The 'Who Is George Mills?' Mailbag, January 2011

Here at whoisgeorgemills.com, we haven't dug into the old mail bag recently, so let's take a look at what's been going on way down in the mail room where all comments messages are handled by my crack staff!


• Here's something from Richard, who left a comment on the post "Finding Parkfield...": Just been trying to find location of Wick & Parkfield School which I attended from 1961 to 1963. It was indeed the building which is now Downlands Park Nursing Home. It was run by Bill and Pat Halstead. The main cricket pitch was on the sloping field near the miniature railway track - we had to go round there to collect missing cricket balls.

- Richard Miller

Thanks for the first-hand experience and additional details about Parkfield [above, left], Richard. It's always greatly appreciated!


• Leading Lady Dororthy Mills aficionado, Jim Harris, left a new comment on the recent post "Steyning Mansions Hotel, Eastern Terrace, Brighton...": Wonderful detective work. I can picture Lady Mills staying at Steyning Mansions Hotel. So, no record of the hotel after 1958?

By the way, are you watching Downton Abbey on Masterpiece (PBS)? It takes place in 1912 and is about an Earl who only had three daughters and must leave his estate to a distant cousin. The middle daughter reminds me of Lady Mills.

Wouldn't the story of Lady Dorothy Mills make a great Masterpiece series?

For our friends across the pond who may not be aware, Masterpiece Theatre is televised here on Sunday evenings. Also for those far-off friends, the last two Sunday evenings have featured the American football playoffs as well! While I'm a lover of lavish BBC productions, I'm also fond of watching sweaty 300-pound titans engaged in high-speed collisions and sundry mayhem on a frozen field called a gridiron, live, in High Definition!

I've recorded the Downton Abbey series to watch later, and it's of particular interest to me as Downton is the locale of Winds Cottage where the brother of our George Mills, author Arthur Mills, and his second wife, Monica, spent the last years of his life gardening, golfing, and writing the occasional crime novel.

And, by the way, I do think the life of Lady Dorothy [pictured, left] would make a fabulous Masterpiece!


• My dear friend Jennifer in Philadelphia weighs in with this great addition to our investigation:

Give me a burial location and I’ll request a photo.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=64660799

Jen is the smartest person I know when it comes to fathoming deeply into genealogies. She's set up this webpage to help find the location of the burial site of George Mills [see the screenshot, right], and I really appreciate it.

Who knows? We may even end up with more photos of George posted there!


• Finally, Mary left a comment on the post "Sidebar: Considering the Life of Sir Robert Hart a...": I can tell you a bit more about Sir Robert Hart, Evelyn's father, and his family. I am preparing a book for the Hong Kong University Press on him and his relationship with my own ancestors.

Evelyn "Evey" Hart later married and became Evelyn Beauclerk, mother of the wife of George Mills, Vera Louise Beauclerk Mills.

She also wrote: "I am just doing something on Evie. Do you know how many children she had, when she died, and from which are you descended?"

I'm no relation to the Harts or Beauclerks, but I did let Mary know the following:

From what I've gathered, Evelyn Amy Hart was born 31 December 1869 in Beijing and died 10 June 1933 in Kensington, London. Her children were Vera Louise Beauclerk (21 December 1893 - 5 January 1942) and Hilda de Vere Beauclerk (21 January 1895 - 16 September 1964).

Hilda married Miles Malcolm Atchison from Ganges, British Columbia, Canada, of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service on 21 June 1933 [11 days after Evey's death] and eventually moved to Canada where Hilda passed away in 1964. They had two children, Elizabeth Anne (b. 22 March 1936), and Hilda Etain (b. 9 October 1937).

During WW II, Hilda and Miles were held in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. Hilda worked in the camp's kitchens and did much to help her fellow prisoners, but lost a finger in doing so. Apparently she was admired by everyone there for her bravery.

On 23 April 1925, Vera married George Ramsay Acland Mills (b. 1 Oct 1896; d. 1972), only son of Revd. Barton Reginald Vaughan Mills, Vicar of Bude Haven, Cornwall, 1891-1901 and Assistant Chaplain of Royal Chapel of the Savoy 1901-08 (by his second wife Elizabeth Edith "Edie" Ramsay, only daughter of Sir George Dalhousie Ramsay, CB). They had no children.

