Hilary Meredith Beckham, The Woman Who Won 100's of Millions for Armed Forces Families

So welcome to Dawn of a New Era, the Billionaire Brain podcast. And today we have a very special guest, Hilary Meredith Beckham. Now, this podcast is talking about the woman who took on the Ministry of Defence and built a legacy business fighting for armed forces families. Now, welcome, Hilary, to the episode.

And I think today's conversation is even more special because I've known you for many, many years. Our offices were across the road from each other, and I've known you as an incredible professional woman, but also as a friend. You're an award-winning solicitor, business owner, campaigner, and one of the most respected legal voices for the British Armed Forces personnel, veterans, and their families. So on a personal note also, our worlds have crossed in many lovely ways across the years, and Hilary's daughter even did some work in my agency many, many years ago.

So this conversation feels like it's a real full circle moment. So Hilary spent decades on some of the most complex, highest-pressure cases, including Ministry of Defence, and has helped secure life-changing compensation for armed forces families. So today I want to talk about not just the legal cases, but the woman behind the work. So not just the founder or the business owner and the campaigner, but the lady who has changed so many lives.

So, Hilary, the first question I have for you is, obviously we've known each other for many years, and I've known you and admired you for not just what you've achieved, but with the conviction behind what you've done. So what first lit the fire in you to fight for people who needed a powerful voice in their corner? Wow. Good morning, and lovely to be here, Dawn.

And yes, we have known each other an awful long time. I suppose my kind of light bulb changing moment was when I was a junior lawyer in a city centre firm in Manchester, and a lady came into our office asking for a conveyance moving from Germany. And when my partner, senior partners, asked why she was moving, it was because her husband was a captain in the army, and she said he'd been killed on manoeuvres in Canada, and far-flung places, you know, away from home, and she had two small girls, and she wanted to know how her husband had died so she could tell her children when they were old enough. And I had a small child at the time.

I was absolutely horrified that in today's world, you couldn't be told how your husband had been killed. And it lit something in me. This is pre-computers, by the way, pre-mobile phones, pre-worldwide web. I had to go to Manchester Law Library and look up on microfiche what we could do about this, and I had found, incredibly, that the law changed 14 days before this lady came into the office, and if there was a death in service, you could bring a claim.

So, I mean, the coincidence was unbelievable. Was it, you know, was it luck? Is it fate? You don't know.

But I acted on it, and I issued the first what was then called writ against the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall in London for the death of this soldier, and nothing came back. They didn't reply. They didn't answer me. They didn't answer my letters.

Oh my God, what do I do? I'm just making the law up as we go along because nobody had done this before. And I issued what's called a judgment against the Ministry of Defence, which we now know it's against the Crown. You can't do it, and it was set aside.

So eventually I said, if you don't tell me what happened, I'm going to go to Germany. I'm going to find this regiment. I'm going to interview them all and find out what happened, and still nothing back. So I thought, oh my God.

I got on a plane, went to Germany, picked up a hire car, found the heavy artillery regiment in Dortmund, which I thought was a big gun. It's not. It's massive tanks. It was so exciting.

All these soldiers in uniform. I thought, I love this work. So, but, you know, frivolity aside, it was a very serious case. And these men in this regiment had lost their father figure, this captain who they adored, when a helicopter decided to do some sort of victory roll that went wrong and ploughed into the captain and killed him.

And he literally, he bled out in the scene in the middle of nowhere, in this huge place where they fire live ammunition in Battersea, Canada. And that went to the High Court in London. There were infant settlements involved, which had to be approved by a High Court judge. And in the back of the court, there was someone from the Daily Mail sat there, and they reported it on the front page, the first ever case against the Ministry of Defence.

And I was inundated by widows who just wanted to know how their husbands had died. And I cannot believe, and even now, even today, all these years later, it's quite difficult to find out what happened. You have to dig and dig and dig. It's like a massive jigsaw puzzle.

And my passion, running around the country with these women trying to dig and find out what had gone wrong. And inevitably, the reasons they were told for the fatality, when we'd finished digging and uncovering the truth, bear no resemblance to what they were originally told. That still sends shivers down my spine today. And I've sat and marinated at coroner's court, and knowing the truth, and when we uncover it, it's, you know, it's shocking.

So, yeah, that's the passion that drives me to find the truth of what actually happened. And I love that because I think some of the most powerful businesses and change in society, it often comes from something that's far deeper than, you know, spotting a gap in the market. You know, it's born from conviction. So when you build like that, it's not just ambition, is it?

