Ernestine Mills


Ernestine Evans Mills was an English metalworker and enameller who became known as an artist, writer and suffragette. She was the author of The Domestic Problem, Past, Present, and Future. Three pieces of jewellery that Mills created for the suffragettes are in the Museum of London.

Background

Mills was born in Hastings to Emily "Mynie" Ernest Bell, an actor and classical musician, and her husband, Thomas Evans Bell, a writer. 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.
After her parents died, she was supported for a time by guardians, William Edward and Hertha Ayrton. She attended the Slade Art School, Finsbury Central Technical School, and South Kensington School of Art. An apprentice to Frederic Shields, she also studied enamelling under Alexander Fisher. She acted as vice-president for the craft section of the Society of Women Artists for a period.
In 1898 Mills married the doctor Herbert Henry Mills, who shared her Fabian views and was physician to Richard and Emmeline Pankhurst. They had a daughter, Hermia Mills, who became a doctor.

Activism

In 1907 Mills joined Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union and by 1909 had joined the Fabian Women's Group. 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. 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." Other sources have identified the woman as the suffragette Ada Wright.

Works

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, 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, reads "Votes for Women" in the WFL colours: green, white and gold.
Mills was the author of The Domestic Problem, Past, Present, and Future, on the nature of domestic work, and The Life and Letters of Frederic Shields, a biography of her teacher.