Vera passed away in Exmoor in 1942 while her husband, George, was serving as a 46-year-old 2nd lieutenant in the Royal Pay Corps. He'd returned to the service in 1940 after serving as an infantry corporal in WW I. George resigned his commission in 1943 due to ill-health. He had been a boys' preparatory schoolmaster in both England and Switzerland from the late 1920s through the mid 1930s and was the author of four books: the children's novels Meredith and Co. (1933), King Willow (1938), and Minor and Major (1939), and the children's religious biography Saint Thomas of Canterbury (1939).

Vera was also the sister-in-law of adventure and crime novelist Arthur Hobart Mills (George's half-brother) and Arthur's wife, Lady Dorothy Mills (née Walpole), a novelist, explorer, and renowned travel writer.


I thought that it would be worth including the above profile after discussing Vera's 1942 passing just yesterday.

Well, that about empties the old George Mills mail sack. Thank you to everyone who's made my work a bit [and sometimes a great deal] easier. Please accept my warmest appreciation, and do keep reading!

Arthur Hobart Mills: A Whole New Life with a Whole New Wife

Sometimes, as I'm working on this project, I find something new. Other times, I find something surprising! That happened to me yesterday when I stumbled upon this: A 1968 telephone directory listing for "Mrs. A. Hobart Mills."

That came as a surprise for a few reasons. Arthur Frederick Hobart Mills, half-brother of George Mills, apparently used the name Arthur Hobart Mills, and even occasionally simply Arthur Hobart, as an author of novels and magazine articles. For example, this is from ebay.com:

Product Category : Books

Title : Escapade

Authors : Arthur Hobart Mills

Publication Date : 1931

Condition : Very Good

A quick dash shows that a search for "Arthur Hobart Mills" using the admittedly crappy engine at ancestry.com either turns up our own Arthur F. H. Mills or unrelated junk. He's the only "Hobart" among the Arthur Millses.

Much of what we know about Arthur's life has already been published here, taking us through his divorce from Lady Dorothy Mills [née Walpole] due to infidelity with a Miss Jasmine Webster. The divorce petition was filed in 1932 and notice of the divorce decree ran in the London Times on 24 March 1933.

Lady Dorothy had suffered a nervous breakdown in 1932, and I'm certain most folks assumed it had much to do with her recovery from a horrific traffic accident in 1929 and her all-too-ambitious travel to Venezuela and the Middle East soon after. One wonders if the breakdown was, at least in part, a result of discovering Arthur's adultery.

Arthur and Lady Dorothy had lived separate but equal lives throughout at least the last decade of their marriage. They traveled independently of one another, celebrated Christmases away from one another, and essentially seemed to have lived parallel lives. It wouldn't be the world's biggest shock to realize that they'd drifted far apart.

London telephone directories indicate that Arthur and Dorothy Mills first had a telephone in 1917. The listing read: "Victoria .. 3292 Mills, A. H., Capt. .. .. .. .. 131 Ebury st S.W."

In 1920, they move to anearby residence and the listing changes to: "Victoria 2285 .. Mills Arthur .. .. .. .. .. 91A Ebury st S.W.1."

In 1922, the listing changes Arthur's name to "Mills, Capt. Arthur H." That stays the same until the September 1929 directory, when only the telephone number changes: "SLOane 6986."

The 1930 London book, however, adds something interesting. There's an additional entry at that number: "Mills Lady Dorothy, 91A Ebury st S.W.1 . SLOane .. 6986." The same number, just an entry for herself.

It stayed that way through the November 1932 directory, but in the subsequent May 1933 London book, the listing for Capt. Arthur H. Mills at 91A Ebury Street is gone. The listing for his ex-wife was changed to "Mills Lady Dorothy, 17 Burnsall st S.W.3 FLAxman. 2476." That listing, after their divorce, remains in place until 1939.

[Note: I can't find a telephone directory for 1940, likely due to the war, but in the 1941 London directory, Lady Dorothy's Burnsall Street listing is gone. After that, although I know that she moved to Sussex and ended her days in Brighton, I can no longer verify any telephone listing as being hers through her passing in 1959.]

It's a crapshoot knowing exactly where and when ex-husband Arthur went for the next two decades. There's a relatively immediate 1933 directory listing for him in Hurstpierpoint, Hassocks, just 5 miles south of Cuckfield: "Mills Arthur, Stables cottage ……… Hurstpierpoint 188." A 1942 listing remains the same, save for the actual telephone number having been changed to "2188." The listing would make complete sense because, as an avid golfer, Mills would have been close to the Hassocks Golf Club [seen in the map, left]. In 1943, however, that listing was gone.

