24 Facts About Bea Miles

Beatrice Miles was an Australian eccentric and bohemian rebel.

Bea Miles's father, William John Miles, was a wealthy public accountant and hot-headed businessman, who had a tempestuous relationship with his daughter.

Bea Miles studied at Abbotsleigh School and enrolled in an arts course, but opted out, citing a lack of Australian subject matter.

Bea Miles enrolled in medicine, which was unusual for women at that time, but she contracted encephalitis lethargica in her first year.

In 1923, tired of his daughter's bohemian behaviour and lifestyle, Bea Miles' father had her committed to a hospital for the insane, in Gladesville, New South Wales, where she stayed for two years.

Bea Miles was arrested many times and claimed to have been "falsely convicted 195 times, fairly 100 times".

Bea Miles received a small monthly income from her father's estate and she drew on this to pay her debts.

Bea Miles's father had been associated with extremist causes for a number of years, however there are no records of her having any involvement in the movement's activities and she was not among the members of the movement interned in 1942.

In 1955, Bea Miles took a taxi to Perth, Western Australia, and back.

Bea Miles was legendary as a fast and voracious reader throughout her life, even in her declining years, and reputedly read an average of two books every day.

Bea Miles spent a lot of time reading in the State Library of New South Wales, until being banned in the late 1950s.

Bea Miles was seen regularly standing on street corners with a sign offering to quote verses from Shakespeare for between sixpence and three shillings.

Bea Miles' writings are in the State Library, some in her own handwriting.

Some time in the 1950s, Bea Miles came to regard the environs of the rectory of Christ Church St Laurence as her home.

Bea Miles had previously been allowed to sleep in one of the porticos of St James' King Street, Sydney, but one of the clergy there had ordered her to leave.

Clergy entering the vestry to vest for mass would have to step over Bea Miles, who rose late and went to bed early.

From her position on the porch, Bea Miles could hear the hymn singing at evensong and joined in dining room conversations as it suited her.

Bea Miles was constantly harassed by police and claimed to have been falsely convicted 195 times, fairly 100 times, though obituaries give lower estimates.

Bea Miles haunted the Public Library of New South Wales, reading many books each week, until she was banned from the building in the late 1950s.

Bea Miles supposedly told the sisters that she had "no allergies that I know of, one complex, no delusions, two inhibitions, no neuroses, three phobias, no superstitions and no frustrations".

One of the Sisters of the Poor recalled that Bea Miles came to be known for her compassion for the sick, comforting the old and infirm and sitting patiently with the dying.

Bea Miles died on 3 December 1973, aged 71, from cancer.

Bea Miles is interred at Rookwood Cemetery in the family plot.

Bea Miles makes a cameo appearance in Dorothy Hewett's 1958 novel of working-class Sydney, Bobbin Up.