The Pre-War Croquet Prize Lists

Last time, we took a look at sports in which the Mills siblings, George, Agnes, and Violet, were engaged prior to World War II, including the briefest of glimpses at croquet [featured in the advert, left, courtesy of an amusing friend who sent it along]. There actually are no records of George having participated in any, which, given his classification of "B III" in the First World War, is probably not surprising.

George's half-brother, Arthur, was a lifelong avid golfer, never living far from a golf course. George, it seems, was the late bloomer of the clan, at least athletically.

Thanks to the welcome assistance of Chris Williams of The Croquet Association, we have been able to track the croquet careers of the Mills. We've examined their post-war accomplishments, and today we'll travel a bit further back in time and look at the years between the World Wars.

Before we dive in, let's review a key Chris sent for reading the results:

Key:

OS = Open Singles
HS = Handicap Singles
HSC = Handicap Singles C Class
OSB = Open Singles B Class
HD = Handicap Doubles
L = Ladies

The number after the event means position, so 1 = winner, 2 = runner up,
3 = semi finalist. Number in [ ] is handicap


Here is an excerpt from Chris's e-mail dated Thursday, February 24, 2011 [my emphases]:


Agnes appears in the 1931 Prize list as having won the Handicap Doubles at Bournemouth with W Evans Linton. Her handicap was a starred 12 and was changed to 12D10 at the end of the event. 12D10 means that her handicap was 12 when she played singles, but 10 when playing doubles. A starred handicap means that it is a new one and had not yet been officially ratified.

The results show that Agnes lost in the first round of the handicap singles to Mrs AV Pawson (12) by 7.

The report of the event includes

The Doubles, as usual, supplied plenty of amusement and thrills as there were a great number of very close finishes. Two high-bisquers, Miss A.E. Mills and Mr Evans Linton, proved to be the fairly easy winners thanks to their superabundant bisques and the good play of Miss Mills, who seemed to be very generously handicapped.

1931
Agnes [*12] Bournemouth (Sept), HD, 1 [*12(D.10)]

A quick look at the late 1930s list shows that Agnes appeared to have played a lot pre war. I don't have much time in the evening to copy to many so it will take a week or so to do the rest.


Another player from the Bowdon photo [right] who gives hits in Google and who Agnes played is Basil (BVF) Brackenbury who appears to have been a headmaster in Ramsgate.

Another prominent player in that era was Handel Elvey or rather George Frederick Handel (GFH) Elvey. He was a vicar and produces loads of hits in Google. He does not appear to have played Agnes, but she played his wife, Nora.

Monty Spencer Ell is another famous player of the day who gives hits on Google. He lost both arms in the first World War but played croquet to quite a high standard. He also appears in Agnes's opponent list.

Regards,
Chris


Thanks, Chris— now I have a few more players to chase around on the worldwide web!

Regarding the year 1931, I had wondered if the father of Agnes and Violet Mills, the Rev. Barton R. V. Mills, disapproved of his daughters participating in competitive sports. For quite a while, I had no record of either of them playing golf, tennis, or croquet before his death in late 1932.

Of course, the patriarch may have approved of croquet, while frowning upon sports such as tennis and its ladies' whites, and golf, in which some ladies wore trousers [left, in 1936]! There is no record of either daughter participating in organized tennis or golf before his passing.

What a shame it would have been had he prevented Violet, for example, from sharpening her game and becoming competitive with the renowned women golfers of the era. While she legally could have done so without her father's consent, it is unlikely that considering that possibility would have been more than a defiant passing fancy.

Anyway, we can, indeed move forward in croquet, and we find Agnes involved and playing a great deal before the Second World War.

That information is culled from this e-mail dated Wednesday, March 02, 2011:

Sam,

Here are the final Prize Lists, ie the ones from 1931 to 1939. Many of the venues mentioned here did not survive the War as croquet clubs, namely Ranelagh, which is in London, Leamington, Bude, Fleet, Felixstowe.

Regards,
Chris


1931
Agnes [*12] Bournemouth (Sept), HD, 1 [*12(D.10)]

1932
Agnes [*12(D.10)]; [12D10]; Bath, OSD, 1, HD, 2 [10]

1933
Agnes [10] Fleet HSC, 3, HD, 1; [10(D.9)]; Leamington (Sept), HSEx, 3; Bath, HSA, 2; Middlesex Union, HS, 3

1934
Agnes [10] Fleet, HS, 3; Hunstanton (Aug), OSC, 2; Bude, HSB, 3, HD, 2

1935
Agnes [10] Bath, OSD, 2, HS (Luard Trophy), 3; Middlesex Union, HD (Captain's Prize), 2; Ranelagh (Oct). HS, 1

1936
Agnes [9] Ealing, OSC, 1; Bath, HSB, 3; Leamington (Sept), HSX, 1, HD, 3 [*7]

1937
None

1938
Agnes [8] Ranelagh, HS, 3 [7]; Leamington (July), HSB, 1 [6];
Hurlingham, OSC, 3, LHD, 3; Felixstowe (Sept 19th), HS, 1, HD, 2, HSX, 3 [5]; Ranelagh (Oct), HSB, 3

1939
Agnes [5] Brighton (May), HSB, 3, HD, 2; Lewes, HD, 1

--
Chris Williams


It's interesting to note that Agnes played Bude in 1934, the birthplace of George, Violet, and herself. We already know the siblings still had kin there among the Ramsay family, on their mother's side.