Finding a future wife for Arthur had me checking other for records of that apparent second marriage, and I found one of the most peculiar entries I've ever seen in British record-keeping!

Sometime in late 1933 [October-December], an Arthur F. H. Mills married a woman named either "Wilson" or "Wilks" in Cuckfield. That's actually what is recorded [below, right]: "Wilson or Wilks."

I looked up Wilks and found that "Monica C. G. Wilks" married a man named "Mills" in Cuckfield during that time frame.

However, I also found a record showing that "Monica C. G. Wilson" married a man named "Mills" during that same period in Cuckfield.

I thought to myself, "Let's check more records!" We know that Arthur Mills died while living at Winds Cottage, Downton, near Lymington, Hampshire. Today, that's actually listed on Google Maps as being in "New Forest." The result of a quick records search turned up a death in New Forest between July and September in 1981: "MONICA CECIL G MILLS" who had been born on 07 JE 1902 [where JE apparently stands for "June"'.

Arthur Mills did, in fact, take a second wife! And, with a marriage in 1933, Monica would have been 29 years old to Arthur's 46 at the time of their nuptials—something that must have chafed Lady Dorothy as she pined over her own lost youth, looks, and health.

Finding Monica Wilks or Wilson's own birth record wasn't quite satisfying. It states that Monica Cecil G. Wilks was born in Ecclesall Bierlow [apparently once part of Sherwood Forest] somewhere between July and August 1902. The name simply would be too coincidental to be an accident, so I must assume they've recorded her birth date incorrectly on either her birth or death record—but who knows which?

Arthur's own death record has him passing on in 1955, at the age of 67, in "New Forest" as well.

Finding records for Monica is quite problematic. I can only find one other, and that's a listing from a 1946 telephone directory for Hampshire, Devon, Somerset, Gloucester, Glamorgan, and Wales. The listing reads: "Mills Mrs. Monica C. G, Lower Mundey's ct ………….. Long Sutton 79." There is no listing for an Arthur Mills in the same directory.

This jumps Arthur and Monica a good ways to the west since that Hurstpierpoint listing in 1942, almost to Taunton, and adds a telephone listing in his wife's name, rather than his own. Is Arthur Mills with her? The Long Sutton Golf Club [left] is nearly as big as the rest of Long Sutton itself. Avid golfer Mills is there, for sure.

It's curious why Arthur would have no phone listing from 1942 through 1945, and then suddenly crop up under his wife's name in Long Sutton. Perhaps coincidentally, between the 1940 publication of his novel White Negro and 1947's Don't Touch the Body, I can't find any evidence of Arthur having published a single word—anywhwere.

Arthur had, indeed, returned to the military on the second of September 1939. Perhaps he'd been recalled, perhaps he'd volunteered. It was odd because Mills left the service as a captain and a war hero, but returned as a second lieutenant. Mo matter, he relinquished his commission just 8 days later on 10 September.

Did something happen to Mills during those 8 days? Did it affect his health and/or his ability to write? It's quite possible that White Negro had almost all been written in 1939 with anticipation of it being published in 1940, and it may really only have needed editing of the manuscript or proofs.


What prompted the move to Long Sutton, one that was apparently short-lived? By 1948, there'a listing for a "Mrs. Arthur Mills" on "Holmwood Farm, Hordle" with a phone number of New Milton 443. This listing seems to reappear just after the publication of Don't Touch the Body. It remains as-is through 1949.

In 1950, the listing changes to "Mills Mrs. Arthur, Mead End ho …………. Sway 239," apparently near Sway, east of the New Forest National Park. Mead End House is pictured, right. What's peculiar about this location is the lack of an 18-hole golf course for miles in any direction—but what a fine, large abode!

In 1951, the blurb from the dust jacket of his crime novel Last Seen Alive read: "Arthur Mills is the son of the Rev. Barton Mills and Lady Catherine Mills. He was educated at Wellington and Sandhurst and was gazetted into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in 1908. He has served in China, France, and Palestine. Mr. Mills is at present living in Hampshire where his main recreations are golf and gardening. In addition to books of short stories he has published over twenty novels."

By 1954, the listing changes to "Mills Mrs. Arthur, Winds cottage Hordle la Downton …….. Milford-on-sea 88." That was likely the last telephone listing he'd see. Arthur passed away on 18 February 1955 in an area that today has at least 10 golf courses within a 10 km radius of Winds Cottage, including two on the Isle of Wight, where Mills had convalesced at Freshwater from the wound he suffered at Aisne during the First World War.

