Florence Fenwick Miller (sometimes Fenwick-Miller, 5 November 1854 – 24 April 1935) was an English journalist, author and social reformer of the late 19th and early 20th century. She was for four years the editor and proprietor of ''

The Woman's Signal ''The Woman's Signal'' was a weekly British feminist magazine published by Marshall & Son, London, from 4 January 1894 to 23 March 1899. The magazine was edited by Lady Henry Somerset, Annie Holdsworth and Florence Fenwick-Miller. Although pri ...

'', an early and influential feminist journal.

Biography

Florence Fenwick Miller was born in

Stepney Stepney is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. Stepney is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name was applied to ...

,''1861 England Census'' the eldest daughter of John Miller, a merchant sea-captain, and of Eleanor Estabrook Miller, daughter of a railway engineer. Privately educated as a child, she read for a medical degree at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

from 1871, in the year following the

Edinburgh Seven The Edinburgh Seven were the first group of matriculated undergraduate female students at any British university. They began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869 and, although the Court of Session ruled that they should neve ...

, the first females to be admitted to the course. Like the Seven, she was unable to pursue clinical practise and Edinburgh declined to award a degree to her. Edinburgh University had decided against awarding medical degrees to women. In 1873 she took a

midwifery Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many cou ...

certificate at the

Ladies' Medical College The Ladies' Medical College (renamed The Obstetrical College for Women) was a short-lived English medical college for women, established in 1864 by the Female Medical Society. It offered courses in midwifery and diseases associated with women and c ...

in London. Despite her training, Miller quickly moved away from medical practice towards wider spheres. She quickly established herself as a lecturer on literary and social reform topics, debating in London at the Sunday Lecture Society, appearing before the

London Dialectical Society The London Dialectical Society was a British professional association that was formed in 1867, the basis of its constitution was "That truth is of all things the most to be desired, and is best elicited by the conflict of opposing opinions." and t ...

(which was engaged in investigating the phenomenon of

Spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...

; James Edmunds, the founder of the Ladies' Medical College was a committee member); and giving talks throughout the country. She was an early and vocal advocate of

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

and, later, in 1889, was one of the founders, with

Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Pankhurst (; Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was a British political activist who organised the British suffragette movement and helped women to win in 1918 the women's suffrage, right to vote in United Kingdom of Great Brita ...

, of the

Women's Franchise League The Women's Franchise League was a British organisation created by the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst together with her husband Richard and others in 1889, fourteen years before the creation of the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903. The P ...

. Miller also wrote, as journalist and author of fiction and non-fiction. In the former capacity she contributed very widely, including to ''

Fraser's Magazine ''Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country'' was a general and literary journal published in London from 1830 to 1882, which initially took a strong Tory line in politics. It was founded by Hugh Fraser and William Maginn in 1830 and loosely direc ...

'', '' Lett's Illustrated Household Magazine'', ''

Belgravia Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a dangerous pla ...

'', and ''

The Governess ''The Governess'' is a 1998 British period drama film written and directed by Sandra Goldbacher. The screenplay focuses on a young Jewish woman of Sephardic background, who reinvents herself as a gentile governess when she is forced to find wo ...

'', the '' Lady's Pictorial'', ''

The Woman's World ''The Woman's World'' was a Victorian women's magazine published by Orion Publishing Group, Cassell between 1886 and 1890, edited by Oscar Wilde between 1887 and 1889, and by Ella Hepworth Dixon from 1888.. Foundation In the late nineteenth ce ...

'', the '' Young Woman'', and '' The Echo''. She was for 32 years, from 1886, the 'Ladies' Notes' columnist for the ''

Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'', founded by Herbert Ingram and first published on Saturday 14 May 1842, was the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. The magazine was published weekly for most of its existence, switched to a less freq ...

''. Progressing in her career, she was from 1892 editor of two magazines for colonists, ''

Outward Bound Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organisations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt in 1941 based on the educational principles of Kurt Hahn. Today there are organisations, called schools, i ...

'' and '' Homeward Bound''. In 1895 she assumed control of and edited ''

'', until 1899 a leading feminist publication. She later wrote for the '' Daily News''. Her output as an author was wide: making use of her medical training, she published from 1878 onwards several books on anatomy, including contributing two books to the Hughes's Natural History Readers series. In 1879 she published a three volume fiction, ''Lynton Abbott's Children''; in 1883 a book on Social Economy, and in 1884 a biography of the writer

Harriet Martineau Harriet Martineau (12 June 1802 – 27 June 1876) was an English social theorist.Hill, Michael R. (2002''Harriet Martineau: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives'' Routledge. She wrote from a sociological, holism, holistic, religious and ...

