Joshua Goodland, RIBA, and the ARB

I've been so wrapped up in documenting the extremely interesting lives of various members of the Goodland family—a task that is still incomplete pending the completion of the younger Gillmore Goodland's life story—that I neglected to impart some information regarding the Goodland of our primary interest: Joshua Goodland, future mentor of George Mills.

In wondering how Joshua's architectural career may have overlapped his time as a law student at Cambridge, I queried a couple of resources about him.

Here are their recent replies, the first one being from the Architects Registration Board, an organization that apparently uses their limited supply of on-hand punctuation marks quite sparingly:


RE: Goodland, Joshua
Jamie Bloxam [JamieB@arb.org.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 12:53 PM


Dear Sam

Thank you for your email and sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I can’t find any information on Joshua Goodland – I have looked in our archive Registers that go back to 1933 but can’t find any record of him. Have you tried the Library or the Royal Institute of British Architects [ RIBA] their number is 020 7580 5533 or you can visit their website http://www.architecure.com

Please do let me know if you need any further information

Kind regards
Jamie





Jamie Bloxam
Registration Administrator
Architects Registration Board


You'll actually find their website at: http://www.architecture.com/. Anyway, I had, indeed, already contacted the Royal Institute of British Architects [pictured below, right], and here's their reply:


RE: cm : Goodland, Joshua
Info [Info@inst.riba.org]
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:27 AM


I regret I cannot find anything on the above architect. I have checked to see if he is a member of the RIBA – but there is no record for him. Architects did not have to be members of the RIBA, nor would they have had to have formal architectural degrees. Most, during this time, would have been apprenticed to an architectural practice for their education.

Sorry I cannot help you further.

Kind Regards

Claudia Mernick
Riba Information Centre


Thanks, Claudia!

That's actually a great deal of help. We now know that, probably with a letter of reference from Cardiff's G. E. Halladay (his architectural master) in hand, Joshua Goodland could have done architectural work throughout England at the turn of the century without any sort of license or registration at all. Caveat emptor?

Now, I don't think that Goodland was designing any vast, multi-storied buildings or sprawling factories for major corporations between 1900 and 1908, but it would have been possible for him to have done minor commissions for local builders.

My only question about that would be: Is it reasonable to think he could have met with those builders, looked at sites, negotiated terms, drawn plans, and studied law at perhaps the most prestigious and presumably demanding law school in Britain—as well a serving as a law coach to others during that span of time—and still have had time to take the frequent long holidays away from Cambridge [left] that we know he took?

After all, Goodland at the very least spent months on a hunting excursion in North America, traveled throughout Sweden and Russia, took at least one trip around the world, and spent vacations golfing in Sussex. That's a pretty full plate for a man who is struggling to make ends meet.

Hence, it still seems probable that, despite income as a sometime law coach and a sometime architect, while paying tuition as a full time law student (We have no knowledge of any sort of scholarship allowing him a free education at Cambridge) and coming up with rent for a flat on Trinity Street, Joshua was receiving financial aid from another party.

That party must have been his brother Gillmore, a man, we'll find out, who was frequently in need of a good lawyer, and who may have bankrolled Joshua for just such a purpose.

More about the fascinating Gillmore Goodland next time…

Examining George Mills in the Great War and My Own Expectations

I've just a note today about expectations.

Yesterday, I was feeling quite pleased with myself for having linked aspects of the life of George Mills (specifically his penchant for drama) to his time spent at Harrow living at The Grove. I was also fairly well pleased with myself for extending George's use of the address of the Military and Naval Club as his own from 1944 to at least 1951.

I'd certainly exceeded the original expectations I'd had for Michael P.'s message, forwarded from Rita Boswell of the Harrow Archives. And in my excitement to explore those research avenues above, I neglected to read three little letters very carefully: A.P.C.

Last year, we'd heard from Harrow Information Officer Luke Meadows, who enlightened us then on the military career of George Mills in the First World War: "We know that he was in the Rifle Brigade and then transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps (R.A.S.C.) during the First World War between 1916-1919."

Here's the key excerpt from Ms. Boswell's newer message from Harrow [above, left] this week: "He served in the Great War from 1916-1919 as a Corporal in the Rifle Brigade but transferred to A.P.C. and then the R.A.S.C."