That listing stayed in place until 1958, then disppears until it resumes in 1967 reading: "Mills Mrs. A. Hobart, Winds cott Downton la Downton … Milford-o-s 2744." Apparently that part of Hordle Lane had beenrenamed Downton Lane. That listing stayed there until 1972, but disappeared from the 1973 directory.

Then, in the April 1976 directory [right], the listing returned again, same address, same phone number. It remained there in 1977, but in 1978 it disappeared for good. Was it once again simply taken out of the book? Had Monica moved to a nursing home at the age of 76, or in with one of her children? The latter suggestion assumes Arthur and Monica had children—issue we thought had not occurred on this branch of the family tree.

It appears that Capt. Arthur F. H. Mills, DCLI, did, indeed, remarry in 1933. He passed away in 1955. His wife, Monica, left us in 1981.

The London Gazette in 1955 published this information:

Name of Deceased (Surname First)

MILLS, Arthur Frederick Hobart

Address, description and date of death of Deceased

Winds Cottage, Downton, near Lymington, Hampshire, formerly of Stable Cottage, Hurst Wickham, Hassocks, Sussex, Captain H.M. Army (Retired), 18th February, 1955

Names, addresses, and descriptions of Persons to whom notices of claims are to be given and names, in parentheses, of Personal Representatives

Hunters, 9, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, London, W.C.2, solicitors. (Hugh Murchison Clowes)

Date on or before which notices of claim to be given

8th September, 1955 (283)

No mention of a wife or heirs: All business. There was no obituary in the London Times, although he was mentioned in Lady Dorothy's scant, well-hidden obit in the 8 December 1959 Times that read: "Obituary LADY DOROTHY RACHEL MELISSA MILLS, elder daughter of the fifth and last Earl of Orford, died on Friday at Brighton. She married in 1916 Captain Arthur Hobart Mills, from whom she obtained a divorce in 1933 and who died in 1955."

I supposed that served as Arthur Hobart's belated Times obituary as well.

Did Arthur and Monica Mills actually have children? Right now, I'm uncertain, one way or the other. Children could be significant: They might hold family mementos, photos, souvenirs, memorabilia, and other ephemera that I have been assuming ended up at best being sold in lots at an estate sale in Budleigh Salterton in 1975 when the Misses Mills, Agnes and Violet, passed away there. At worst, I feared it may have all ended up in a dumpster.

This is a lot of new information, but at as always, if it triggers any thoughts, ideas, or informed speculation, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Lt. Arthur Frederick Hobart MILLS (43673)

For today's adventure in reading antique newspaper print, I thought I'd continue to turn over the fertile soil of the London Gazette looking for information about George Mills' half-brother, Arthur Frederick Hobart Mills. There wasn't a lot, but it turned up some interesting facts.

First off, from the 18 September 1908 issue:

INFANTRY.

The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, Arthur Frederick Hobart Mills, in succession to Lieutenant F. H. Span, seconded.

1908 was the year Arthur told his publisher at the time, Evans Brothers, that he had been "gazetted" into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. We do know from Sandhurst that the date of his actual commission had been the next day, 19 September 1908. Was "gazetted" a term meaning that the news had appeared first in the London Gazette?

The next we read of Arthur is in the Gazette's 3 February 1914 issue:

GENERAL RESERVE OF OFFICERS.

INFANTRY.

The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, Arthur Frederick Hobart Mills, late lieutenant, with seniority as from 26th July, 1912. Dated 4th February 1914.


Now, wording can be awfully difficult stuff to look up on the internet for interpretation. Has he become a lieutenant here, or was he a lieutenant of late and now is at this point being promoted upward?

And here's an interesting Gazette listing, Arthur's entry being amid a flock of other names, dated a full 25 years later, in the 12 December 1939 issue:

ROYAL ARMY SERVICE CORPS.

SPECIAL LIST.

The undermentioned, from the Army Officers' Emergency Reserve, to be 2nd Lts. 2nd September 1939:—

A. F. H. Mills (98184)

So we find that Arthur, some quarter of a century removed from having been wounded in France, was returning to duty at the age of 52. We found out yesterday that George would follow in less than a year. Interestingly, Arthur left the military at some earlier point having achieved the rank of Captain. George left as a Lance Corporal in 1919. But they'd both return as Lieutenants as World War II was beginning.

