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Published: 2nd June, 2011
by DAN CARRIER

DAME Barbara Mills, who has died aged 70, will go down in history as the first female Director of Public Prosecutions.

But for friends and neighbours in Camden Town, she will be remembered for hundreds of private acts of kindness and a life given to public service as a school governor and an unpaid director at the Royal Free Hospital.

Barbara was born in Chorley Wood in 1940, and was evacuated with her sister Sheila to Bath – a decision that was not wholly sensible as the Gloucestershire city was then heavily bombed. 

Her father John was an accountant and her ­mother Kitty a teacher. Barbara chose a career in law and in 1958 gained a place at Oxford Univer­sity. She became involved in the National Union of Students and joined the Labour Party after she graduated and moved to London.

It was also while at Oxford that she met her future husband John. The pair grew close after they became involved in a project to draw up an economic survey of central Africa as a summer ­project whilst under­graduates. 

John finished his degree a year before Barbara, and the pair were married in 1962 in the seaside town of Southwold, Suffolk, where her mother came from.

After graduating, they moved to a house in Victoria where rent was £4 a week, and from there ­Barbara completed her Bar finals in an age when it was rare for a woman to train as a barrister. The couple moved to Albert Street, Camden Town, in 1963, the home they have shared for 50 years.

Barbara’s increasingly successful career did not stop her pursuing a wide variety of other interests, as well as bringing up a young family. And the couple were very much involved in the Camden Town community. A neighbour had run a nursery school and when it closed in the late 1960s, Barbara and John decided to use the large basement of their home to take it on.

The nursery ran for nearly a decade, with two full-time teachers. They had 24 children and it was a mix of other ­middle-class families and referrals from the council’s social services unit. 

Barbara’s interest in education continued when she became a governor at Haverstock, where three of her four children were pupils.

The Mills family were adventurous – John, who had learned to fly whilst doing National Service for the Fleet Air Arm, would use this skill to take them on holiday. Barbara and John flew to the Middle East and Africa, and north, south and central America with their children. 

At work, she took on many high-profile cases, prosecuting the Brighton bomber Patrick Magee and the curious case of Michael Fagan, who broke into the Queen’s bedroom at Buckingham Palace. Barbara was also responsible for the prosecution of Ernest Saunders during the infamous insider dealing share scandal of the late 1980s, known as “the Guinness Affair”. But she also crossed the court to defend: she was Winston Silcott’s brief after the Broadwater Farm riots.

After many years as a barrister, Barbara switched tack. Having earned a good living working privately she became the first female appointee to head the Serious Fraud Office, in 1990. After two years, she was appointed the Director of Public Prosecutions. Her time from 1992 to 1998 at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) underlined her diligence. She was criticised over deaths in custody, but she had brought her court experience to bear to ensure the CPS took on cases where the evidence was such that they could secure a conviction, and not waste public funds fighting lost causes. 

Barbara read widely, loving historical novels and even started to write a book on a senior female figure in the medieval city of Constantinople.

Seven years ago, the family bought a home in Avignon, France, and Barbara set about turning an empty field into a haven, overloaded with flowers and vegetables. 

She continued to fulfil public roles as a director at the Royal Free Hospital, sitting on the Finance Reporting Council and the Professional Auditors Board.

She is survived by John, and her four children, Sarah, Caroline, Elizabeth and Peter. 

• Barbara’s funeral is at 2pm on Wednesday, June 8 at Golders Green Crematorium.

‘Trailblazer’ – Tributes to woman who became an inspiration

FRIENDS and colleagues of Barbara Mills have paid tribute to a woman described as “trailblazing”, “dedicated to public service”, and with “a steely exterior mixed with pure kindness”.

Labour MP and former Camden Councillor Tessa Jowell recalled how Dame Barbara’s legal career had helped other women aim for the top. She said: “Barbara was one of the most successful women of her generation and has been the inspiration for thousands of women. She will never have known how much and how powerfully she has affected the working lives of others. 

“She was a lifelong member of the Labour Party and it is a measure of her talent that she was appointed to head both the Serious Fraud Office and as the Director of Public Prosecutions by Conservative ministers, who recognised her talent. She sent her children to local schools and the Millses are a Camden family through and through.

“Barbara was attached and integral to her community. She was a Haverstock School governor, and privately she performed hundreds of acts of individual kindness. She was a very good host and a very generous person.”

Helena Kennedy QC said a generation of lawyers owed their careers to her influence. She added: “She was 11 years older than me and she was in the first line at a time when the vast majority of women had made choices: if you have a career, you don’t have children, but Barbara did it all. 

“Barbara rose to the heights of the legal profession at a time when very few women were doing that. She led the way. She was an incredibly efficient and a competent woman, and she led a very fulfilled family life. She showed how you can get that balance right.”

Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson said: “I was shocked and saddened to hear of Barbara’s passing. In her professional life she sometimes presented a stern face, but she was incredibly warm-hearted and kindly. 

“I first met her when she was giving advice to tenants on the rent acts and she was always committed to using her skills and talents for those who needed them. There was her unswerving commitment to the worst off and people who needed good legal advice. 

“I always considered herself and John as a remarkable couple who helped sustain one another, bringing up four children together. Her distinguished legal career meant she sometimes represented unpopular causes. The symbolism of breaking through the glass ceiling in the legal profession is important but we should not lose sight of the fact that it was a remarkable personal achievement.”

Former Director of Public Prosecutions Ken MacDonald recalled how the legal profession viewed her. He said: “She was a trailblazer. She was a good lawyer and advocate. 

“She was regarded as a measured and fair prosecutor when she was at the Bar and took over the CPS at a difficult time.”
DAN CARRIER