Baroness Hale, 72, has today become the first female president of the Supreme Court - the UK's highest court

Baroness Hale today made history by becoming the first female president of the Supreme Court, Downing Street has announced.

The 72-year-old is a longstanding champion of diversity in the judiciary but last year lamented that this would mean the loss of 'boring old farts' who all thought the same - meaning judicial rulings would become less predictable, which was not a good thing for legal certainty.

Baroness Hale of Richmond, who is currently deputy president of the Supreme Court, succeeds Lord Neuberger.

Yorkshire-born Lady Hale will be officially sworn in as president on October 2.

On the same date, the Supreme Court will welcome three new justices - including a second female judge, Lady Justice Black.

Lady Hale's salary as head of the UK's highest court will be £225,000 a year.

She is among the last of the judges who can serve until the age of 75.

The baroness became the UK's first woman Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in January 2004, before the establishment of the Supreme Court in 2009.

Prior to that, she sat for five years in the Court of Appeal and five years as a High Court judge.

Describing herself as 'a feminist of the kind who would like to see changes in the way society is organised, rather than wanting women to conform to male-determined roles,' she is a long-standing critic of marriage although she has been married to her second husband for nearly 25 years.

She left first husband John Hoggett (with whom she had a daughter) for a fellow commissioner, Julian Farrand.

They married just 12 days after the divorce came through in 1992. Today, she and Farrand have grand homes in Westminster and in Richmond, North Yorkshire, filled with objets d'art including a stuffed rabbit, a stuffed mole, and dozens of ceramic frogs.

'It's an inside joke between us,' she once told an interviewer. 'My husband was my frog prince. Now people give us frogs.'

Her coat of arms carries the motto Omnia Feminae Aequissimae, meaning 'women are equal to everything'.

As a legal academic, she once wrote: 'We should be considering whether the legal institution of marriage continues to serve any useful purpose.'

The Yorkshirewoman is a longstanding champion of diversity in the judiciary but last year lamented that this would mean the loss of 'boring old farts' who all thought the same - meaning judicial rulings would become less predictable, which was not a good thing for legal certainty

In another article, she asked: 'Do we still think it necessary, desirable or even practicable to grant marriage licences to enter into relationships?'.

Her progressive outlook has also seen her champion gay adoptions and she is also in favour of legally recognised gay partnerships.

She has attracted controversy for her views on divorce and adoption, and caused widespread anger late last year when she intervened in the EU debate to claim the Government could be forced to repeal the European Communities Act before it could trigger Article 50.

Baroness Hale became the Supreme Court deputy president in 2013, and at the time described the appointment as an 'honour and a privilege'.

After graduating from Cambridge, she taught law at Manchester University from 1966 to 1984, also qualifying as a barrister and practising at the Manchester Bar.

She specialised in family and social welfare law, was founding editor of the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, and authored a pioneering case book on the family, law and society.

In 1984, she was the first woman to be appointed to the Law Commission.

Lady Hale became a High Court family judge in 1994 - and has been a Supreme Court judge since 2009.