. After she took over ‘Women’s Signal’ as editor, Florence Fenewick Miller changed the publications tagline to “A Weekly Record and Review devoted to the Interests of Women in the Home and in the Wider World.” This therefore allowed Miller to publish information about fashion, motherhood and the home whilst not sacrificing her passion of educating and informing women about the ”progress in the cause of the equal rights and the general advancement of women”. Miller also engaged herself more directly in social reform. She was elected as a Liberal to the Hackney division of the

London School Board The School Board for London, commonly known as the London School Board (LSB), was an institution of local government and the first directly elected body covering the whole of London. The Elementary Education Act 1870 ( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 75) was ...

in 1876 at the comparatively young age of 22, and held office from 1877–1885. Frederick Rogers, a fellow board member, describes her: Like her predecessor

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (9 June 1836 – 17 December 1917) was an English physician and suffragist. She is known for being the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon and as a co-founder and dean of the London School o ...

, Fenewick Miller served whilst getting married and went further to also go through pregnancy and child birth as an elected member.Emma Liggins. (2014). "Not an Ordinary "Ladies' Paper": Work, Motherhood, and Temperance Rhetoric in ''The Woman's Signal''." ''Victorian Periodicals Review''. 47 (4), 613-630) She spoke widely on women's suffrage, later in her career acting as an international delegate, notably visiting Chicago in 1893 for the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...

and the

World's Congress of Representative Women The World's Congress of Representative Women was a week-long convention for the voicing of women's concerns, held within Art Institute of Chicago Building, the World's Congress Auxiliary Building in conjunction with the World's Columbian Expositio ...

; and again in 1902 as part of the

International Council of Women The International Council of Women (ICW) is a women's organization working across national boundaries for the common cause of advocating women's rights, human rights for women. In March and April 1888, women leaders came together in Washington D.C ...

. Her international links brought her into association with leading American suffragists. She resigned from the International Women's Suffrage Committee in 1904. Florence Fenwick Miller dedicated much of her life to the

Women’s suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffrage was in effect during ...

Movement. In 1883 she headed a meeting on what was later known as the “New Reform Bill”. This allowed women to the Parliamentary franchise of the same terms as men. Fenwick Miller gave five lectures all titled, ‘Women’s Work in the World” given in July and August 1883. In the Autumn of that same year she gave further talks, namely “Women and The New Reform Bill’ Miller made an unsuccessful marriage with Frederick Alfred Ford; they had two daughters, Irene (who became a WSPU activist, leading direct action, and was imprisoned several times) and Helen, but separated. L. A. Flammang, in a review of a biography of Miller, notes that Ford contributed little to the family and suggests that, in part, the volume of Miller's output was related to her straitened economic circumstances. Miller continued to use her own name after the marriage (Frederick Rogers noting that she changed it from Miss Fenwick Miller to Mrs. Fenwick Miller), leading to litigation seeking to remove her from her London School Board office for sitting under an illegal name: Miller prevailed, and the case established the precedent that women need not take the surname of their husband. Litigation happened with respect to the school boards. Helen Taylor,

Elizabeth Surr Elizabeth Surr (1820 – 1901) was a British educational reformer. She was successful in getting elected to the London School Board where she led the exposure of mistreatment of children in industrial schools. Early life Surr was born in Rochfor ...

and Miller brought to public notice in 1882 certain scandals at St. Paul's Industrial School. The home secretary instituted an inquiry, and the school was ordered to be closed. In June 1882, Thomas Scrutton, a member of the school board and chairman of its industrial schools sub-committee, brought an action for libel against Taylor. Miller died on 24 April 1935 in

Hove Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...

, Sussex. A biography, ''Florence Fenwick Miller: Victorian Feminist, Journalist and Educator'' written by Rosemary T. Van Arsdel, was published by

Ashgate Publishing Ashgate Publishing was an academic book and journal publisher based in Farnham (Surrey, United Kingdom). It was established in 1967 and specialised in the social sciences, arts, humanities and professional practice. It had an American office in ...

in 2001.

Works

*Anatomy **''The House of Life'' (1878) **''An Atlas of Anatomy'' (1879) **''Animal Physiology for Elementary Schools'' (1882) *Social reform **''Readings in Social Economy'' (1883) **''On the Programme of the Women's Franchise League, An Address Delivered at the National Liberal Club, Feb. 25, 1890'' (1890) *Biography **''The Lessons of a Life: Harriet Martineau. A Lecture, Etc'' (1877) **''Harriet Martineau'' (1884) *Fiction **''Lynton Abbott's Children'' (1879, 3 volumes)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Florence 1854 births 1935 deaths People from Stepney English women medical doctors English obstetricians English columnists English magazine editors English women journalists Victorian women writers Victorian writers English suffragists 19th-century English women writers 19th-century English journalists Members of the London School Board British women magazine editors English women magazine editors English women columnists

Biography

Works

Further reading

References

External links