Ernestine Evans Mills (née Bell; 1871 – 6 February 1959) was an English metalworker and enameller who became known as an artist, writer and suffragette. [1] [2] She was the author of The Domestic Problem, Past, Present, and Future (1925). [3] Three pieces of jewellery that Mills created for the suffragettes are in the Museum of London. [4]
Mills was born in Hastings to Emily "Mynie" Ernest Bell (née Magnus; c. 1839 – 1893), an actor and classical musician, [5] and her husband, Thomas Evans Bell, a writer. [1] Mynie and Thomas Bell were both members of the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage. Mynie Bell was one of the signatories of the 1866 petition, organised by Barbara Bodichon, asking that all householders be given the vote. [1] [5]
She was educated at home with a governess, then at Notting Hill High School for Girls and taught drawing from a young age by the artist Frederic Shields, a friend of the family. [6]
Her father died in 1887 and her mother in 1893, and she was supported for a time by guardians, William Edward and Hertha Ayrton. [7] [ page needed ] She attended South Kensington School of Art Finsbury Central Technical School, and was awarded a place at the Slade Art School. [1] An apprentice to Frederic Shields, she also studied enamelling under Alexander Fisher. [8] [9] She acted as vice-president for the craft section of the Society of Women Artists for a period. [10]
In 1898 Mills married the doctor Herbert Henry Mills (1868–1947), who shared her Fabian views and was physician to Richard and Emmeline Pankhurst. [5] They had a daughter, Hermia Mills (1902–1987), who became a doctor. [1] [11]
In May 1915, Hertha Ayrton tested an 'anti-gas fan’ in Mill's back garden in Kensington. It was later adopted as a device to clear poisonous chemical gases from British frontline trenches during the First World War. [12] The story was transmuted into a scene in the 1924 novel The Call later written by Ayrton's step daughter Edith Zangwill. [7] [ page needed ] [13]
In 1907 Mills joined Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and by 1909 had joined the Fabian Women's Group. [1] According to the British National Archives, Mills was possibly the woman on the ground in the photograph on the Daily Mirror front page on 19 November 1910, the day after the "Black Friday" suffragette demonstration outside the House of Commons. [lower-alpha 1] The photograph was published under the headline: "Violent Scenes at Westminster Where Many Suffragettes Were Arrested While Trying to Force Their Way Into the House of Commons." [15] Other sources have identified the woman as the suffragette Ada Wright. [lower-alpha 2]
The Museum of London holds three pieces of jewellery Mills made for the suffragettes. One is an enamel-and-silver pendant of winged Hope singing outside prison bars with semi-precious stones of purple, green and white, [23] created to celebrate the release from prison of Louise Eates, Honorary Secretary of the Kensington branch of the WSPU. The other two are brooches, one in the WSPU colours, with the words "Votes for Women" in white on a green wreath and purple background, and the second, made for the Women's Freedom League (WFL), reads "Votes for Women" in the WFL colours: green, white and gold. [4]
Mills was the author of The Domestic Problem, Past, Present, and Future (1925), on the nature of domestic work, [3] and The Life and Letters of Frederic Shields (1912), a biography of her teacher. [24]
Mills was a member of the Soroptimist Greater London club, founded in 1924, and for which she created an enamelled President's badge in 1933. The Soroptimist International of London Mayfair commissioned a painted enamel President's badge from her in 1946, paying seven guineas for it. The design included their founding date of 1942 and commemorates the Alpha Club, founded in 1928, from which they grew, with the chain ultimately listing the names of the club's presidents from 1942 to 2006, including Flora Drummond. The chain is now held at the V&A Museum. [25]
Ernestine Mills died on 6 February 1959, aged 88. She was cremated at Mortlake Crematorium the ceremony attended by her daughter, Dr Hermia Mills, and members of the Society for Women Artists, [6] and the Soroptimist Club of Greater London.
