's Register

Summary

One of nine children of prominent NSW Labour politician Gregory McGirr, Beatrice Bateman was the moving force behind the establishment of the Women Lawyers’ Association of New South Wales in 1952. She attended the Loreto Convent in Kirribilli and graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1938, a Master of Arts in 1940 (study undertaken after she was prevented by the Law School from sitting her final exams due to being pregnant with her first child), and finally, a Bachelor of Laws in 1942. Bateman was admitted to practise on 31 July 1942, but being mother to seven meant that her practice was intermittent. She was an active fundraiser for a host of causes and represented Australia at the first International Congress of the World Movement of Mothers in 1950. During her final two years of practice at the Bar, she succeeded in defending a woman charged with murder. Bateman died suddenly in 1960 at the age of 43 following an asthma attack. Her daughter, Beatrice Gray (nee Bateman), was admitted to the Bar on 9 February 1968. A portrait of Beatrice Bateman by Sylvia Davis was a finalist in the 1942 Archibald Prize.