Under Two Flags: A Memoir

Under Two Flags describes the highlights of Ellen Miller Coile's eight decades. This traces her story from her birth in 1930 in England as the youngest in a family of six children. She was evacuated during the entire length of World War II to Ipswich, Wales and Marlow. As a teenager she pursued work opportunities available to a working class girl from London suburbs, including secretary at Peat Marwick and Mitchell, until marrying Russell Cleven Coile, an American, in 1951. Embarking on a sixty year love affair with Russell, she followed him around the world to France, Japan, Italy, and Brazil, then settled in northern California thirty years ago. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco. Under Two Flags chronicles not just her achievements in volunteer service to numerous organizations but how she expressed her values of social justice and combating discrimination. Her key priorities include family and friendships, extending beyond her three successful children.