
Elizabeth Moore – Lovely LucySuffragist, Welsh Female professor, Humanist, Educator1863 to 1942
September 12, 2024
James ParsonsSuffragist, Welsh Female professor, Humanist, Educator1863 to 1942
November 5, 2024
Millicent MacKenzie 1899 Cardiff University Archive
Early Life
Millicent was the daughter of Walter William and Alicia Hughes. Her father was a house estate agent. She was born in Clifton, Bristol. She grew up in the Bristol area but later was sent further schooling to Switzerland. In the 1881 census, Hettie was a recorded as a student at ‘University College, Bristol’, aged 17 years. She continued her education at the Cambridge Teacher Training College
Career
In the 1891 Census, Millicent is recorded as boarding in Nether Hallam, Sheffield working as a high school mistress. She married John Stuart Mackenzie of Cardiff, a professor of philosophy, in Richmond Surrey in 1898. In 1901 following her marriage the couple are then recorded as boarding in Boscombe, Bournemouth. John Mackenzie was a professor of philosophy and Millicent was a lecturer in education.
By 1911 the couple were living in Upcot, Brockweir Near Chepstow. John Mackenzie remained a professor of philosophy and Millicent was now a professor of education.
She was the first female professor in Wales and the first female professor to be appointed to a fully chartered university. She co-founded the Cardiff and District Suffrage Society and when it was re-founded in 1908, and she became vice president.
In 1918 she stood as the only female candidate in Wales as a Labour Party Candidate in the Parliamentary Elections. (10)
The couple retired in 1915 and in 1922 Hettie organize a conference at Keble College in which Rudolph Steiner spoke. She became an advocate for Steiner's educational methods and delivered talks and events to spread the word.
Humanist
Millicent Mackenzie was a driving force during the earliest decades of the organised humanist movement. She was part of the Moral Instruction League, and actively advocated for the introduction of moral, rather than religious, education in schools – a central concern of the Union of Ethical Societies from its foundation in the late 19th century.
In 1921 She wrote her most famous book ‘Freedom in Education: An Inquiry into its meaning, value and condition’.

Mackenzie hall plaque
John died in December 1935 and the hall in Brockwier was given to the village by Millicent in memory of her husband, and is named after him -Mackenzie Hall
Death
She remained at Upcot until her death on 10th December 1942.
She is interred in Arnos Vale with her sister artist Catherine Edith Hughes, and her husband John Stuart.
If you want to read more about Professor MacKenzie; there is a chapter dedicated to her in ‘Hidden Heroes: The Forgotten Suffragettes’ by Maggie Andrews and Janice Lomas.
In 2022 a new park in Cardiff, Parc Mackenzie, was dedicated to Professor Mackenzie. Address is Main Building, Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT