Word and a Clarification from Oxford

Hooking into the recent excavating that we did in the First World War army file of George Mills, there is a tie-in that's been incubating in my mailbox that I'd like to share. As we know, George was demobilised in 1919, and by October of that year, he had gone up to Christ Church, Oxford, taking advantage of a post-war decree on behalf of young veterans.

A few weeks ago I was doing my "due diligence" as they like to say these days, at least in the States, and running a few of my usual, fairly cursory searches, seeing if anything new has cropped up regarding Mills & Co. Up came a link to the 1922 Oxford University Calendar letting me know it contained the name "Mills, George Ramsay Acland." However, as is the case with many search results at books.google.com, I couldn't see why or where in the calendar it was listed.

Curious, I dashed off an enquiry to Oxford asking about the appearance of George Mills in that text. My reply came from Nicola Hilton, a very thorough and attentive Archives Assistant:

"Dear Mr Williams

Thank you for your email. I have searched the card index of all those who matriculated (ie were admitted to the University) between 1891 and 1932. I have found an entry for George Ramsay Acland Mills. George matriculated from Christ Church on 16 October 1919. He is listed as a member of Christ Church from Michaelmas term 1919, under the subtitle 'Commoners' (ie members who have not been awarded a BA or higher degree), in the 1920, 1921 and 1922 University Calendar. I have been unable to find any record of a degree being conferred (ie at a ceremony) on George Mills.

The colleges in Oxford maintain their own Archives and it is possible Christ Church may hold some additional information on George Ramsay Acland Mills. If you wish to contact them, enquiries should be directed to, Judith Curthoys at judith.curthoys@chch.ox.ac.uk.

Yours sincerely

Nicola Hilton
Archives Assistant"



Thank you, Nicola!

We've actually heard from Ms. Curthoys previously regarding George's time at Christ Church, but this e-mail does offer some new insight: Mills was at Oxford at least through the end of 1921, but there is no record of him attending as a "Commoner" in the year 1922.

I e-mailed Ms. Hilton once again for a bit more clarification—sometimes I can be as ignorant as a bag of hair when it comes to British higher education—and she kindly followed up:

"During the early twentieth century the Calendar was complied each calendar year (not academic year as it is now). George matriculated in October 1919 and first appears in the 1920 Calendar. He appears to have been a member of Christ Church at the end of 1921 as he is listed in the 1922 Calendar. However residence is a college matter and for an accurate record of when George vacated Christ Church you will need to contact the College Archivist directly (please see my previous email for contact details).

Also, a colleague here at the University Archives has corrected me on a description I used in my previous email. Although those students listed under the subtitle 'Commoners' in the Calendar would not have had degrees conferred (ie at a ceremony) the term does not specifically denote this status. The status of 'commoner' in the Calendar separated the students from other member of the College who were 'Scholars' or 'Exhibitioners' (ie had been awarded some type of scholarship)."


So, while there is no record of George Mills having a degree conferred, the status "Commoner" that he carried throughout his time at Christ Church (Oxford?) isn't necessarily an indication of that.

I do find it hard to believe, though, that a case could be made for Mills having earned a degree in just over two years and was simply unfortunate enough to have Oxon's clerks lose the entirety of his paperwork, and, as a result, they neglected to record him as having had a degree conferred. That seems a bit of a stretch.

What is the "upshot" of all of this?

I am not entirely sure, save that on my "Timeline" of the life of George Mills, another of the gaps has been narrowed a wee bit more. Thanks to the record-keepers of the British Army and Oxford, we've tightened our focus on the endpoints of what Mills was doing from 15 January 1916 through the end of the calendar year of 1921.

Now, what occupied young George from the outset of the year 1922 through to his appointment as a schoolmaster at Windlesham House, then at the "Southern Cross" in Portslade, for the Lent term of 1925, still is open to conjecture.

We also have no indisputable evidence of what exactly Mills did to occupy his time between leaving Harrow School in the summer of 1912 and his recruitment under the Colours on the 15th of January 1916. He did enlist while declaring he was still a "student," according to his Army Form B 2512.

Summer 1912 to Lent 1925 is quite a stretch of time, even though we have ample data encompassing the period from New Year's 1916 through Christmas 1921.

At one end, George was a schoolboy at Harrow, aged 15, and at the other, seemingly a novice schoolmaster at Windlesham at the grizzled age of 28, having taken a turn in the ranks and studying at Oxford in between.

Any ideas?

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!