Alice Edith Millen

Alice Edith Vlieland née Millen

Alice Edith Millen was born 31 Mar 1861 Stalisfield Kent and died September  1944 in Surrey N.E.
She was the daughter of William Millen and Phoebe Millen née Coulson.
Wiliam Millen was a well to do farmer and land owner of Syndale Valley Stalisfield,Faversham .

Alice Edith Millen was the wife of Charles James Vlieland.
She and Charles James Vlieland had 4 children.
Francis Maude Vlieland born Sept 1884 ST.Thomas Devon and who married Reginald Peel in June 1906 ST.Thomas Devon.
Dorothy Vlieland born March 1886 ST.Thomas and who died June 1917 Exeter.
Phoebe Mary VlielandChristening: 05 FEB 1888 Ospringe, Kent, England who married Dudley Eugene Batty in June 1912.
Charles Archibald Vlieland

In the London Archives we find.
spinster Alice Edith, wife of Charles James Vlieland of , doctor Premises: 1 Friars Walk Consideration: £400 Date: 20 January 1920 With schedule of deeds, 1869-1911. [Devon Record Office, Devon Record Office...] Date: 1920.
Source: Access to Archives (A2A): not kept at The National Archives.
Mortgage
1. Elsie McLaren
Mary Penelope Barnes
Alice Edith Vlieland
2. National Provincial Bank Ltd.
Premises: 1 Friars Walk, Exeter
Date: 17 June 1927
With schedule of deeds, 1831-1927
Endorsed: Reconveyance, 17 August 1928
To be Commanders of the Civil Division of
the said Most Excellent Order

We know she known in the family as `Lally`

Alice Edith. Mrs. .Vlieland. For political and
public services in Exeter gazette 4 january 1927

brothers of Alice are
Name: James George Millen
Gender: Male
Baptism/Christening Date: 17 Jul 1862
Baptism/Christening Place: Stalisfield, Kent, England
Baptism/Christening Place: St.James, Croydon, Surrey, England
Name: Frank Millen
Gender: Male
Baptism/Christening Date: 18 Jul 1869
Baptism/Christening Place: Stalisfield, Kent, England

As the wife of the mayor ,the mayoress , she was involved in all kind of social functions.

She was a great in attending  Bazars and shows and concerts

Alice Edith's Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) was at least partly awarded for her work looking after new and expectant mothers in the lying-in (maternity) wards of what were then the inner-city Exeter slums of Heavitree. Mothers from poor homes were often badly nourished so that their children were born underweight and child mortality was very high; puerperal fever (child-bed fever) was also endemic in the crowded wards: it was only after the First World War that it was fully realised that doctors and midwives themselves could spread the usually fatal disease from mother to mother.

Alice Vlieland Health Centre in Exeter is named after her.

But it is sad there is no photograph or sign to explain her importance for Exeter.

The existence of local entrepreneurs in the field of public health who were independent of the council was indeed possible at this period. Mrs Vlieland, who created what was dubbed the ‘Society of Worrying Women’ and through them a network of Infant Welfare Centres for Exeter (Browne, E&E 30 Oct 1929)

was one such individual.
Saturday 01 January 1927 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette (extract)

No honour in the list is more thoroughly deserved than that. of the Commander of the Order of the British Empire which has been bestowed on Mrs. C. J. Vlieland, of Southernhay, Exeter, and it will give genuine satisfaction to her large circle of friends and those among whom he has worked so hard. The honour has undoubtedly to a great extent been given to Mrs. Vlieland in recognition of her untiring and unselfish work among the mothers and children of Exeter.

It is now 21 years since Mrs. Vlieland and a number of other’ enthusiastic members of the National Union of Women Workers embarked upon their infant welfare work in the city. The work was that of pioneers, for Exeter’s first infant Welfare Centre was started in the same year that the first similar organisation in London-St. Pancras -was established. ...

Mrs. Vlieland was one of the first lady Governors of the Royal Devon. and Exeter Hospital, for which her husband has done valuable work. She is also President of the Exeter Blanket Charity and a member of the Exeter Lying in Charity. In another phase of public work Mrs. Vlieland has done yeoman work. We refer to her work for the Conservative Party in Exeter. Up to quite recently she has been Chairman for a good many years of the women’s branch of the Conservative and Unionist Association.


Wednesday 11 December 1929 - Exeter and Plymouth Gazette (extract)

The Court having been opened, the Town Clerk read the resolution of the Council in regard to the freemanship. It recorded that Mrs. Alice Edith Vlieland, C.B.E., be admitted an honorary freeman of the City and County of the City of Exeter in recognition of the eminent services rendered by her to the city, and that a record of such admission be illuminated and suitably framed for presentation …

Mayoral Tribute “You, Mrs Vlieland, have devoted your life to the welfare of the city (Hear, Hear)…during the whole of the years that have passed you have devoted practically the whole of your life to those who have needed it most, to the helpless little children, especially the children of the poor, those who, without your help would not have bad half the chance of life your work has enabled them to have.”