It's also possible she played there more often—these are just years in which one of the Mills family made the prize list. Croquet definitely seems to have taken the Misses Mills far afield. At this time, brother George was a married man and author, and we don't know how often, if ever, he may have accompanied his sisters. In fact, it is only speculation that Violet went along with Agnes on her croquet jaunts.

These lists take us through to the post-war era of croquet, in which we found Agnes playing upon moving to Budleigh Salterton in 1947, Violet appearing on a prize list in tournament play in 1948, and George joining them in 1957.

This may suggest that George wasn't fully a resident of their home, Grey Friars [left], until he was finished teaching school, circa 1957, and was ready to enjoy a retirement.

We know he was a schoolmaster in the summer term in 1956 at Ladycross in Seaford, and may have been teaching in England before that, following the war. Where that may have been is open to conjecture until some evidence comes to light.

Anyway, thanks once again to Chris Williams and everyone else in the CA who have been so kind and generous to me. I am extremely grateful.

Devonshire Park: Then and Now

I have to admit that it is with some relief that we have finally finished examining the WWI army file of George Mills [see the post below]. It was a windfall and answered many questions we had about George, but, as always with new information, it seemed to raise as many new questions as it answered.

My new goal: A glimpse into his WWII army file!

Meanwhile, reviewing and researching all of those documents put something of interest on the back burner, and I'd like to share it today.

Regarding our many discussions of players found in a group photograph of the competitors in a 1957 croquet tournament at Devonshire Park, the redoubtable Barry McAleenan forwarded a photograph of the park as it looks today [above; click to enlarge].

On 4 March, Barry wrote: "Here's a recent panorama of a much re-developed Devonshire Park. You should be able to see the turrets. Taken with a Fuji FS1500 "bridge" camera which splices 3 overlapping snaps together and relies on minimising the seam to get a result—but is not easy to use and sometimes lets itself down if the images have extreme perspectives or are distorted by lens curvature."

My, it does appear to have been re-developed! If I'm not mistaken, the 1957 photo from the website of the Bowdon Croquet Club would have been taken somewhere along the left hand side of the near court in what is now the park's "International Lawn Tennis Centre."

I've cropped the turrets Barry mentions out of each photograph and juxtaposed them [at left], providing a reference point for use when comparing the two images.

It's amazing how much has changed since 1957 at Devonshire Park [right], the year before my birth, but I see it when I return to my hometown of Broomall, Pennsylvania. It seems the city of Philadelphia creeps closer each year, threatening to overrun what once was a lovely little town in the distant suburbs.

Such is the passage of time, however. The old age that crept closer to my parents each year finally overtook them and now has me in its inexorable grip as well.

And on that sombre note, I think I will dodder on out of the porch here on this glorious morning and get some chores done while I am young enough to be able to walk, climb a ladder, and feed myself…

Profile: Rev. Canon Ralph Creed Meredith

It's a busy week here in the sunny South as I am expecting company this week in the form of my beautiful daughters. Hence, I'm pulling out some items here that don't require a lot of writing, and for which much of the research already has been done.

Following up on an earlier post, the Mills siblings—George, Agnes, and Violet—played croquet with and against a plethora of interesting players. One of them, the Ven. Ralph Creed Meredith [left] was, among his other accomplishments, chaplain to George VI and Elizabeth II.

More information about Meredith has come to light since I first wrote about him, and that knowledge led me to create his own Wikipedia profile. After all, he seemed to be virtually the only one in his family without one!

Here's my contribution:

The Ven. Ralph Creed Meredith, M.A., (10 July 1887 – 10 January 1970) was an Anglican Cleric who, according to the 1932 Crockford's Clerical Directory, in succession became a curate at Caverswall, Meir, Staffordshire (1912–1914), curate at St. Bartholomew's Church, Armley, Leeds (1914–1917), served the Diocese of Lichfield (1917–1918), was curate of St. Peter's Church, Harborne, Birmingham (1919–1920), and eventually took charge of the Conventional District of Bournville, a village south of Birmingham diocese from 1920-1924. His success at Bournville led the Bishop of Wellington to appoint Meredith Vicar of Whanganui, New Zealand in 1924, where he remained until 1932. He eventually became Archdeacon of Waitotara (1925–1932) as well, despite using addresses in both New Zealand and Hertfordshire, England during that time.

Meredith was a Freemason and an athlete of some note. After arriving in New Zealand in 1924, he was the winner of several New Zealand National Badminton Championships in 1927 and 1928, and was a world class croquet player, having performed for the New Zealand team competing for the 1930 MacRobertson International Croquet Shield, which fell to Australia, 3-0. Meredith also competed in numerous croquet tournaments in southern England and Ireland after relocating from The Vicarage in Windsor to Parkstone, Dorset. Meredith is credited with being the "prime mover" in the 1927 formation of Badminton New Zealand (then known as the New Zealand Badminton Association), of which he was president for two years. He was also president of the New Zealand Croquet Association and the Manawatu Association.