Brilliant!

I have to admit, it wasn't until I was writing yesterday's posting that those three little letters—the acronym A.P.C.—jumped out at me. And they not only are a key addition to our knowledge of the life and career of George Mills, they helped open a torrent of new knowledge about George, as well as providing fuel for a wealth of new questions!

The A.P.C., or Army Pay Corps as it was known in the Great War (WWI), later became the R.A.P.C.—the Royal Army Pay Corps, in which George served as a Lieutenant from 1940-1943 before relinquishing his commission due to "ill-health."

We had a fleeting glimpse of what appeared to be the words " …MY PAY CORPS" on the duplicate copy of George's recruitment form [right], presumably accidentally affixed via carbon copy. Harrow's archives do, indeed, confirm a stint having been done by George Mills in the Army Pay Corps during the First World War.

In the last 24 hours, this information has led to the discovery of some 40 documents contained in George's military file from 1916 to 1919 outlining his transfers and his physical condition (initially B III, later C III), confirming that he never went overseas during the war, and, most interestingly, describing his departure from the Army Pay Corps—where he returned as an officer in the next World War—as an involuntary transfer to the Royal Army Service Corps at Prees Heath, Shropshire.

I'm still sorting through the compendium of information about George Mills, 1916-1919, and it may reveal much about the man that could go a long way toward explaining his subsequent life and trials. I'm still uncertain about the exact circumstances that link his unceremonious dismissal from the A.P.C. as a clerk and a private to his triumphant return as an officer and paymaster in the R.A.P.C. over 20 years later (Mills, it turns out had never officially been promoted to lance corporal).

And, once again, I'd like to offer my deepest gratitude to both Michael P. of the Eastbourne Local History Association and Ms. Boswell of the Harrow Archives for their kind assistance. One never knows when the smallest bit of information will lead to enormously significant discoveries. Hence, the reason I always need to keep an open mind about my own expectations!

Stay tuned…

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Me

There are simply so many things accumulating around my inbox, my head, and around my computer that it's sometimes far more difficult to keep up than I'd ever anticipated! One thing leads to another and before I know it, I've accumulated quite a bit of data that I often need some time to organize, study, and reflect on.

Right now, since information about George Mills himself is at such a low ebb, I'm working on his family—especially his grandfather, Arthur Mills, Esg., M.P. [1816-1898], and Revd Barton R. V. Mills [1857-1932], George's father—which is providing me with a wealth of information that's building some context around the life and history of young George.

Both of those men have published works that are still available and widely cited, Arthur Mills having written several books at least one important book that is still in print [above, left], and another one still in print can be found here.

More on those gentlemen at another time, though!

One stumbling block I've had along the way, be it in understanding the educational path of George or those of his forebears, is the British use of the term "matriculated from". It threw me off, for example, in the following bit of information previously received from the Oxford Archives [my emphasis]:

I have searched our card index of those who matriculated (ie were admitted to the University) between 1891 and 1932 and have found an entry for George Ramsay Acland Mills. This records that he matriculated from Christ Church on 16 October 1919.

Another area in which my density held me back was in understanding the relationship between Christ Church, which is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, and the university itself. Separate institutions or the same, I wondered.

Here's the typical relationship between colleges and universities in the U.S. as described by questionsaboutcollege.com: Universities confer degrees at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels, whereas colleges tend to deal exclusively with four-year bachelor's degrees.

For example, I attended West Chester State College outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, [left] for my BS Ed. Immediately upon graduation, I also started taking courses at the graduate level—they offered a Master's degree, even at that time. A few years after my graduation, the school was renamed West Chester University. It was explained at the time that the school had achieved university status because of "improvements to the library." Maybe that's true, perhaps not.

The upshot here is that part of the confusion for a simple-minded American like me is that when one attends classes in a constituent college of a university here in the States, one is attending both simultaneously and graduates from both at the very same moment. Not so in the United Kingdom, as demonstrated by the two messages below explaining it all to me.

The first, from Christ Church's archives, is in reply to an enquiry I'd made regarding the possibility that the degree George Mills claimed to have earned at Oxford may actually have been a B.A. awarded by Christ Church. The graciousness of her reply in the face of my unabashed ignorance was greatly appreciated!


