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  1. Home
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  5. September 2012
  6. Margaret Paterson Archer: an appreciation

Margaret Paterson Archer: an appreciation

A note of the tribute delivered at the funeral of one of the first female partners in a Scottish law firm
17th September 2012

Margaret Paterson Archer (1916-2012) passed away peacefully at the age of 95. She was a retired partner of Moncreiff Warren Paterson & Co, which merged in 1985 with McGrigors, now merged in turn with Pinsent Masons.

She was one of the first, if not the first, female partner of a law firm in Scotland in 1958. Her father, Paul Archer was a wholesale tobacconist in Parliamentary Road, Glasgow and an elder of the Barony Church of Scotland. Margaret attended Hutchesons’ Grammar School until 1934 and went on to the University of Glasgow, graduating MA in 1937 and LLB in 1940. She attained the rank of captain during World War II in India, and was a member of the Special Forces (FANY) in the early 1950s. She was also a member of the Soroptomists, FOGGLA, and the Alumni associations of Hutchesons and the University of Glasgow.

Margaret never married but was a devoted and much loved aunt and godmother. She loved travel, daily yoga exercises, recycling all things, and was a stickler for detail. She skied, played golf and drove brightly coloured cars – a turquoise mini in the 1960s, a purple Morris Marina in the 1970s, a bright green VW Golf and then a red one until she stopped driving in her 80s.

She retired in 1985 and then started a business venture which kept her very busy for many years until her health declined five years ago, when she moved to residential care. She died on 23 July 2012, a lady ahead of her time in so many ways.

Katherine McCudden (nee Macmillan), goddaughter
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In this issue

  • Separate representation for borrower and lender
  • Market abuse and regulatory enforcement
  • Choosing to die: the defence dilemma
  • The rise of the partnership tribunal
  • Evolving marriage rights
  • Margaret Paterson Archer: an appreciation
  • Reading for pleasure
  • Street level insights
  • Opinion column: Malcolm Cannon
  • Book reviews
  • Council profile
  • President's column
  • Land mass coverage heads for milestone
  • Bidding for success
  • Across the divide
  • Blades running?
  • Welfare still rules
  • Protected conversations
  • Over the border
  • Sum of the parts
  • Holding out for reform
  • Form 13A: a step forward
  • System in chains
  • Buildmark: online update
  • Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal
  • From the Brussels office
  • Law reform roundup
  • The earlier the better
  • Ask Ash
  • Business radar

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