Meredith required surgery in April 1931 and had travelled to England for the procedure. On his return voyage, emergency surgery was required during a stopover in Port Said, Egypt. Subsequently in poor health, he accepted an offer from the Marquess of Salisbury to take over the Parish of Cheshunt, St. Albans, in Hertfordshire in 1932. According to Kelly's 1933 and 1937 Directories of Hertfordshire, Meredith served as Vicar at St. Mary the Virgin and was Rural Dean of Ware, Hertfordshire, residing at The Vicarage, Churchgate. He also served as Vicar of Windsor, 1940-1958. In 1946, Meredith was appointed Chaplain to His Majesty, King George VI, and maintained a place in the College of Chaplains of the Ecclesiastical Household of Elizabeth II on 5 August 1952.

Meredith was born in Dublin, Ireland, where he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Dublin University, receiving his B.A. in Ethics & Logic with Honors after the Michaelmas Term in 1909. Meredith earned his M.A. at Trinity in 1912. He had earlier been educated at Rhos College in North Wales. He married Sylvia Aynsley (sometimes Ainsley) of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on 21 April 1915, and died in Poole, Dorset, England, where he had served as Rural Dean since 1962.


Ironically, just hours after posting the article to Wikipedia, it was happened upon by Meredith's grandson, Jules, who believed he could identify his grandfather and grandmother in the 1957 Devonshire Park photograph [left] from the website of the Bowdon Croquet Club.

Here's what Jules had to say:

"Although not 100% sure (image resolution/quality) - My grandfather is on the back row (2nd from right) and I believe that the lady (front row - 3rd from left) is my grandmother Sylvia Meredith (nee Aynsley 1894-1987). She was also a keen croquet player and, along with grandfather, was a member of the East Dorset Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club."

In addition, Bowdon's Ken Cooper passed along this bit of information from croquet legend Dr. W. P. Ormerod regarding Meredith's identification of his grandparents corresponding to the numbered Devonshire Park image [right]:

"Canon and Mrs.Creed-Meredith I knew also quite well from the 1950's. I am not convinced that No.14 is him; the height is about right but he invariably… played in his dog-collar—he also had a club foot and surgical boot which of course we can't see. I am also not certain that No.52 is Sylvia C-M, but I knew them both much better at Parkstone from 1965. However I'm sure Jules has contemporary photos of 1957."

A higher resolution photograph would certainly resolve this identity crisis, and Jules Meredith informs us that he will be talking to an uncle who can perhaps provide more detail as well as a clearer image or two!

Nevertheless, I hope this gives the reader even more insight into one of the cast of fascinating characters who populated the croquet lawns, circa 1947 – 1971, along with the Mills.

You can see Creed Meredith's Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Creed_Meredith.

Profile: Miss I. M. Roe

There's not much time to write today. I have a wedding to attend at the St. George Anglican Cathedral here in Ocala—Miss Pearce, a colleague from my school, will become our new Ms. Welfel—and I have a number of things to attend to before I leave.

Today, we'll look at a croquet player of the same era as the Mills siblings, George, Agnes, and Violet, whose name, as it appears within The Times croquet results, is written "Miss I. M. Roe." Searching for her on the internet was frustrating until I came upon the fact that "Isabel" Roe had won the 1960 CA women's championship. My search stalled there, at least until I received information from the ubiquitous Chris Williams of The Croquet Association containing the correct spelling of her given name: "Isobel."

Isobel Marion Roe turned out to be a world-class athlete with several references on Wikipedia, but with no page there for herself. That seemed like something that needed to be corrected, so my profile of Roe debuted there last week.

To help me get on my way, here's the Wikipedia entry I created for Miss Roe, an infrequent but interesting opponent of the Mills:

Isobel Marion Roe (24 June 1916 – January 1988) was a world class alpine skier, athletic administrator, and Advanced level croquet player.

Roe gained notoriety in Alpine Skiing in the years prior to the World War II. She participated in the 1937 Skiing World Championships at Chamonix, France, on 13 February. She finished 10th at 6.47.8. [1] In 1938, she was ranked Great Britain's Women's Ski Champion, a position she would hold throughout the lull during the Second World War, until 1949. In 1939, she again competed in the World Championships, this time in Zakopane, Poland. Roe skied in the Slalom on 15 February, finishing 19th with a time of 375.9, and placed 17th in the Alpine Combined on the same day with a total time of 531.4. [2]

At the height of her career, Roe lost years of competition and training to WWII. Following the conflict, Roe became the Ladies' Lowlander Champion and performed on Great Britain's Winter Olympic Team, both in 1948. She was 31 years of age when she competed in the Alpine Slalom (23rd overall, 2:49.6), Alpine Downhill (27th, 2:47.3), and Alpine Combined (23rd, 34.91) at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games, and the first held since the 1936 Winter Olympics in Bavaria, Germany. [3]

Following her career as a competitor, Roe served as the President of Great Britain's Ladies' Ski Club from 1957–1960. She founded the Ski Club Reps Course, Junior Championships, and the Schoolgirl Races. The Schoolgirl Races were founded in conjunction with Liz Fulton, and were originally organized for girls in finishing schools in Gstaad, Switzerland. [4] In 1974, Roe was awarded the prestigious Pery Medal by the Ski Club of Great Britain, a prize instututed in 1929 and named after Edmond Pery, 5th Earl of Limerick, President of the Ski Club, 1925-1927. [5]

Another noteworthy achievement, achieved far later in her career as an athlete, came when she won the Women's Championship of The Croquet Association in 1961, defeating Joan Warwick in the final, - 18, +2, +6. [6] Today, players at the Cheltenham Croquet Club still compete for tournament award called the Isobel Roe Trophy. [7]

Just before her death, Roe appeared in the 1986 edition of The Guinness Book of Records in the category of Most Tiles Held, Women's Skiing, Great Britain. Roe passed away in 1988 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Great Britain.

