Helen Lowe

Helen Millar Lowe (10 December 1897 – 6 November 1997) was a Scottish accountant, charity worker and activist. She was one of the first women to become chartered accountants in Scotland, and conducted a successful campaign to ensure that the Bruntsfield Hospital for Women and the Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh remained staffed exclusively by qualified female medical professionals. Early life Daughter of James Lowe and Margaret Trotter, Lowe attended Berwickshire High School in Duns until the age of 16, when she decided to abandon her studies and begin, instead, a career at the Post Office Savings Bank in London. To her father’s dismay, Lowe lived and worked as a clerk in London throughout WWI, only returning to Scotland years later to take up a post as an apprentice with the firm Chiene & Tate in Edinburgh. Career in accountancy Thanks to the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, Lowe was able to begin pursuing a career in accountancy. In preparation for her examinations, Lowe attended classes at The University of Edinburgh, gaining certificates in Accounting and Business Methods and Mercantile Law.