We then find three consecutive entries referring to Arthur in just one section of the Gazette dated 1 March 1940:

SPECIAL LIST.

The personal number of Lt. A. F. H. Mills is 43673, and not as notified in the Gazette of 15th December 1939.
The notifn. regarding Maj. A. F. MILLS (43673) in the Gazette of 9th Sept. 1939 is cancelled.
Lt. Arthur Frederick Hobart MILLS (43673) relinquishes his comm. 10th Sept. 1939.


I've searched extensively through the London Gazette's website using their Byzantine system, but there simply are no issues dated 9th September 1939, and I can't seem to find any additional references to Arthur Mills anywhere, in 1939 or not, except this one:

Name of Deceased (Surname First)
MILLS, Arthur Frederick Hobart

Address, description and date of death of Deceased
Winds Cottage, Downton [pictured, right], near Lymington, Hampshire, formerly of Stable Cottage, Hurst Wickham, Hassocks, Sussex, Captain H.M. Army (Retired), 18th February, 1955

Names, addresses, and descriptions of Persons to whom notices of claims are to be given and names, in parentheses, of Personal Representatives
Hunters, 9, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, London, W.C.2, solicitors. (Hugh Murchison Clowes)

Date on or before which notices of claim to be given
8th September, 1955 (283)

That's quite a lot of information regarding the demise of Arthur F. H. Mills. But I wish we knew more about his life from 1939 to 1955.

A couple of things do jump out at me. First, in the second citation on 1 March 1940, Arthur's rank is listed as "Maj." Is it safe for me to assume that he may have been elevated in rank from Lieutenant to Major somewhere in early September only to have it cancelled?

Also, if I'm reading things correctly, he was reinstated from the Army Officers' Emergency Reserve on 2 September 1939, but almost immediately relinquished his commission on 10 September. Apparently, during those 8 days—possibly on the 9th—a promotion had been announced and subsequently rescinded the next day. What an interesting week that must have been...

I'll admit, when I think of the onset of the Second World War, I imagine it beginning with a standing army of well-trained troops from Britain being bolstered by an influx of strong, young men and women joining the cause. In the last two days, however, we've seen Arthur Mills—age 52—returning to his military roots, albeit briefly, just one day before Great Britain officially declared war on Germany, Sunday 3 September 1939. George enters the fray a year later, at 44 years of age.

These must have been confusing times. By that Sunday, the 3rd, the Wehrmacht had unleashed two days of blitzkrieg on Poland. HMS Courageous and HMS Royal Oak would soon be sunk by u-boats. And by the time George Mills returned to the military on 11 October 1940, the Luftwaffe had at last crossed the channel and attacked British warships at Firth of Forth. All of these events had been and were being played out against the backdrop of the drama leading up to the Norway Debate in Parliament, and in its wake, the resignation of Neville Chamberlain and succession of Winston Churchill.

We have the luxury of putting all of this in perspective using hindsight, though. At the time, a populace being called on to sacrifice again had already endured a World War just two decades before would have been bracing itself for yet another global conflict—and one in which technological advances had burgeoned so quickly that long range bombers and rockets would present a danger never before experienced. Given the labile emotional, technological, and political landscape of 1939-1940, did anyone really know exactly what to expect in the long term?

Were the Mills brothers, Arthur and George, patriotic citizens who saw their country in need and wanted almost immediately to help, despite their relatively advanced ages? Or was the War Office anticipating the need for able-bodied young men in the various theatres of war abroad, and doing its best to draw upon a pantry full of veterans who would have been able to stock many military positions on the home front while younger fighting men were steadily sent overseas?

It's interesting to note that Arthur F. H. Mills published his novel White Negro in 1940. He'd published at the very least one novel per year since 1921, while also writing short stories for periodicals. That particular book, however, would the last one he would publish until 1947's Don't Touch the Body—unless there were texts written and published in between that I simply cannot find record of anywhere.

Is there a relationship among Arthur's brief return engagement with the military (presumably due to the declaration of war), his almost immediate relinquishing of his commission, and the fact that he soon goes roughly 7 years without penning a novel? Or is all of that merely coincidental? Were there simply so many fewer opportunities to publish a book during the war years that writers at the low end of the food chain like Mills would have had to do without? Or is it possible that something was seriously bothering him—perhaps mentally, physically, or both—that led to his prolonged dry spell?

I invite any of you who knew these times and can provide some context and insight to share your observations, experiences, and your opinions. It would certainly be greatly appreciated!