In addition, on 1 March I received an e-mail from the generous Ken Cooper of the Bowden Croquet Club who passed along this recollection of Roe from legendary croquet great Dr. W. P. Ormerod: "When I knew her first from about 1959 onwards she was a P/E teacher in Cheltenham and looked after her father Commander Roe. My father was a country member at Cheltenham then, and she was a very promising player later winning the Ladies Championship in the 1960's."

Commander R. C. T. Roe [pictured, right] was a longtime secretary of the PGA and manager of Great Britain's Ryder Cup squads from 1935 through 1955.

In the grand scheme of things, Roe losing the peak of her skiing career to the Second World War wasn't among the greatest tragedies of that conflict. Still, one wonders what she might have been able to accomplish had there been Winter Olympic Games in 1940 and 1944, and access to the Alps to continue to hone her skills.

You can now find Isobel Roe on Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isobel_Roe

October in Devonshire Park, Eastbourne, circa 1957

As promised, let's take a closer look at the unexpected and delightful photographs found in the Photo Archives of the Bowdon Croquet Club. While there are many interesting images, two of them are pertinent to our objectives here at Who Is George Mills?

The first is a group photograph [left; click to enlarge] that, according to the website, was "probably" taken at Devonshire Park in Eastbourne during the "Southern Championships." If that event is synonymous with the "South of England Championship," it was held in October of 1957. A tournament at Roehampton had been held through the 30th of September, involving some of the same players.

Initial searches for croquet results for the Mills family at that October 1957 tournament turned up only one incidence: Agnes Mills played twice in partnership with Mrs. G. D. Perowne, beating the duo of Mrs. E. Reeve & Mrs. H. L. Roberts in the 2nd round, but falling to Lt.-Col. G. E. Cave & Miss E. J. Warwick in the Semi-Final of Handicap Doubles.

After attempting over a dozen more searches to try to produce additional results from the matches at Eastbourne that October, I finally hit another set of useful results [using, oddly, 'penny croquet' as my search terms], the matches played on 8 October. Among them, we find that Agnes Mills and Mrs. Perowne were victorious over Lt.-Cmdr. G. W. Style and the familiar Mrs. H. F. Chittenden (+6) that day.

Those unusual search terms also allowed me to discover that Agnes lost in the opening round of the Level Singles, when she fell to Miss M. Postford (-11). Another player we've discussed, Mrs. Alex Fotiadi of the Bowdon Croquet Club, also fell to Mrs. G. F. H. Elvey in the first round of the Open Championship, (+11, -4, -7) on the same day.

Let's, however, take a look at exactly who is in this photograph.

Fewer than half of the players have been identified, but some who have been are key to our research here.

Sitting in the 1st row, 8th from the right, we find Agnes E. Mills herself [pictured, right, in the dark suit and looking for all the world like fictional Diana Trent], referred to here by her nickname "Aggy." To her left, we see Barbara (Mrs. H. F.) Chittenden, 7th from the right[also pictured, right, in the white dress]. To Chittenden's left we find Mrs. Nora Elvey, who beat Mrs. Fotiadia above, and to her left, 5th from the right, Amy (Mrs. M. B.) Reckitt, whom we met yesterday.

In what appears to be the 2nd-to-last row, we find Amy's husband, Maurice Reckitt, whom we also met yesterday, standing 5th from the right. We've seen him before.

However, in the last row, 2nd from the left, we get our first look at an image of Major John Roland Abbey, the famed book collector [pictured above, left, in a pin-striped suit]. He's above his wife, the smiling Lady Ursula Abbey, who sits in the 1st row, 6th from the left, with her legs crossed.

Of greater interest, though is the woman standing just in front of Major Abbey, just to his left, our right. She unfortunately closed her eyes in the bright sun for just a moment and was captured that way. That woman is Miss Violet E. Mills, sister of George and Agnes, and quite probably the best athlete of the three [also pictured above, left].

Speaking of him, we find our George Mills himself standing in the back, 5th from the left, standing with his hands clasped in front of him [pictured, right]. It's difficult to tell if George is sporting the same dashing moustache as we've seen in the image of him taken at Ladycross School in 1956. I've been in contact with the webmaster of Bowdon Croquet Club (In fact, I've been a pest to him) and if a higher resolution image becomes available, I may be able to examine it sometime later this spring.