It's a different energy. You're coming at it from like it's your life's mission. So obviously you didn't just become a solicitor. You built this specialist legal business as a result.

What made you decide to build from your own firm and back yourself as a business owner? Because there's many routes you could have gone at that point. Yeah, I was working in a city centre practice in Manchester, and I'd been there a long time. I actually rose to managing partner in this practice.

And when I arrived in the firm, there were 24 staff. By the time I decided to leave, I'd built it up to 300 staff. It was massive. It was a huge machine with many, many thousands of legal cases.

But I suppose I was in a comfort zone, and I wouldn't say I was a bit bored, but I wasn't being stretched, and I was looking for a new challenge. And it was a barrister actually who kept saying to me, Set up your own company, Hilary. And I kept saying, I can't do that. I can't do that.

Not me. How on earth do you set up a law firm? That's big. You know, how would you do it?

And he kept saying, You can do it. You can do it. You build up this fantastic military practice. Go it alone.

So eventually, I started thinking, maybe I could. And surprisingly, the biggest thing was making the leap from a comfort zone and a well-paid job into the unknown. But it was exciting as well. It was scary, but exciting.

And when I actually did it, the hardest thing was making the leap. The easiest thing was setting up the firm. But once you've set that firm up, the big thing is sustaining it. And that's the challenge.

Setting up is easy. Sustaining it is the hard bit. And that's like led me perfectly onto your next question. Okay.

You know, as a business owner, you're taking on cases, and, you know, the scale must have come with, like, a vast responsibility and risk and also pressure. So how do you learn to carry that sort of pressure without letting it overwhelm you? Because it's not just the cases and the family, it's the business and the team and the staff and all the things that come with that. And that's twofold.

Yeah, I think you sort of get used to that amount of pressure. In fact, you just get used to living with it. I always do the cup, you know, my cup's half full, it's two thirds full. Oh, it's overflowing, help me.

Occasionally I do get to the point where the cup is well and truly flooded. I think you've got to take time out. I go walking around the edge. In fact, I power walk round, even in your lunch hour, half an hour power walking outside in the woods, in the fresh air, round a park, just getting outside and not being stuck to your computer.

That's really important. I also do barcore in the evenings as well. And sometimes it's just like, you know, a 40-minute class, just relaxing and doing something. I think you've got to, sport or walking, being in the fresh air definitely is a grounder.

You can't just work flat out all the time, which I do actually. It becomes consuming, doesn't it? But I'm a big advocate of getting space and, like, obviously we're very lucky to live in such a green space where we have magical places to kind of go walk around. I think even just taking time out from your desk.

And you get clarity in thinking. I always say to people, like, if there's a big issue or a challenge, step away, sit outside for a minute. Yeah, it never feels as bad, does it, you know, when we go back to it. I mean, you've had some incredible accolades, and if you were to chart one as your sort of life-changing moment when you were like, I started this business and I've really made it, what was that point?

Gosh, I have. I've been very fortunate to win a lot of accolades. I was recently made a Dame of the Order of St Francis, and that was really special. It's not an English damehood; it's a foreign one from Rome.

And the Prince of Castiglia and Sicily came over to the UK to award it to me, and that was for my service to the military and law, and that was really, really special. I never thought in my life that I would be awarded something like that, so that was a great honour. But, you know, just winning a case. Yeah, winning a case, winning a big difficult case.

We've just spent nine years fighting for the soldiers who took the anti-malarial drug Lariam. Of course, we had the COVID years in the middle, and anybody in business who's had COVID years in the middle, we're still feeling the knock-on effect of COVID. And the case was dragged out so long, and we don't get paid unless we win. So for nine years without pay, which consumed the whole office, it was like the Post Office case.

It was massive, lots and lots of military personnel involved. It settled on a global settlement to the clients at the end of 2005. There is a confidentiality order slapped on it by the Ministry of Defence, but it was a substantial damages, and everybody received compensation, and that was a big, big fight for me. And to win that case was huge, and a massive relief.

But huge, and now we're starting again. We've got more. I swore to my family I'd never take on something like this again. I mean, there are massive cases.

We're only a small law firm, but somebody has to do it and take on the challenge. So there's another one on its way. Wow. And I mean, this takes a tremendous toll on your family, and I love the fact that you met your husband through your charitable work.

