Can I interest you in a brief biography of this absolute icon?
I know. I know. It's the hat, isn't it? You need to know more. You simply must. And if that doesn't do it, then perhaps this rather striking profile will:
Elizabeth "Amy" Dillwyn was born in Swansea in 1845, the eldest daughter of a prominent family. She was related to the photographer Mary Dillwyn, the abolitionist William Dillwyn, and the astronomer Thereza Dillwyn, and her father was the Liberal MP for Swansea. Upon his death, she inherited her father's spelter works in 1890, as well as his debts of Ā£100,000 (Ā£8mil today.) She lived in relative frugality while she worked to save the business, renting lodging rooms and refusing to pay herself a salary in favour of keeping 300 people employed, until the debts were recouped 7 years later and she was able to buy her own home.
Dillwyn was also an author, and her 6 novels often touched upon class issues. She was a supporter of the Rebecca Riots, in which local Welshmen dressed as women to destroy tollbooths in protest against unfair taxation, and also supported the strike action of local seamstresses. Her novels also often included lesbian themes, most prominent in Jill, which tells the story of a gentlewoman who disguises herself as a maid and moves to London, falling in love with her mistress. Dillwyn herself wrote about her sexuality in her diaries, writing about her love for her friend, Olive Talbot:
My own belief is that Iām half a man & the male half of my nature fell in love with her years ago & canāt fall out of it again. I care for her romantically, passionately, foolishly, & try as I may, I cannot get over it.
Dillwyn referred to Talbot in her diaries as her 'wife', and never married. She was considered something of a beloved social eccentric, often wearing men's attire, smoking cigars, and turning up to her father's funeral in a purple skirt with a yellow flower in her belt as a protest against Victorian mourning conventions. She was a staunch suffragist and supporter of social reform. She died in Swansea at 90 years old, and her house now bears a blue plaque to commemorate her.
Currently, there's an ongoing research project about her and her diaries led by Professor Kirsti Bohata of Swansea University, who also wrote her entry in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Some of her novels are available from Honno Press, which champions Welsh women's writing. An edited selection of her diaries has just been published by the South Wales Record Society, and is being prepared for open access. Images sourced from David Painting, the biographer of the Dillwyn family.
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