If there's any question as to whether the locale of the photo is Devonshire Park, the redoubtable Barry McAleenan weighs in with this information: "I can even prove the location of the photo—see the attached and, looking towards Devonshire Park, notice the view of that particular turret . [There are also others in Blackwater Road which forms a T with Spencer road.] My great aunts lived in the nearest Victorian house. The anachronistic house to the left was a replacement for one damaged by a bomb in 1943. The bomb fell directly on the local Surface Air Raid Shelter, killing 16 people inside and 17 nearby... [and] one of the local Croquet courts at the Saffrons was also bomb damaged at this sort of time." [You can see the modern color photograph to which Barry refers, left; click to enlarge]

Barry also was kind enough to send along a photograph of Spencer Road ["looking the other way"] containing a reference to the actual 1943 tragedy [right; click to enlarge]. It creates a stark contrast to the smiling faces and serene surroundings of the Bowden photograph. Everyone in that image, however, experienced the Second World War in a deeply personal way that I, sitting here in the United States in 2011, cannot even begin to fathom. One can get some sense from films like the wonderful The King's Speech, but that's just the merest of glimpse of the onset of years of relentless struggle.

Barry, you'll recall, attended Ladycross Prep in 1956 when George Mills spent the summer there. He also identifies the gentleman wearing glasses and standing in the last row [left], below the flagpole, 7th from the right: "E.A. 'Tony' Roper was the former (till 1954) headmaster of Ladycross."

We've often wondered how George Mills, ostensibly settled in at Grey Friars in Budleigh Salterton, managed to connect with Ladycross School in Seaford, Sussex, for at least that one teaching assignment. We know Mills taught at Ladycross because George was one of the schoolmasters there when Barry himself attended the school, remembering Mills as having been there for the summer of 1956. Mr. Tony Roper is obviously an extremely likely connection.

As well as the image of the entire roster of competitors at Devonshire Park, there is a second image posted on the Bowdon website. It's a closer photograph [seen centered, below; click to enlarge], giving us a far better look at the players on the right hand side of the risers.

If you can be of any help identifying players in these photographs, please contact the Bowdon Croquet Club's webmaster at mailto:info@bowdoncroquet.co.uk And, of course, please let me know, too!

Lady Ursula Helen Abbey and Some Other Surprises

As promised, we'll now peek into the life of a member of the peerage...

Lady Ursula Abbey was born on 14 June 1899, the daughter of Wilfred Dallas Cairns, 4th Earl of Cairns, and Olive Cobbold of Greyfriars, Storrington. On 7 July 1921, she married John Roland "Jack" Abbey (He had dropped the 'w' from 'Rowland'), son of William Henry Abbey and Florence Belcher, who lived a Sedgwick Park, Horsham, Sussex. As well as being an entrepreneur—already a partner for decades, he took over Brighton's Kemp Town Brewery in 1933—W. H. Abbey was named High Sheriff of Sussex in 1935, and commissioned a portrait of himself [pictured, left] to be painted that year by Oswald Birley. Lady Ursula presented the image to the Brighton and Hove Museums in 1970.

"Jack" Abbey, born 23 November 1894, was educated by a private tutor instead of attending school after suffering a serious elbow injury as a boy.

He was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade, Prince Consort's Own, as a regimental lieutenant on 21 November 1914, serving two years on the Western Front in the 13th and 8th Battalions. He was the only surviving officer of his battalion after the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. By 17 January 1919, Abbey was the Deputy Assistant Provost Marshal attached to HQ, having been promoted to captain during WWI.

In November 1916, he was gassed, necessitating a five month period of hospitalization before being invalided out of combat in October 1917, a year before his younger brother, Noel Roland Abbey of the Grenadier Guards, was killed in action on the Western Front.

A member of the reserve class of officers at the onset of WWII, Jack Abbey returned to the military as an officer in the Army Catering Corps before reuniting with the Rifle Brigade on 17 November 1941. He served from 1941 to 1943 as a staff officer of the Admiral-Superintendent at Great Yarmouth, and was awarded the honorary rank of Major in 1946.

After the First World War, however, Jack became manager of his father's Kemp Town brewery. He then married Lady Ursula in 1921, shortly after a series of whole-plate glass negative images of her was taken by famed Regent Street portrait photographer, Alexander Bassano, on 4 June 1920. These images [one is seen at right] of the seemingly vulnerable, strikingly beautiful Lady Ursula are simply captivating, and can be found at the National Portrait Gallery.

The year 1925 saw the birth of a daughter, Juliet Hermione Abbey, who married the naval war hero, Lt. Commander John Somerville Kendall Oram of Wiltshire, in 1948.

In 1942, Lady Ursula served the war effort by managing a committee that worked six days a week assembling care parcels for the Rifle Brigade's prisoners-of-war.

By 1929, though, Jack had begun collecting books, at first from modern private presses. Eventually, however, he began collecting antiquarian volumes, and by 1946, he began buying medieval illuminated manuscripts. In 1943, he had become president of the brewery upon his father's death, allowing him to build a collection that at one time held of 1,300 volumes [Abbey's book plate is seen, left]. Like his father, Jack would soon be named High Sheriff of Sussex in 1945, a position he held for a year.

According to his biography at bookrags.com, "Maj. J. R. Abbey's book collection was the largest and one of the most remarkable of his generation. He is perhaps best known for his collection of color-plate books and fine bindings, but he also collected many illuminated manuscripts and at one time owned seven books from the library of the sixteenth-century French book collector Jean Grolier. Abbey was one of the first to collect neglected minor works and bought copies of them in their original wrappered parts. From the beginning it was the appearance of books that appealed to him, and two Arts Council exhibitions of bindings from his collection show that he was attracted by the strong geometric patterning and vibrant colors of contemporary English and French binders. Although he was not a scholar, he was an avid visitor of libraries and bookshops, making note of his own observations and also drawing on the advice of distinguished scholars such as A. N. L. Munby and G. D. Hobson when adding to his collection."

