Beryl Mills

Beryl Lucy Mills (3 January 1907 – 13 July 1977) was an advertising agent, librarian, and beauty pageant titleholder. She was the first woman to win the Miss Australia quest in 1926

Early life Beryl Lucy Mills was born on 3 January 1907 at Walkaway, Western Australia, the fifth child of parents Frank Ernest Mills and his wife Kitty, née Gibbons. After winning a scholarship to the University of Western Australia in 1924 and studying languages, she was admitted to Claremont Training College. After initial success as Miss Westralia, she entered and won the national competition in June 1926 in Sydney. She was accompanied by her mother and Sir Frank Packer and was a guest of the Miss America pageant at Atlantic City.

Advertising agent In Sydney in 1928 she established the Beryl Mills Advertising Service before moving to Melbourne in the 1930s.

Personal life Beryl Mills married journalist Francis Keith Davison on 19 March 1928 at St Michael's Anglican Church, Vaucluse, Sydney. They moved to Melbourne where daughter Judith was born in 1935.

Mills returned to Sydney by 1941 and became librarian at Frank Packer's Consolidated Press Ltd. She met Major Leslie Garland Calder, and they moved to the United States and married