GOMERSALL, Millie
Millie Gomersall was born at Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire on 30 November 1916, daughter of Horace Gomersall (29 November 1885-22 February 1948), a jeweller, and his wife Matilda Woodhouse (26 December 1894-1916), daughter of Enoch Woodhouse of Edelston Road, Crewe, who married at Christ Church, Crewe, Cheshire on 26 April 1916. Millie was educated at Malvern Girls' College and whilst working in London, she met Cedric Morris in a café in Percy Street, which was around the corner from the artists quarter at Charlotte Street. She became a model for Morris and later studied under Morris at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Benton End, Hadleigh, Suffolk and where Morris painted her portrait in 1936 which went on display at the Minories, Colchester. Millie exhibited at the Ipswich Art Club in 1941, one work 'Landscape from the Garden' and another of her painting's 'Hadleigh' was sold at auction by Christie's in 1997. Millie married at St Pancras, London in 1942, Roland Leonard Hayes. Cedric Morris painted her portrait a second time in 1964, this time as Millie Hayes and she was a housekeeper to Sir Cedric Morris and a beneficiary under his will. Millie Hayes died at Ipswich in 2001.