Dear Mr Williams,

I am afraid that we have very little information on George Mills. He was born on 1 October 1896 in Bude, in Cornwall, and was educated at Harrow School. He was Barton's second son. Mills came up to Christ Church in 1919, after serving during the 1st World War in Royal Army Service Corps, firstly as a private and then as lance corporal. The family appears to have been living in London at the time. He was only at Christ Church for two years, until 1921, and certainly did not take a degree. So, I think he was spinning a bit of a yarn! As far as I know, none of his siblings came to Christ Church.

It is Oxford University which grants degrees, not its constituent colleges! Students live in college and are taught by the tutors who are attached to that college, but all degrees come from the University as an umbrella body.

I am sorry not to be able to help more.

Yours sincerely
Judith Curthoys

I'll admit, I still have a lot to learn in my pursuit of George Mills! A second message, from Richard Martin at Windlesham, also helped me better understand the "system" through which Mills would have been educated:


Dear Sam,

Many thanks for your message, which included further details of George Mills. I am so glad that Tom Houston was able to give you such an amount too – I suspected that would be so, as he is a mine of information on matters to do with the school history.

He may well have responded about your query about the word ‘matriculation.’ In essence it means that, while it remains unclear where he had his ‘primary’ education, Mills was indeed given ‘secondary’ education, presumably between the ages of 13 and 18, at Harrow. He subsequently was accepted for ‘tertiary’ study at Christ Church, one of the Oxford University colleges and the word matriculation indicates that this was the case. Why he then failed to complete his course and gain a degree is less than clear, but it would explain why Mills was at Windlesham as a ‘junior teacher’ and not as a fully fledged member of staff, no specific training for teaching then being required.

May I wish you success in your attempts to take this research further. Do feel free to keep in touch.

All the best,
Richard

That seems to set some of the dates Mills received his secondary, tertiary, and university education:

Harrow School: 1910-1912
Christ Church: 1919-1921
University of Oxford: Does one actually attend Oxford, or just have a degree conferred from it?

Mills arrives at Windlesham as a "junior teacher" at Lent, 1925, although their records show him having a "B.A. Oxon." He also spent 1916-1919 in the military as a private and lance corporal during the First World War.

Still, there a gaps in that sequence: 1912-1916, and (?)-1925. In the United States today, one would simply think that a young man was "finding himself" during that time: Perhaps working, but possibly traveling or at least spending some time far away from home. The stereotypical "backpacking through Europe" or "riding a motorcycle across the country" are the more romantic visions of how that time might be spent by an American lad of 16 to 20 years of age.

What could those years have been like for Mills, possibly living in London, between 1912 and 1916? I'm unfamiliar enough with the culture in that time frame that I'm uncertain what the non-educational, non-military prospects were for a young man of that age who comes from a family of some wealth, prestige, history, some high ranking military connections, and at least a dram of 'royal blood' floating around his veins, but who doesn't want to go to school.

And how long might he have spent at Oxford once he reached there in 1921? How long an association with the institution would have been enough to have been convincing in passing himself off as a graduate—especially with only 4 or 5 years of secondary and tertiary education combined? Or would 4 or 5 years have been the usual amount at the time spent after primary school but before university?

Again, I plead ignorance, and any thoughts, ideas, or information you may have that could enlighten me would be most welcome. Once I have a better understanding of where it's likely Mills could have been, I can start poking around to find out if he actually was there!

"Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself" -- Wittgenstein

On Tuesday morning, I replied to Annabel Peacock at Oxford seeking more specifics about the fact that George Mills apparently had never actually earned an Oxon B.A. Here's the message I sent:

Ms. Peacock, thank you so much for taking the time to send me this information so promptly. I really do appreciate your effort, and I now have so many paths to follow that I hardly know where to begin!

Incidentally, the first employer of Mills listed him as "BA, Oxon" when he taught 'English or English subjects' there in 1925-1926. What is your professional opinion of the fact that he may have, um, told an untruth in that case? Is there any record of when Mills might have finished taking his last class at Oxford? What would have been his 'major', if any? Would there have been a chance that he finished his degree elsewhere, but continued to use his knowledge of Oxford and the university's name to open doors for him? Has it ever happened?

