Lady Dorothy Mills

Lady Dorothy Mills
Mills c. 1921
Born
Dorothy Rachel Melissa Walpole

(1889-03-11)11 March 1889
4 Queen's Gate Terrace, Kensington, London, UKGBI
Died4 December 1959(1959-12-04) (aged 70)
Brighton, Sussex, UK
Occupations
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1916; div. 1933)​
FatherRobert Walpole, 5th Earl of Orford
RelativesLady Anne Berry (half-sister)
FamilyWalpole family
Writing career
LanguageEnglish

Lady Dorothy "Dolly" Rachel Melissa Mills (née Walpole; 11 March 1889 – 4 December 1959) was a British explorer, travel writer and memoirist.[1][2][3]

Early life and family

Mills was born Dorothy Rachel Melissa Walpole on 11 March 1889 at 4 Queen's Gate Terrace, Kensington to Robert Walpole, a diplomat and former naval lieutenant, and Louise Melissa Walpole (née Corbin; 1866–1909).[1][3][4][5] Mills' father was the son of Frederick Walpole, a politician and member of the Walpole family, and her mother was the daughter of the American mining and railway magnate Daniel Chase Corbin.[1][3][4] The elder half-sister of the horticulturist Lady Anne Berry (née Walpole), Mills' brother Horatio Corbin Walpole (1891–1893) and half-sister Lady Gladys Walpole (1918–1919) died in infancy.[1][3][6][7][8][9]

In 1894, following the death of her great-uncle Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, Mills' father became the 5th Earl of Orford.[1] Like her mother Mills was educated in Paris.[1][3]

Career

Her travel adventures took her to places such as Liberia, the Bosphorous, Arabia, and Venezuela. She is believed to be the first "white woman" to visit Timbuktu, as described in her travelogue The Road to Timbuktu (1924).[10]

After being severely injured in a car accident in 1929, she recovered and resolved to become the first to discover the source of the Orinoco River in 1931, leading to her book, The Country of the Orinoco (1931). While planning a trip to Egypt and the Middle East,[11] her father, Lord Walpole, died in Manurewa, Auckland, New Zealand, on 27 September 1931.

She was a Soroptimist and a Founder Member of SI Greater London, which was chartered in 1923.

Personal life

In 1916, Mills married Captain Arthur F. H. Mills of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry after he was wounded in the First World War, being presented at the ceremony with a wedding ring made from a bullet that had been surgically removed from his ankle after he was wounded in combat at La Bassée, France. Mills was also an author of both fiction and non-fiction titles. Mills' father disapproved of the match and disinherited her.[3] Following death her maternal grandfather in 1918, Mills' was left a trust fund which could only be accessed following the death of her father.[4]

Lady Dorothy Mills filed a divorce decree in 1932, on the grounds of her husband's infidelity.[1][3][12] The divorce was granted the following year[1][3] after which Mills "retreated to a quiet and private life" at the seaside Steyning Mansions Hotel at Eastern Terrace in Brighton, publishing no more books before her death in 1959.[13]

Bibliography

Title Publisher Date Genre
Card Houses Eveleigh Nash Co.: London 1916 Novel
The Laughter of Fools Duckworth & Co.: London 1920 Novel
The Tent of Blue Duckworth & Co.: London 1922 Novel
The Road Duckworth & Co.: London 1923 Novel
The Arms of the Sun Duckworth & Co.: London 1924 Novel
The Road to Timbuktu Duckworth & Co.: London 1924 Travel
The Dark Gods Duckworth & Co.: London 1925 Novel
Beyond the Bosphorous Duckworth & Co.: London 1926 Travel
Phœnix Hutchinson & Co.: London 1926 Novel
Through Liberia Duckworth & Co.: London 1926 Travel
Master! Hutchinson & Co.: London 1927 Novel
Episodes from the Road to Timbuktu Unknown: London 1927 Travel
Jungle! Hutchinson & Co.: London 1928 Novel
The Golden Land:
A Record of Travel in West Africa		 Duckworth & Co.: London 1929 Travel
A Different Drummer:
Chapters in Autobiography		 Duckworth & Co.: London 1930 Memoir
The Country of the Orinoco Hutchinson & Co.: London 1931 Travel

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 McConnell, Anita (23 September 2004). "Mills [née Walpole], Lady Dorothy Rachel Melissa (1889–1959), traveller and novelist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/71441. Retrieved 13 July 2026. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ↑ "Lady Dorothy Mills (née Walpole)". National Portrait Gallery Collections. London: National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Dismore, Jane (2025). No Country For a Woman: The Adventurous Life of Lady Dorothy Mills, Explorer and Writer. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire: The History Press. ISBN 9781803996158. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 Arksey, Laura (2006). "Corbin, Daniel Chase, (1832-1918)". HistoryLink. Archived from the original on 22 May 2025. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  5. ↑ "No.296 Walpole et Corbin [marriage]". État-Civil 1792–1902; 02e arrondissement; 1888; Actes de naissance, de mariage et de décès. (in French). Paris: Archives Nationales. 1888.
  6. ↑ "Lady Anne Berry obituary". The Times. 26 September 2019. Archived from the original on 1 August 2024. Retrieved 13 July 2026.
  7. ↑ Horwood, Catherine (13 April 2023). "Berry [née Walpole; first married name Palmer], Lady Anne (1919–2019), horticulturist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000380994. Retrieved 13 July 2026. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  8. ↑ "Glayds G Walpole [birth index]". England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. 2b (Q2). London: General Register Office: 1116. 1918.
  9. ↑ "Gladys G S Walpole [death index]". England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. 4b (Q2). London: General Register Office: 82. 1919.
  10. ↑ "Discovering Lady Dorothy Mills". ladydorothymills.com. Archived from the original on 23 January 2009. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  11. ↑ "File 19/4". The National Archives (UK). Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  12. ↑ "J 77/3091/5200 Divorce Court File: 5200. Appellant: Lady Dorothy Rachel Melissa Mills. Respondent: Arthur Frederick Hobart Mills". The National Archives Discovery. Kew, Richmond: The National Archives. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  13. ↑ "The Lady Dorothy Mills". tvada.co.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
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