Christchurch and managed a restaurant at the International Exhibition. She married Alfred Mark Ralph De Costa, a Wellington sharebroker, in 1907, and moved to live with him in Wellington. She continued her legal practice, in an office adjacent to her husband's, and began to specialise in property speculation. In 1908, the De Costas moved to England and during World War I Ethel De Costa managed a bank in Sheffield. She also worked in a law firm, but couldn't practise law fully until the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act was passed in 1919. Between the wars, the De Costas lived in southern France and Italy. Alfred died just before the Second World War started, but Ethel continued to work as a lawyer in London. Ethel was accidentally struck by a motor vehicle, and died of a fractured skull at Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood, Middlesex, England, on 14 October 1943. Legacy The Ethel Benjamin Prize for women was established in 1997 by the New Zealand Law Foundation, to mark the centenary of the admission of Ethel Benjamin as New Zealand's first woman barrister and solicitor. the $20,000 NZD prize is awarded annually, to two female recipients. Past recipients include Claudia Geiringer (2001) and Jessica Palmer (2004). Ethel Benjamin Place, a cul-de-sac across the road from the University of Otago Central Library, was named after the lawyer, during Suffrage Centennial Year 1993. In 2019, three Belgian entrepreneurs continued to honour her legacy by calling their legal tech and design agency "Ethel". See also Cornelia Sorabji in India Eliza Orme in England First women lawyers around the world Ivy Williams in England References Further reading External links University of Otago Law Faculty welcome New Zealand Law Foundation Scholarship details Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand - Jews Ethel Benjamin address - early women lawyers Ethel Benjamin Scholarship 1875 births 1943 deaths New Zealand Jews Lawyers from Dunedin University of Otago alumni People educated at Otago Girls' High School New Zealand women lawyers 19th-century New Zealand lawyers 20th-century New Zealand lawyers 20th-century women lawyers 19th-century women lawyers