Bea Miles

Beatrice (Bea or Bee) Miles (17 September 1902 – 3 December 1973) was an Australian eccentric and bohemian rebel. Described as Sydney's "iconic eccentric", she was known for her contentious relationships with the city's taxi drivers and for her ability to quote any passage from Shakespeare for money.

Biography

Born in Ashfield, New South Wales, Australia to Maria Louisa Miles (née Binnington) and the third of five surviving children, she grew up in the Sydney suburb of St Ives. Her father William John Miles was a wealthy public accountant and hot-headed businessman who had a tempestuous relationship with his daughter. She studied at Abbotsleigh and enrolled in an arts course, but opted out citing a lack of Australian subject matter, after which she contracted encephalitis. In 1923, tired of his daughter's bohemian behaviour and lifestyle her father had her committed to a hospital for the insane, in Glebe, New South Wales where she stayed for two years. After that she lived on the street and was known for her outrageous behaviour. She was arrested many times and claimed to have been 'falsely convicted 195 times, fairly 100 times'. For a while she was living in a cave behind one of the Sydney beaches. It was said that she always carried a ₤10 note in her bag, so that the police could not arrest her for vagrancy.