Hilma Molyneux Parkes

Her parents were Emilie Matilda née Toutin (descended from a Walloon family) and Birger Lorentz Ekenberg.

Her younger brother was the chemist Martin Ekenberg, sometimes credited as the inventor of the letter bomb.

As she herself recounted she was educated alongside her brothers and taught to form her own opinions and discuss current affairs within the family.

[3] She, at some point, gained some medical expertise as she became a ward sister at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney after she emigrated in 1883 together with an older brother.

[4] The Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales began in 1891 and this attracted the interest of fellow campaigners that included Dora Montefiore, Rose Scott, Maybanke Wolstenholme[5] and Parkes became one of its founding vice-Presidents.

Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales, 1902, back row, standing (L to R) Mrs Jackson (President of the Redfern Branch), Mrs Wynn (President of the Annandale Branch), Miss Caldwell (Camperdown), Mrs T.?? Parkes (President of the Toxteth League), Mrs Hansen (President of the Newtown Branch). Middle row, seated, Mrs McDonald (President of the Glebe Branch), Miss Annie Golding (Organising Secretary of the United Branches), Mrs Chapman (Secretary of the Redfern Branch), front row, seated, Mrs C. Martel (Recording Secretary of the Central League), Miss Belle Golding (Secretary of the Newtown Branch), Mrs Dickie (ex-President of the Newtown League), Mrs Dwyer (Secretary of the Camperdown Branch), from Further Freeman Studio, Sydney, photographic portraits, State Library of New South Wales, ON 219 (96)