Additional Information: Percy Carmichael Clarke, Emma Anna Piper, and Egerton Clarke

I've had some exciting information arrive this week, some of it from in and around Watford, England. Let's start with the thread I began receiving first.

A comment on the article "Mr. Egerton Clarke: Meet the Maternal Family" was recently posted by Lex Tucker on Tuesday, 1 November 2011. He wrote:

Frederick Ebenezer PIPER and his wife Mary nee MEACHER had:
Mabel Agnes 1874
Charles Frederick ca 1876
Horace Francis ca 1878
Albert Lucius Meacher ca 1880
Guy Reginald 1882 @ Hythe.
Fredk's wife seems to have been around 11 years his senior. He was 21 to her 32 when they married at Ivinghoe in Bucks in 1873.

According to the 1901 English Census, Mabel, a widow whose 6 y.o. daughter, Dorothy EDWARDS, was a 'British subject born in France' had married James ROY, a 43 y.o. widower. His 16 y.o. daughter Marjorie was also part of the household in Hove, Sussex. James was a 'manufacturing confectioner's manager' and may have had something to do with the fact that Albert PIPER, who was single and lived in Worthing, was a 'confectioner's agent'.

Horace and Guy were living with Charles (head of the household) and his wife in Teddington, Middlesex. Horace was a confectioner (James again?) and Guy a florist.


Thank you very much for the information, Lex!

While the above does not directly play into our story of George Mills, it does flesh out more of the the family history of George's dear friend, Egerton Clarke. If I am reading it all correctly, Egerton would have had some 5 step-siblings from his father Percy Carmichael Clarke's first marriage to Mary Meacher.

What we do not know is how close either Egerton or his mother, Emma Anna Piper Clarke [pictured, right, with Egerton], may have been—if at all—to the children of Percy Clarke's first marriage. The last child of Percy's first union was born around 1882 at Hythe, while Egerton was born in 1899 in Canterbury of a different mother, Emma Piper.

While that difference between half-siblings was some 17 years (1882-1899), Hythe is only some 20 miles from Canterbury, and both just across the Channel from France, where Percy passed away at Dinard in 1902.

It is also notable that Hythe is just a handful of miles west of Folkestone along the coast, the latter being the locale in which Egerton Clarke penned the dedication to his first book of poetry, Kezil and Other Poems, while residing at The Grange in June, 1920, after having served in the First World War.

Egerton clearly had step-kin in the area. Does the fact that he wrote that dedication in Folkestone have more to do with the fact that Hythe was part of his family's geography, or the fact that he had just served in the Army Pay Corps, with nearby Dover the location of a major WWI pay centre where friend George Mills had been stationed after Egerton's medical discharge from the service in 1918? Dover is just over 5 miles to the east of Folkestone.

Much of this requires speculation. Does having a family member born in Hythe make the military connection between Folkestone and Dover somewhat less meaningful? It's difficult to be certain, but we do know that Egerton's mother, with whom he was never truly close, seemingly was out of the picture and residing with her family in Hertfordshire at the time.

Had there always been a deeper connection with his father's family, especially during the time he attended St Edmund's School in Kent, than we previously have suspected?

This new information isn't earth-shattering, but in light of wondering about the relation between Egerton and George Mills, as well as the relationship between Egerton and his mother and her family, it is extremely interesting.

I forwarded Lex's comment to Janine LaForestier, whom you may remember being Egerton Clarke's granddaughter. She already has provided a wealth of information regarding the family's history.

Her reply, dated 3 November:

This is wonderful. I have photos of a couple of Pipers - always wanted to know the approximate ages of these folk. They certainly look ancient - I love this puzzle. Wonderful.

All well at this end - still going through boxes of books.

Funny you should write - I was reading some of Egerton's poems this morning. One he wrote for my mother when she was three.

Also
Came across a photo of a man in uniform - on the back it states "Therese's fiance Lancashire Fusilier - killed in battle 1916-17. So my grandmother was engaged before she married Egerton. There must have been a tremendous shortage of men her own age - hence the age difference between them.


