the renamed Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, attaining promotion to Deputy Counsel seven years later, becoming the first female under-secretary rank lawyer in the Civil Service. From 1960 to 1965, Eadie drafted the Supreme Court (general) rules, produced the matrimonial causes (amendment) rules, and revised the White Book on Supreme Court rules. She was appointed the CBE in 1965, and was attached to the Law Commission between 1965 and 1969, bringing about the passage of the Matrimonial Homes Act 1967 to protect the non-owning wife's right to stay in the matrimonial house and the Divorce Reform Act 1969 that aimed to radically reform divorce law. In 1968, Eadie was promoted to Parliamentary Counsel (deputy secretary rank), the first woman to hold the position. She drafted the Family Law Reform Act 1969, which lowered the age of majority from 21 to 18, introduced blood testing to establish disputed paternity. Eadie later drafted the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act 1970 that brought about improved support for a divorced spouse. She also worked on the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1970, the Highways, Licensing, and Attachment of Earnings Acts 1971, Superannuation, Affiliation Proceedings, and Maintenance Orders (Reciprocal Enforcement) Acts 1972 and the Friendly Societies Act 1974. Eadie retired from the Civil Service in 1972. She was made the first female Standing Counsel to the General Synod of the Church of England and drafted the Ecclesiastical Offices (Age Limits) Measure of 1974 to require bishops in the Church of England and their counterparts to retire at age 70. Eadie also drafted the Patronage (Benefices) Measure of 1976, which modernised the process in which the successors of bishops were appointed. She formally retired in 1978 but remained busy as a church worker and treasurer of London's New Cavendish Club. Personal life Eadie married the Canadian-born John Harold Ward Eadie (1908/9–1995) on 4 December 1946 and he predeceased her in 1995. The couple did not have children. Eadie moved to the Flowerdown Nursing Home, Winchester due to frailness in her final years, and died there from bronchopneumonia and cerebrovascular disease on 31 March 2001. Legacy Ruth Deech, the author of Eadie's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, described her as one who "unexpectedly become a champion of women seeking protection and freedom after failed marriages and a role model for other women in the law" in an era of radical law reform. References 1912