Funeral of Dame Barbara Mills - Tributes to barrister who shone at the bar and in the home

Published: 06 June 2011
by DAN CARRIER

WHEN Dame Barbara Mills was invited on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, she chose Mozart’s Requiem Mass as one of her pieces of music – and then in a more lighthearted vein, Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag as accompaniment to her beachside wait for a ship to appear on the horizon.

The music was played again yesterday (Wednesday) at the Golders Green Crematorium funeral of the former Director of Public Prosecutions, who died, aged 70, two weeks ago. 

With family, friends, legal colleagues and Labour Party comrades present, it was standing room only in the chapel. 

They heard her husband, John Mills, the former Labour councillor who lived with Barbara for five decades at their Albert Street home in Camden Town, explain that the manner of her sud­den death after a stroke would have irked her.

He said: “She was always very organised. Plans would always be made months ahead. Her family always knew exactly what they were supposed to be doing – so it is ironic we lost her so unexpectedly. Nothing would have told us that this would happen – she was fit, healthy and on sparkling form. It is a cruel irony that she was snatched away from us without any warning.”

The couple were due to celebrate 50 years of marriage next year. Mr Mills spoke of how his wife had broken ground for so many others by becoming the first female Director of Public Prosecutions – but also by blazing a trail as a female barrister.

He said: “She took her Bar exams three weeks before she gave birth to her first daughter, Sarah, and when in Chambers her talent shone through.”

He spoke of her passions away from the law, including roles on the Competition Commission, as a governor at City University and Haverstock School, a director at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and even secretary of Globe Tennis Club, where she would play regularly. 

He added that the couple had bought a home in France seven years ago and would fly their small plane there at weekends. 

Barbara filled a field with fruit and vegetables, and made the house a wonderful place for her eight grandchildren.

Daughter Sarah McTavish spoke of her mother’s unconditional support, describing her parents as a beacon to all. She said: “Growing up in bohemian Camden Town during the 1970s it was always seen as an oddity to have parents who were together and so happy.”

She added that while her mother was swiftly rising through the legal profession – she worked on the Guinness Affair, the Brighton Bombings, and defended Winston Silcott after the Broadwater Farm riots – she could never be described as an absent parent to her four children.

She said: “She would give us a full English breakfast every morning, and, as she was a barrister, she would take us to the school gates dressed in black. At six, she would be back to cook dinner and then read us stories and put us to bed before preparing the next day’s briefs.” Mrs McTavish added that her mother ensured there was a neverending supply of choc ices for them as children, replaced by wine when they became teenagers.

She added: “Her grandchildren were amazed to see the obituaries – they did not know about that side of her. It would have been hard to pack more into her life.”

Among the mourners were current Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer, Baroness Helena Kennedy and Baroness Tessa Blackstone, Lord Tony Clarke and MPs Tessa Jowell, Frank Dobson, Austin Mitchell and Andy Love.

Many current and former Camden councillors, including Dame Jane Roberts, Nasim Ali, Phil Turner, Roger Robinson, Maureen Robinson, Richard Arthur, Phil Turner and Bob Latham, paid their respects. The principal of the Working Men’s College, Satnam Gill, also attended.