In the 1950s, Abbey sold much of his collection of illustrated books and illuminated manuscripts to Paul Mellon (K.B.E., 1974), an American collector, who later bequeathed it to Yale University.

Although he had donated or sold off books from his collection during his lifetime [a 1965 Sotheby's catalog is pictured, right], the bulk of Abbey's collection was sold at auction after had passed away on 24 December 1969. The auction sales spanned the years 1970 to 1975 and brought Lady Ursula the tidy sum of £993,509. She did maintain some of the collection after Jack's death, and that was auctioned by Sotheby's on 19 June 1989 for tens of thousands of pounds, just a year after her own passing in October of 1988.

During their lives together, Lady Ursula had been an avid dog breeder and her canines participated in dog shows at the Royal Agricultural Hall. In addition, she often presented an award to selected participants in the form of a go, cup.

In fact, her retriever, Chiltington Light, is still listed on-line for its pedigree. It's probably only a coincidence that the wife of a brewmaster had a dog called Chiltington Light, which would be a fine upscale name for a mass-produced American "Lite" beer!

Incidentally, one of that dog's categories according to the 1930 catalogue of the Cruft's Dog Show and Exhibition of Sporting Appliances at the Royal Agricultural Hall, Post Graduate Bitches [below, right], does rekindle memories of my first marriage...

Dogs weren't her only interest, however. The Guernsey Cattle Society's Hand Book, volume 63, records the transfer of stock from C. Micklem of Long Cross House, Chertsey, Surrey, to Lady Ursula Abbey of Storrington on 5 November 1947.

Although she is mentioned above as being of Storrington, her family's home, Lady Ursula has been associated with other locales as well.

Many sources provide the residence of the Abbeys as being Woldhurst Manor, Crawley, Sussex, as early as 1929's Armorial families: a directory of gentlemen of coat-armour by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies. Researching Woldhurst Manor, however, isn't as easy as it may seem: Google wants desperately to change any search for it to one for "Windhurst Manor." Finding a map of its location has been frustrating!

The Abbeys are also associated with the Wyvis Estate [pictured left, with boathouse and lodge visible] in Scotland.

In 1904, Lt. Colonel Rupert Wilkin, CMG, a nephew of deceased furniture magnate Walter Shoolbred, inherited the estate from his bachelor uncle. Shoolbred had acquired the lands of Wyvis and Kildermorie, and had even had a steamer ship reassembled in its entirety on Loch Glass to facilitate moving of building materials throughout his land.

Although the date of its acquisition is uncertain, Jack and Lady Ursula Abbey apparently purchased Wyvis from Wilkins, or perhaps his estate. The estate had been valued at £607,507 when Rupert had inherited it in 1904, and it would be of interest to know what the Abbeys paid for Wyvis and for how long it was theirs.

1992's continuing Evanton Oral History Project by Adrian Clark adds this about the Abbey's residence at Wyvis: "Rupert, a bachelor, was followed by Major and Lady Ursula Abbey, also from England. They are remembered as having been very friendly; she was reputedly keener on the shooting than he was."

That makes sense: A pair of the above-mentioned portraits of Lady Ursula from before her wedding show also show her in outdoor attire with hat and gloves [One is seen, right].

And Lady Ursula, fond of animals and competition, would seem tailor-made for the outdoors and shooting, while her husband, brewery owner and book collector Jack, seems to have been happier engaging in indoor pursuits. (Abbey owned Kemp Town Brewery in Brighton, East Sussex [below, left], until merging it with Charringtons & Co. Ltd., London, in 1954.) Imagine what a wonderfully serene and scenic place Wyvis Lodge must have been for Abbey to peruse manuscripts and texts from his collection, fireside, with a nice cup of tea!

Needless to say, the Abbeys were quite unlike Lady Dorothy and Captain Arthur Hobart Mills, brother of our George Mills. While Lady Dorothy, daughter of the 5th Earl of Orford, was a hunter, a fisherwoman, and came from a family that was a cash-starved and longed for her to marry into money—and disowned her when she did not—Lady Ursula seems to have made a match that surely would have pleased the Hon. Robert Horace Walpole, Lady Dorothy's father, to no end.

Eventually, Lady Ursula's name appeared less and less in The Times under the headings of "Court Circular" and "Kennel Club Show" and increasingly more often under "Sports in Brief" and "Croquet."

Her very first croquet tournament match, according to the lamentable search engine of The Times, was played on 25 September 1951 at the Roehampton Club's autumn tournament. She defeated Mrs. M. B. Reckitt [pictured below, right] (+10) in the second round of Handicap Singles, Class X. I can find no record of Agnes, Violet, or George Mills having played in that fall tournament.

The last match the nefarious search engine of The Times yields for Lady Ursula Abbey is a loss (-18) in the first round of Handicap Doubles at Parkstone at the East Dorset Tournament on 12 September 1973 to J. W. Haynes and R. H. C. Carder. Lady Abbey had been paired with Capt. M. F. Buller.

