A photograph of the most important litigant in history

Anyone who does any legal studies learns of the case of Donoghue v. Stevenson, 1932 UKHL 100.

In my research into the case I visited the key locations and did a lot of reading but never found a photograph of Mrs Donoghue.

This morning as I was researching something else I stumbled on this photo which claims to be of her.

I found it on the Scottish Council of Law Reporting website so I would hope it is genuine. https://www.scottishlawreports.org.uk/resources/donoghue-v-stevenson/the-most-famous-litigant/.

There is an important caveat. The image that accompanies this note is not an autographed portrait in the strict sense. The signature is taken from a pleading in her case.

All those that have had a successful claim for negligence and the lawyers that represented either side of the case owe this lady and her lawyer Walter Leechman and of course the key judges in the case. Lord Moncrieff in the first trial and Lord Aitken in the House of Lords decision.

A nice find for a Sunday.

If you want to learn more of the case, please refer to this post I made on the 80th anniversary of the decision or you can get a copy of the coffee table book Steve Manning and I put together. https://lmigroup.io/product/the-snail-in-the-ale/

Following this post, arguably the most regular reader of this blog did some more research and found that the photo has been used to create a statue to May Donoghue on the site of the cafe where it all happened. This is relatively new and has been sculptured since our visit as part of our research into the book above.