MILLER, EMMA (1839-1917), seamstress and women's rights and labour activist, was
born on 26 June 1839 at Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, daughter of Daniel
Holmes, a Unitarian cordwainer, and his wife Martha, née Hollingworth. Eldest of
four children, she walked with her Chartist father to political meetings up to ten
miles (16 km) away; he influenced her to rebel against the existing social order.
On 15 September 1857 at Chesterfield Register Office she married Jabez Mycroft
Silcock, a bookkeeper with whom she had eloped. They had four children whom she
eventually supported in Manchester by sewing twelve hours a day for six days a
week. Emma, now widowed, married on 30 August 1874 at Salford, Lancashire, William
Calderwood (d.1880), a stonemason. With her children, the couple migrated to
Brisbane, arriving in March 1879. Her third husband was Andrew Miller (d.1897), a
widower whom she married at Brisbane Registry Office on 21 October 1886.
View the full record at
Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
Emma Miller was foundation president of the Woman’s Equal Franchise Association between 1894 and 1905. The vote for women in Queensland State elections was finally won in 1905; women had had the right to vote in Federal elections since Federation, and voted for the first time in the 1903 Federal election. On 2 February 1912, known as Black Friday, at the height of a general strike, Miller led a contingent of women to Parliament House, avoiding police with fixed bayonets. The women were charged by baton swinging police on their return from Parliament House. Miller reputedly stuck her hatpin into a horse ridden by the Police Commissioner, Patrick Cahill. Cahill fell from his horse and claimed to have been permanently injured. Direct political action was not Miller’s only cause. She was anti-militarist and opposed conscription in World War I. She believed that ‘those who make the quarrel should be the only ones to fight’. As vice-president of the Women’s Peace Army, Miller attended the Peace Alliance Conference in Melbourne in 1916. She also fought hard for free speech and civil liberties. During the First World War, Miller preached equal pay to those fearing that women would take the jobs of men away at the war.
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15 September 1857
Married Jabez Mycroft Silcock (dec.), they had four children
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30 August 1874
Married William Calderwood (dec. 1880)
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March 1879
Migrated to Brisbane
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21 October 1886
Married Andrew Miller (dec. 1897)
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1890
Helped to form a female workers' union
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1891
Marched with shearers' strike prisoners when released
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1891
Gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Shops, Factories and Workshops
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1894 - 1905
Foundation president of the Woman's Equal Franchise Association
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1903
President of the Women Workers' Political Union
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1908
Delegate to the Commonwealth Labor conference
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2 February 1912
Led a contingent of women to Parliament House on 'Black Friday'
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1916
Delegate to the Australian Peace Alliance conference
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1916 - 1917
Campaigned against the conscription referendums
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22 January 1917
The flag at Brisbane's Trade Hall flew at half mast when Emma Miller died
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22 October 1922
A publicly funded marble bust was unveiled in the Trades Hall
View the full record at
Australian Women's Register