Ernestine Mills

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][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.

[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.

[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.

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.

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.