I know these must seem like hopelessly stupid questions, but I hope you'll continue to bear with me and take a moment to reply!

Thanks once again and best regards,

Sam W.

Her reply arrived early the next morning:

From: Oxford University Archives [enquiries@oua.ox.ac.uk]

Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 5:45 AM

To: Williams, Harry (Sam)

Subject: Re: Enquiry: George R. A. Mills

Dear Sam

Thank you for your email. As we have no record of Mills passing any examinations in the Final Honours School or obtaining a degree, it appears that he was not telling the truth about his academic background.We have come across cases before of people without Oxford degrees using the University's name to help open doors. However, often they have no link at all with Oxford whereas Mills had actually matriculated from the University. It was not usually possible to transfer your status toanother university in order to complete a degree course. Members of Oxford were able to 'incorporate' at Cambridge University, which enabled them to move there and maintain the same rank, status or degree as they had held at Oxford. However, this seems unlikely with Mills, especially as he claimed his BA was from Oxford. I have been unable to find any record of the subjects Mills studied during his time at the University.

The colleges in Oxford maintain their own archives and it is possible that Christ Church may hold some additional information about Mills. They may be able to give you more details of when he left the University. Should you wish to contact them, enquiries should be directed to Judith Curthoys, the College Archivist, at archives@chch.ox.ac.uk.

Best wishes

Annabel

So, it's off to Christ Church for information. It looks like Mills was trading on his Oxford experiences by at least leading potential employers to conclude he'd been awarded a degree. It seems that might've been a reason he'd been offered a "junior appointment" at Windlesham House, and may have factored into his "sudden (?) departure" from there in 1926.

And let's not forget, that seemed a place he probably had intended to stay for a while: He'd married and purchased a home in the neighborhood! Those aren't behaviors I'd associate with a man who's uncertain about his immediate.

It was suggested in an earlier post that Mills disappeared because junior appointments were "seldom held for long" or that Mills may have been involved in "the General Strike (that term)", but neither seems to completely resonate with the fact that he was a new husband and homeowner.

One could make the case, however, that fabricating a degree from Oxford wasn't exactly the safest thing for him to do in his situation either.

It's possible Mills did just drift away as apparently junior appojntments are wont to do. Perhaps he had simply become overly excited and went out on strike [pictured, left], never to return. Or, perhaps because he was apparently a good egg and well thought of in Portslade, he was allowed to depart amicably even after it was determined he in fact didn't hold any degree after all.

Are there any other possibilities I am overlooking?

Meanwhile, I'd sent a request to Harrow School for anything they might know about George Mills.

We'll take a look at the word from Harrow next time.

Until the peacock led him in...

Just a couple of hours after I'd sent off an e-mail to the Oxford University Archives requesting information on George R. A. Mills, I was impressed that I'd already received an reply. Despite the fact that in the United States we like to think of ourselves as an "instant gratification" society, I have to admit that if I'd sent an e-mail at 10:33 AM requesting information into my own school district here in Florida, I'd be quite pleased if I finally had a response by the end of the day. And I sent an information request to Keele University on February 21 and I wonder when I might receive a reply—if I ever do at all.

In this case, however, I had a detailed reply from an archivist at arguably the most prestigious institution of higher learning in the world waiting for me in my in-box by 1:07 PM. Quite impressive!

As you may recall from yesterday's post, George Mills had found his missing middle initials, his wife, his university, his brief but inspirational tenure at Windlesham House, and the colleagues [and pets] who had inspired many characters from the books he'd go on to write several years later.

This is what the Archives at Oxford added to the mix [my emphasis]:


Dear Mr Williams

Thank you for your email enquiry. I have searched our card index of those who matriculated (ie were admitted to the University) between 1891 and 1932 and have found an entry for George Ramsay Acland Mills. This records that he matriculated from Christ Church on 16 October 1919. According to the form that he completed at his matriculation Mills was born on 1 October 1896 in Bude, Cornwall. He was the second son of Barton Reginald Vaughan Mills, a cleric in holy orders and a scholar [see illustration, right], of 7 Mawson Place, Queens Gate. Before attending Oxford Mills had been educated at Harrow School.

