Although Irish women had been eligible for jury service since 1918, an Act brought in by Kevin O'Higgins required qualified women actually to apply to serve on juries. In 1958, Beatrice Dixon applied, was accepted - the first woman in Dublin since 1927 - but three years later she had still not been asked to serve. It took letters and articles in The Irish Times for her to be eventually selected - her concern not being the right of women to serve on a jury but the right of a defendant to be tried by a jury of both men and women.
A serving member of WAAF, a housewife, mother, lobbyist, historian, political aspirant, prize-winning gardener, Beatrice Dixon lived a life of challenge and variety. A regular contributor to the Letters page of The Irish Times (although not as prolific as her late husband, F.E.Dixon), Mrs Dixon in her latter years lived a quiet life, keeping in touch with her family and tending her garden.
Beatrice was born the younger of two girls. Her father, James Bayley-Butler, will be remembered by an older generation as a regular panellist on Radio Éireann's Information Please. He came from an Anglo-Irish family with a tradition of service as administrators in the East India Company. Following their return from India, he enrolled in college in London and then went on to the old Royal University in Dublin where he graduated in medicine. After serving as a doctor in the first World War, he turned to botany and zoology and for much of his life he was professor of zoology at UCD.
He was also involved in the manufacture of Biotox, the only woodworm treatment available in Ireland at that time.
Beatrice's mother was a McWeeney from a family with strong journalistic traditions (Paul in The Irish Times, Arthur in the Irish Independent, Myles in RTÉ). Following kindergarten, the girls' mother determined that, although Catholic, they would attend Alexandra College and when she was eight, Beatrice started in the "old" Alex on Earlsfort Terrace. She spent happy years in a friendly school "where the pupils were not pushed too hard," she recalled afterwards. For their final years of schooling, both girls were sent as boarders to the Ursuline Convent in Waterford.
On leaving school, Beatrice's sister Katherine studied Science in UCD but she had already set her sights on religious life and joined the Irish Sisters of Charity - but not before obtaining her pilot's flying licence, the first woman in Ireland to do so. Beatrice joined her father's manufacturing company, Biotox, and served in various capacities before being appointed as company secretary.
During the early years of the second World War she met her future husband, Freddy (F.E.) Dixon, lately come to Ireland to join the fledgling Meteorological Service; but after the death of her mother and her father's re-marriage, Beatrice went to England and joined the WAAF.
While serving as a meteorological observer at aerodromes in North Devon and Wiltshire, much of Beatrice's free time was spent in hitch-hiking and visiting historic sites throughout Britain whenever the opportunity arose. After demobilisation, she worked in London for two years before returning to Dublin.
Beatrice Bayley-Butler and Freddy Dixon were married in 1950 and when their only child Margery was born they moved to the house in Terenure where Beatrice continued to live after Freddy's death. Freddy, Beatrice and Sister Katherine were active members of the Old Dublin Society for over 50 years, each of them contributing papers on a variety of topics. Freddy's interests lay in weather, semi-scientific topics, stamps, postmarks, postcards, local history, coins, while Beatrice concentrated on philanthropists, "with one incursion into 18th century rogues", she later recalled.
She joined the Irish Housewives Association, a lobby group active whenever the price of food was raised. In the 1957 general election she ran as its candidate in the Dublin South-west constituency, but the election strategy was over-optimistic and after reaching the seventh count, she was eliminated along with Sean MacBride, Minister for External Affairs in the outgoing Inter-Party Government.
A lifelong member of the Irish Girl Guides, Beatrice arranged field trips and attended events throughout Europe. These experiences stood her in good stead later, when she was part of a group of bird-watchers who accompanied Gerrit van Gelderen on an expedition to Iceland. The outdoor catering arrangements were badly organised, "so I rolled up my sleeves and took over the provision of meals in difficult circumstances", she said - thereby earning the undying gratitude of the party.
Well into her later years Beatrice was an enthusiastic gardener and her lilies consistently won prizes at flower shows ("I get quite cross if I don't win"). She maintained a keen interest in current affairs and became concerned at the increasing materialism of Irish society. In an interview she gave to this newspaper some years ago, she said: "I have enjoyed every moment of my life - and have never been bored".
She is survived by her daughter Margery, son-in-law Melwyn and five grandchildren.
L.P.