Her obituary in The Times described her as "a vivid personality, well known in Kensington, where she lived all her life. A very unconventional upbringing of late Victorian days made her an Edwardian of the modern school, a friend of Mrs Pankhurst, and a champion of women’s rights. She had a courtesy and sympathy for all and was beloved of a large circle of friends." [6]
Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist who organised the British suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, Time named her as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating that "she shaped an idea of objects for our time" and "shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back". She was widely criticised for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and policies were tightly controlled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Sylvia was eventually expelled.
William Edward Ayrton, FRS was an English physicist and electrical engineer.
Phoebe Sarah Hertha Ayrton was a British engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor, and suffragette. Known in adult life as Hertha Ayrton, born Phoebe Sarah Marks, she was awarded the Hughes Medal by the Royal Society for her work on electric arcs and ripple marks in sand and water.
Black Friday was a suffragette demonstration in London on 18 November 1910, in which 300 women marched to the Houses of Parliament as part of their campaign to secure voting rights for women. The day earned its name from the violence meted out to protesters, some of it sexual, by the Metropolitan Police and male bystanders.
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members of the British Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil disobedience. In 1906, a reporter writing in the Daily Mail coined the term suffragette for the WSPU, derived from suffragist, in order to belittle the women advocating women's suffrage. The militants embraced the new name, even adopting it for use as the title of the newspaper published by the WSPU.
Mary Leigh was an English political activist and suffragette.
Mary Jane Clarke was a British suffragette. She died on Christmas Day 1910, two days after being released from prison, where she had been force-fed. She was described in her obituary by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence as the suffragettes’ first martyr. She was the younger sister of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.
Suffrage jewellery refers to jewellery worn by suffragists, including suffragettes, in the years immediately preceding the First World War, ranging from the homemade to the mass-produced to fine, one-off Arts and Crafts pieces. Its primary purpose was to demonstrate its wearer's allegiance to the cause of women's suffrage in the UK. Jewellery was a key mechanism used by British suffragists to identify themselves.
Georgina "Ina" Agnes Brackenbury was a British painter who was known as a militant suffragette. She was jailed for demonstrating for women's rights. She followed Emmeline Pankhurst's lead as she became more militant. Brackenbury was one of Emmeline Pankhurst's pallbearers. Her portrait of Pankhurst was bought by her memorial committee for the nation.
Marie Venetia Caroline Brackenbury (1866–1950) was a British painter who was a militant suffragette and suffragette artist. She was jailed for demonstrating for women's rights. She followed Emmeline Pankhurst's lead as she became more militant. Her home was known as "Mouse Castle" because it looked after recovering hunger strikers. The house now has a plaque which remembers the trio of her sister, her mother and Maria. She was the younger sister of Georgina Brackenbury, also a painter and militant suffragette.
Lettice Annie Floyd was a British suffragette. She is especially known for her openly lesbian relationship with fellow suffragette Annie Williams. During the suffragette campaign, Floyd and Williams were arrested and force-fed. After World War I, Floyd continued to campaign for women's rights and peace.
Florence Eliza Haig (1856–1952) was a Scottish artist and suffragette who was decorated for imprisonments and hunger strikes.
Ada Cecile Granville Wright was an English suffragette. Her photo on the front page of the Daily Mirror on 19 November became an iconic image of the suffrage movement.
Lucy Minnie Baldock was a British suffragette. Along with Annie Kenney, she co-founded the first branch in London of the Women's Social and Political Union.
Gladice Georgina Keevil was a British suffragette who served as head of the Midlands office of the Women's Social and Political Union between 1908 and 1910.
Ada Susan Flatman (1876–1952) was a British suffragette who worked in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Edith Hudson was a British nurse and suffragette. She was an active member of the Edinburgh branch of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and was arrested several times for her part in their protests in Scotland and London. She engaged in hunger strikes while in prison and was forcibly fed. She was released after the last of these strikes under the so-called Cat and Mouse Act. Hudson was awarded a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by the WSPU.
Louise Mary Eates was a British suffragette, chair of Kensington Women's Social and Political Union and a women's education activist.
The Holloway brooch was presented by the Women's Social and Political Union (WPSU) to women who had been imprisoned at Holloway Prison for militant suffragette activity. It is also referred to as the "Portcullis badge", the "Holloway Prison brooch" and the "Victoria Cross of the Union".
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