Cornelia Sorabji

Cornelia Sorabji was an Indian lawyer, social reformer and writer. She was the first female graduate from Bombay University, and the first woman to study law at Oxford University. Returning to India after her studies at Oxford, Sorabji became involved in social and advisory work on behalf of the purdahnashins, women who were forbidden to communicate with the outside male world, but she was unable to defend them in court since, as a woman, she did not hold professional standing in the Indian legal system. Hoping to remedy this, Sorabji presented herself for the LLB examination of Bombay University in 1897 and the pleader's examination of Allahabad High Court in 1899. She became the first female advocate in India but would not be recognised as a barrister until the law which barred women from practising was changed in 1923.

15 November 1866

Born on the same birth day (15 November): Alamgir Sheriyar • Aneurin Bevan • Bill Melendez • Blake Pieroni • Bʼutz Aj Sak Chiik • Claus von Stauffenberg • Floyd Womack • Franklin P. Adams • Gus Poyet • Kevin J. O'Connor (actor) • Kevin Wimmer • Malcolm Ranjith • Mark Acres • Randy Thomas (musician) • Sania Mirza • Simon Spender • Stewie Dempster

Born in the same month (November 1866): Abraham Flexner • Harry Staley • Henry Daglish • Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin • Kenesaw Mountain Landis • Konishiki Yasokichi I • Martha Annie Whiteley • Sigbjørn Obstfelder