So how has it impacted, obviously, your family and your life? Because you've dedicated a lot of that to the other families, and how does that balance work? What have you found has been to your detriment of having this passion? I think I've got the full support of my family.

We've recently had another grandson who's called Teddy after my husband, Ted, and I miss spending—I would like to spend more time with him. That's probably the downside. I try and spend as much time as possible. It would be nice to have a Friday off and have a Friday with a grandchild, but, you know, we keep going.

My husband would like me to retire as well. I don't think I'm ready yet. There's still a couple of fights left in me before I retire. So, yeah, balancing family life is hard.

It is difficult, but I try and make time. That's the best you can do. You try and make time. Yeah.

And do you feel like your daughter has followed in your footsteps of, obviously, your passion for business? Yeah, I mean, she's definitely very passionate for business. She's got a good business brain on her, actually. She considered coming back into law, but then has gone into marketing and advertising in the pharmaceutical industry.

She's doing great, and she is just considering— Stepping out and going it alone, so it is an old chip off the block there. Full circle, it happens to the best of us. I mean, I started my business at 21, and I think back to that, and I had such a crazy conviction. I was fearless, and I didn't know how to start a business.

I didn't know any of that, but I just, I knew it would all be okay. I think one of the things I found is carving out at such a young age in very much tech and marketing areas. Like, I started my business when the internet began. I was working in a very male-dominated environment, and as a woman being a serious business owner, and also you being a serious business lady in law and dealing with powerful organisations, I imagine that there may have been a few moments where you were underestimated.

So, for our listeners, was that ever the case? And did being underestimated ever become part of your power? It's an interesting question, that. I mean, I come from an era where women were not allowed to wear trousers in court because it was so male-dominated.

There were very, very few people, very few women in law. It was a very much a male-dominated profession, and I used to wear my highest heels to court because I'm quite tall anyway, to make sure that I... Was taller than the men I was speaking to because psychologically that gave you a huge advantage somehow, being taller. But yeah, I think it was very difficult when I started out being a female in law.

But I went into meetings in London where people have thought I was a note taker or the secretary, and then suddenly I've led the meeting, and they've been so shocked I've kind of overpowered them. And it's quite a nice feeling that actually when that happens, but I think I'm taken seriously nowadays. Yeah, because you don't have to be the loudest person in the room. And I think sometimes, I mean, I remember going into a networking event and I went to shake someone's hand and this gentleman just refused.

And often I was kind of shunned in meetings, but then I was going into large tech organisations and doing the same, actually heading up the presentation or speaking at their keynote. So for me, I think one of the biggest questions I've got is when you look back at everything and, you know, what you've built and what you've fought for, obviously you're going into another huge, tremendous case, what do you hope your legacy will be? Gosh, that's an interesting question as well. I think the area I've built was an unknown area of the law.

Nobody had ever done this before. I was the first on the scene, and for 20 years I was the only lawyer in this space doing this area of the law, and I'm still recognised now as the kind of specialist in this area. So to bring a voice to the ministry who are not allowed to join a trade union, they have in-house lawyers, but they're not independent, have a great fear of talking to civilians and civilian lawyers. I've opened up a gateway.

For the military, their families and veterans to gain information and hope about what went on and what happened in sometimes, you know, the most serious of cases. And I'm talking about, I've done cases on the battlefield in conflicts from Iraq and Afghanistan and death in service cases there in Bosnia, Gulf War One. So we're looking at incidents on the battlefield as well and changing the law. I've changed the way we call in airstrikes from the U.

S. military. We were using different coordinates, which we shouldn't have been using, and they're now checked. They're double-checked before an airstrike comes in.

So all sorts of things like that where we've actually made a difference, to hand that over to potentially, I mean, maybe a law firm that wanted to look at buying us, but to hand over that legacy so it continues and the military always have a voice. That's what's important. I still think it's crazy, you know, in 2026 where some of our laws are and fairness seems to lack. I mean, thinking about even women in business, there's only 1.

8% of women who ever hit seven figures. What would be your message to women starting business? Because it is the hardest bit I always found was just starting, and after that you're in it and you're kind of running on the adrenaline. What would be your message to someone who is either looking to start a business or who is going through a particularly difficult series in business?

Because it's always difficult. The challenges just change. What would be your message to our female founders? Never give in.