By that year, 1973, George Mills had been gone for a year and Agnes and Violet, while they still may have taken a turn around a lawn for sport, had ceased their tournament play. By the end of July 1975, the spinster sisters of George Mills would no longer be with us either. Lady Abbey would live until 1988.

The mercurial archive of The Times shows Lady Ursula having been in competition with the Mills siblings on 3 occasions, playing singles and winning against Agnes at Eastbourne on 27 September (+6) and 5 October 1965 (+18), after having lost (-19) in doubles to "Aggy" and her partner, Capt. W. A. T. Synge, on 7 July of that same year in tandem with her partner, Miss H. D. Parker, at Budleigh Salterton.

Lady Ursula's husband, Jack—listed in The Times croquet results as "Major J. R. Abbey"—played a Mills sibling once, beating Violet (+3) on 13 September 1960 at Parkstone.

Once again, it's likely that Lady Ursula's love of competition and the outdoors exceeded Major Abbey's—The Times engine provides 79 results after searching '"lady ursula abbey" croquet', from 1951 through 1973, while searching '"j r abbey" croquet' yields only 64 "hits," those ranging from 1913 (in which a "J. R. Abbey" won a doubles match at Brighton on 18 September in tandem with the Hon. Mrs. S. Coleridge) through 1967—a phenomenally long time to have played such a relatively few matches!

Examining Jack Abbey's final tournament match, at least according to the capricious search engine at The Times, is interesting. He lost (-20) to the legendary Mrs. Alex Fotiadi of the Bowdon Croquet Club [pictured, left] on 3 October 1967 at Eastbourne in the first round of Handicap Singles "X." Mrs. Fotiadi was a dominant figure in that era of tournament croquet.

However, what I find just as interesting are these additional results from the same day's matches: George Mills (scratched) lost in a walk-over to Lady G. Fitzgerald, and George's sister, Agnes, lost (-17) to Mrs. E. M. Temple, and Lady Ursula fell to Mrs. J. Povey (-14) in the very same round at Eastbourne.

Needless to say, the incredibly moody search engine of The Times had never produced that particular day's matches for me when I'd searched repeatedly for croquet results for either G. R. or Miss A. E. Mills!

One last item, perhaps of interest only to me, is that on that same October day in Eastbourne, M. B. (Maurice) Reckitt [right]—a 5-time opponent and one time partner of the Mills siblings—beat Mrs. D. M. C. Pritchard (+4) in a second round match. Reckitt had also played in a match back in that 1913 Brighton tournament on the very same day Jack Abbey teamed with the Hon. Mrs. Coleridge. And his wife, Amy Reckitt, you'll recall from above, had been Lady Ursula's first croquet tourney opponent!

Jack and Lady Ursula Abbey were certainly the type of people with whom the Mills sisters (and perhaps George) liked to socialize. I'd be stunned to find that the Abbeys—or at least Lady Ursula—hadn't spent an afternoon or evening with the Mills at Grey Friars. Lady Ursula's love of croquet, competition, and the outdoors would have rivaled that of the Misses Mills, whom, I'll remind you, had a love of the outdoors (They were "charming and keen on the Girl Guides") as well as both being athletic.

The accompanying image of Lady Ursula [pictured, left] has been identified as "probably" having been taken in 1957 at Devonshire Park in Eastbourne during what appears to have been the so-called "Southern Championships" which apparently were attended by a great many players of the era—some in number 66 in just that one group photograph. In fact, the above images of Mr. & Mrs. Reckitt are cropped from the same image. Who knows how many overall players may have participated, but missed that photo op?

Since first viewing that photograph, found on the Bowdon Croquet Club website, I've been prone to think that the "Southern Championships" were the South of England Croquet Championship at Eastbourne, played in early October.

There's just one thing, though: There are no records showing that Lady Ursula Abbey played at all in that tournament in Eastbourne in 1957.

Two others in that group photograph are also not listed among the competitors in the Devonshire Park Championships in October 1957, according to The Times. Those two are George Mills and his sister, Violet.

Even if incorrectly dated, that Devonshire Park group photograph does, however, add much to our knowledge of the Mills siblings: A second photographic image of a dapper George Mills, and, at long last, glimpses of both Agnes and Violet!

We'll look at those three visages (among others), learn more about the photgraph, and read some thoughts from a man who, as a boy, knew George Mills, all in our next post!

Worthy Adversaries of the Mills

Last time we attempted to look at the achievements of George Mills and his spinster sisters Violet and Agnes Mills in croquet tournaments ranging from Cheltenham and Roehampton to Budleigh Salterton and Eastbourne.

The Mills siblings weren't on the field of play alone, however. Many names flicker past one's eyes as the small print of The Times sports page is winnowed, searching for "Mills." Some friends and foes are even gathered in the 1974 photograph [left] taken at Budleigh Salterton during the 1974 series played among Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand for the MacRobertson Shield.

