Ellen Melville was born in the isolated Northern Wairoa district. Her father was a boat-builder and farmer, and her mother had once established a private school and had also been a governess. Ellen Melville’s own belief in the value of education owed much to this influence, and after a successful school career she matriculated and passed the general knowledge examination required for entry to a law degree. However, she was under the necessary age, so she took a position as a law clerk in a remarkably progressive firm whose partners, Devore and Martin, gave her great encouragement and later signed her application for admission as a solicitor. She enrolled for law in 1904, and in 1906 was the second woman in New Zealand to be admitted to the bar. She promptly set up in sole practice, another pioneering step. However, Ellen Melville had a powerful sense of duty and always envisaged using her skills and opportunities to advance women’s rights and influence. Elected to the Auckland City Council in 1913, she stressed that good government implied a partnership, drawing on the talents of both men and women. Women, she believed, should not confine themselves to traditional views of “women’s issues”, but act as citizens for the good of all.

Ellen Melville took many leadership roles in the National Council of Women, and stood three times for Parliament, promoting many ideas which mirrored those of the NCW. She recognised the importance of women acting together to achieve advancement, and nurtured many women’s societies and clubs to help develop confidence and skills. She urged women to take a wider world view and to earn their place in public affairs, not seek preference on account of their sex. Her achievements built on the work of the women who sought fundamental rights such as the suffrage, and paved the way in the legal profession and civic affairs for the generations that followed her.