I have also found Mills' entry in the undergraduate register. This records that he was exempted from taking Responsions (preliminary examinations for entry) and the examinations of the First Public Examination,under a decree of 9 March 1920. This decree stipulated that until the end of Trinity Term 1923 any member of the University who had been engaged in military service for twelve months or more before his matriculation, was permitted to offer himself for examination in any Final Honours School, despite not having met the statutory conditions for admission to that School. This was on condition that he had obtained permission from the Vice Chancellor and the proctors; that he had entered upon the third term and had not exceeded the twelfth term following his matriculation; and that he had paid the fee for admission to the examinations the decree excused him from. Mills' entry in the undergraduate register records that he paid the fee of £5 2s on 21 May 1921. However, I have been unable to find any record that Mills went onto pass any examinations in the Final Honours School or that he obtained a degree.

I have also checked the 'Oxford University Roll of Service', a printed register of members of the University who served in the First World War. This records that Mills commenced military service on 16 June 1916. He was a Private in the Royal Army Service Corps. His highest acting rank was that of Lance Corporal.

I have been able to find evidence that Mills' father, Barton Reginald Vaughan, was also an Oxford graduate. He appears in Joseph Foster's 'Alumni Oxonienses', a printed register of those who matriculated between 1715 and 1886. This records that he matriculated from Christ Church on 13 October 1876, aged 18. He was the first son of Arthur, armiger (ie esquire), of London. He was awarded second class honours in History in 1880. The degree of BA was conferred in 1880, and that of MA (which at this time required no further study or residence) in 1883. He was rector of Poughill in 1887. I regret that without names and dates I am unable to search our records for any other relatives of Mills who may have attended the University.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Yours sincerely
Annabel Peacock
Archives Assistant

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oxford University Archives
Bodleian Library
Oxford OX1 3BG
web: www.oua.ox.ac.uk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ms. Peacock, you are amazing! I simply can't thank you enough, not only for your prompt assistance, but for leaving me simply awash in total "Millsness"!

So, let me see if I have this time line correct thus far [and, British readers, please check my educational suppositions for accuracy]:

George Ramsay Acland Mills was born in Bude, Cornwall in 1896, the second son of a holy cleric and Oxford grad, Barton R. V. Mills who had been a rector in Cornwall. It's believed that George attended Parkfield, a school in Haywards Heath as a boy. After then attending Harrow School [pictured, left] in London and apparently living with the family in Queen's Gate, he joined the army in 1916 and fought in the First World War, reaching the rank of Lance Corporal.

After the war, Mills apparently attended Christ Church and from there matriculated to Oxford in 1919, where as a veteran he was exempted from Responsions, and finally paid his required fee for them 1921 without receiving a degree.

In 1925, he and his "B.A. Oxon" are engaged as a junior appointment at Windlesham House, the same year he married Vera Beauclerc and purchased a home near the school in Portslade. His name seems to disappear suddenly from the staff list by the end of the summer term in 1926 after having spent the year teaching the boys English or "English subjects" and having been involved in extracurricular music and drama.

Meredith and Co. is published by Oxford University Press in 1933, and is dedicated to boys and staff at Windlesham House, Warren Hill School in Eastbourne, The Craig in Windersmere, and the English Preparatory School in Glion, presumably in Switzerland, among whom he "spent many happy years."

In 1935, Mills visited the wife of his old headmaster at Windlesham, telling here he'd written a book "largely about Windlesham" and that he'd "been at 2 or 3 schools since."

He then published a sequel to Meredith and Co. in 1938 [King Willow], and two more in 1939, Minor and Major [also about prep schools] and St. Thomas of Canterbury, the latter being a text in which Mills is listed in the British Library as author along with St. Thomas himself [pictured, right].

That's where the trail goes absolutely cold: 1939. After the most prolofic 1-2 year span of his life as an author.

It's actually been far easier to work backward into his family's past than it's been to turn up any clues about them after the onset of the Second World War.

Next time, though, let's take a peek at the fact that Mills supposedly earned a "B.A. Oxon"—something the facts don't seem to corroborate.