That's the biggie. Never give in, because there's always hope. As long as you've got hope, you can always do something. And when I started out, people used to talk about the glass ceiling, and I say, What glass ceiling?

There isn't a glass ceiling. Just keep pushing and pushing and pushing, and don't give in. And it pays off. You know, you might feel you're being annoying, but just keep going, keep going, and it pays off.

And you don't know how incredible you are until you, you know, you've pushed yourself sometimes to the limits, but just keep going. Yeah, I totally agree. And I think one of the most powerful parts of this conversation is that the reason that we start our businesses is we start from a blank canvas, and we're making impact. We're changing how people think and feel and live.

So from a founder's point of view, obviously, we're talking about the billionaire brain and how...

Extraordinary business owners carve out something that to most would be daunting or truly exceptional. Where did you find your darkest, deepest time in business was, and how did you build the resilience to get out of that? Yeah, I think probably one of the darkest times was during the larynx litigation because we were up against one defendant, the Ministry of Defence, with all the money and all the power. And they were stretching the case out as long as they could to literally starve us from paying the salaries and the overheads.

And at one point, I didn't know what I was going to do. I thought the business was going to go under. But, you know, overnight I was thinking, what can we do? What can we do?

And we managed to—I went and spoke to the bank, who were absolutely brilliant. You know, until you start speaking to people, you don't know; they have great empathy. And we were with a bank who really believed in what we were doing and the military that we were acting for. They extended the overdraft and extended the overdraft, and we practically run the case on the bank overdraft, which was amazing.

We then got top-up insurance from litigation funders, who topped us up again over nine years and kept us going. So until you start thinking—I hate this expression, outside the box—but just thinking on a different level, what can you do to keep going, and how can you succeed? And just never give up. And we got through it, and we won the case.

And everybody will pay back. Yeah, 24 hours makes a big difference, doesn't it? Because there's always, it's like that expression, when there's a will, there's a way. You just have to keep pushing different things and seeing where it flows.

I mean, you're a brilliant example of what it means to use your expertise not just to build success, but to obviously change lives. And for everyone listening, I hope this conversation really reminds you of, you know, the fact that your business can be so much more than a business. You know, it can be a body of work. It can be something that you stand for and you believe in.

You can use your business to have a voice. And I've done that myself over the years from bridging the digital skills gap, closing salaries gaps for females in the tech and digital market. So it can also be a thing that changes lives. And, you know, even moments that have passed and many years on, you know, you'll be remembered definitely for the changes you've made, Hilary.

So what would be the parting statement, comment, advice that you would leave for our listeners today? One thing I've always thought of is I think it's actually an advantage being a female in a male-dominated industry, because I think we break down barriers easily. We can go up and speak to people and talk to people, whereas sometimes men don't do that. They don't cross-communicate in other areas of the business.

I think we're great communicators. And I think most definitely in the area that I'm in, which obviously Ministry of Defence is male-dominated, the law is male-dominated, the armed forces are male-dominated, and I'm a lone female standing up for people's rights. And I think that's an advantage. So don't think because you're a female it's a disadvantage.

It's a positive advantage. Yeah, and step into your power. Absolutely. Where can our listeners find and connect with you to follow on your story of the work that you're going to be doing in the future?

So I'm on most social media accounts. I'm on Instagram and on our website, Hilary Meredith Sisters. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

I really, really enjoyed catching up with you as well. Well, I'm so excited to see what is coming in the future and obviously this big case. One last thing I would like to say is that obviously with the work that you're doing at the moment and obviously the inspiration that you are to other females, is there one area, if someone's looking to get into law and is inspired by your journey, or a resource that they could go to? Yeah, I mean, 60% of new recruits are now female in law, which is great.

I know. I think we make very good lawyers. I think your starting point is maybe the Law Society website. That's full of information of how to get into law.

And when I set up, the Law Society actually had a tick box of points you had to do to set up a law firm, which was very simple and I could understand it. I thought it was great. So definitely the Law Society is a good website to get to if you're thinking of setting up your own business. I love that.

So it all started from a checklist from a website. It's crazy, isn't it, the things that we do. So thank you everyone for listening to Dawn of a New Era, the podcast and The Billionaire Brain. And if you enjoyed this episode, please go and follow Hilary and her journey.

And also if you can follow and rate and review the podcast too. So thanks everyone for joining and take care. Have a lovely week. Love you to see you, Dawn.

Thanks.