Here's a look at the players who most commonly matched up either alongside or against George, Agnes, and Violet. I've transcribed their name as they appear in The Times, as well as adding Christian names as they are provided in the extremely useful Bowdon Croquet photo archives:

Player	Appear- ances	As Partner	As Opponent	Together vs. Mills	Record vs. Mills
Mrs. V. C. Gasson (Vera)	18	10	8	–	2 – 6
Lt. Col. G. E. Cave (Gerald)	14	7	7	–	7 – 2
Mrs. G. E. Cave    (Geraldine)	5	0	5	–	3 – 2
CAVE TOTALS	19	5	14	3 times	10 – 4
Mrs. H. F. Chittenden (Barbara)	12	3	10	–	3 – 7
Dr. H. J. Penny (Harold)	7	0	7	–	1 – 6
C. H. R. Penny	2	0	2	–	1 – 1
PENNY TOTALS	9	0	9	1 time	2 – 7
Miss J. Warwick (Joan)	7	0	7	–	5 – 0
J. G. Warwick (Guy)	6	2	4	–	4 – 0
Miss I. M. Roe (Isobel)	5	0	5	–	7 – 2
A. J. Cooper (John)	6	0	6	–	4 – 2

The column of the table headed "Paired vs. Mills" indicates how many times a pairing played as partners against one or more of the Mills. This is important because as the Caves (Lt.-Col., and his mother, Mrs.) beat the Mills twice [Lt.-Col. Cave is pictured, right], they each put a win on their record versus the siblings even though only one game was played. This happened in the loss the Caves suffered at the hands of the Mills. Dr. H. J. Penny and C. H. R. Penny also fell to the Mills as a pairing, losing one game.

Also, I do not know if the Warwicks (Miss J. and J. G.) were related [Update: They were brother and sister]. They never played in a pair against the Mills, and I'm leery of assuming they are relatives, although they both seem to have beaten the Mills sibs like the proverbial drum! On one day, 6 May 1966, J. G. Warwick [pictured below, left] defeated the Mills twice as George and Violet each were scratched.

An oddity in the line of Mrs. H. F. Chittenden, of Seaford, East Sussex, is that she is recorded as both a partner and a foe for playing a single game: On 10 May 1968, she defeated Miss Violet Mills and Sir Leonard Daldry [pictured far below, right] by 12, playing alongside George Mills.

One last item: Although Miss I. M. Roe matched up against the Mills clan on only 5 occasions, she played 9 games during those tilts. Roe played Agnes for the Women's Championship at Roehampton in both 1961 and 1962, winning both times by tallies of (+4, –2, +17) and (–5, +19, +12).


Here's a table of notable nemeses/allies of the Mills siblings:

Most Individual Appearances	Mrs. V. C. Gasson—18
Most Frequent Partner (w/Mills)	Mrs. V. C. Gasson—10
Most Frequent Opponent (vs. Mills)	Mrs. H. F. Chittenden—10
Most Frequent Pairing (vs. Mills)	Lt.-Col. & Mrs. G. E. Cave—19
Most Victories (vs. Mills)	Lt.-Col. G. E. Cave & Miss I. M. Roe—7
Most Losses (vs. Mills)	Mrs. H. F. Chittenden—7

A last bit of information before closing today would be an examination of the singles handicaps of the Mills trio across time. One last table for quick viewing:

	First Year of Singles	Initial Handicap	Lowest Handicap	Final handicap (1971)
Miss A. E. Mills	1950	+3	+1½	+3½
Miss V. E. Mills	1956	+2	+2	+2
George R. A. Mills	1958	+10	+4	+4

[Update: You can find more accurate information on handicaps by clicking HERE.]


As we can clearly see, Violet indeed must have been the best athlete of the three, taking a handicap of 2 onto the lawn for her first tournament game. George, however, made the greatest improvement in his croquet, beginning as a 10 handicap and, in a decade and a half, shaving that down to 4.

It appears that these handicaps improved over time, but were never diminished until Agnes rose from a 1½ to a 3½. During the 1971 season, for example, when Agnes was 76 years of age, The Times archive tells me she lost her four tournament games played by double-digit scores of –20, –23, –10, and –16. In the very last game she was scheduled to play, she retired. Clearly, the aging warrior of the lawns from the Mills family, Agnes, was losing some of her game. The final loss by retirement, at home in Budleigh Salterton on 6 July 1971 to M. B. Reckitt, might have been particularly hard for such a competitor to swallow.

George had played two games the day before at the age of 74 and had lost both by scores of (-15) and (-13). In fact, the Mills family is recorded as having played just one game after Agnes could not take the field on the 6th of July in 1971. On that same day, Violet Mills defeated C. Edwards (+5) in the first round of Level Singles at Budleigh. I've scoured The Times, page by page, over the next several days and there is no record of Violet, aged 70, having played a subsequent tournament game at Budleigh that year despite her 1st round victory. In fact, I cannot discover any of the siblings having played another tournament game. Ever. Anywhere.


[Update: This correct information came from Chris Williams of the Croquet Association:

Looking in the 1970 Gazettes I can see that George played in the July
week tournament at Cheltenham (13-18 July)

He lost to Isobel Roe and Christine Bagnall in the first rounds of the B
Class event. It was played as a draw and process which everyone gets two
chances to progress in the event. He lost his first game in the handicap
knockout to FW Meredith (0), playing off a handicap of 4 and lost in the
first game in the handicap doubles playing with RN Bateson, who I think
it still playing croquet nowadays.

I cannot find any evidence of any of the three of the Millses playing
after 1970.

Thanks, as always, very much, Chris!]


Over the next few posts, we'll take a look at some notable opponents of the Mills clan at tournaments from 1951 through 1971, including a surprising connection to the teaching career of George Mills!