On the radio I recently heard an author, Adam Hochschild, talking about his upcoming book, To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 [left]. In his discussion, he mentioned the difficulty of having a generation of men in its collective prime winnowed down to a relative few due to wounds, amputations, shellshock, and death. It must have impacted the societal pas de deux of lovers in post-War England to a great degree, thereby affecting the eligibility of George Mills and Egerton Clarke, both veterans!

However, I also came upon this message in my mailbox just this morning, dated Saturday, November 05, 2011 7:11 PM:

Dear Harry
I have been forwarded all the information you have discovered about my family.
I know you have been discussing your research with my cousin Janine in Canada. I am another granddaughter of egerton and live in England. although I spent eight years in California I have been brought up and live very close to a great deal of the places mentioned our nearest town is Watford and I went to school in st Albans and walked past the flat where Emma piper (my great grandmother's) sister lived without to this day knowing of the connection. egerton and Emma did not ever spend time in work houses the institutions referred to are schools in today's language would be private schools for the well to do. Emma was living in France after her husband Percy died . there are pictures and I have Percy's bible. there is a lot of research that I have done on the genes reunited website if you are interested. egerton was well educated and in the class system that is still prevalent today would have been considered upper class. the class ranking is often accompanied by a lack of money either money lost or a lifestyle indulged in beyond means. the class being defined by social circles and education. egerton's became a publisher and the publishing career then passed on to my father.

I am curious to know why you have such an interest in this family and have spent so much time researching it. I think it is difficult from such a distance and a different culture to interpret some information and language and meanings change over time.
kind regards
Camilla Andrews


Great information! Thank you so much, Camilla, from whom we have heard before! We now know for sure that Emma Anna Piper Clarke, Egerton's mother, failed to be tallied by early 20th century census takers because she had remained abroad in France after Percy's death! Perhaps that was natural: Emma had married a much older man and, after his passing, still may have had much to learn about herself as both a person and a woman.

We found reference to Emma in French journal from the year 2000 regarding a man with the surname "Lawrence," but it seems that would not have been author and prolific poet D. H. Lawrence, who did not reside in France until after World War I. By 1917, Emma clearly was a resident of Bishops Stortford, Herts.

[The addresses referred to in the journal article mentioned above are part of the region of France across from Dover, Folkestone, Hythe, and Canterbury (Go to: http://www.webcamgalore.com/EN/webcam/France/Veulettes-sur-Mer/5624.html).]


I feel, however, I must have offended Camilla more than just a little, and for that I apologize. My suppositions—that there may have been work houses involved in Watford and Blean—arose simply because of the fewer facts available to me at that time.

Egerton attended school in a town with a workhouse, Blean [right], which for purposes of the 1911 UK census was the location of St Edmund's School, not Canterbury. Citing Blean as the location of his residence without the census documents having named the "institution" (not "school") itself, I will admit, made me wonder where Egerton might have been housed and/or educated and under what circumstances, especially given that he recently had been orphaned.

In addition, the school's website describes its history thusly: "The name of the school was changed from the Clergy Orphan School to St Edmund's School in 1897." Egerton's circumstances as an orphan of a clergyman (and father of over a half-dozen children), combined with Egerton's attendance at a school that had recently been so charitably affiliated (the school was funded by the Clergy Orphan Society), never led me to believe that he was reared in an institution that was actually "in today's language… [a] private school for the well to do."

In addition, I also was misled to a great degree by this information: "1902 THE CLERGY ORPHAN CORPORATION, Under the Patronage of his majesty the King. President - The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Vice-President - The Earl of Cranbrook. Treasurer - E. Lonsdale Beckwith, Esq.

"These Schools, founded in 1749, are for the absolutely free maintenance, clothing, and education of the Orphan (fatherless) Children of the Clergy of the Established Church of England and Wales.

"3228 children have been admitted to the benefits of these Schools which now contain 240. Of this number 132 boys are being educated in St. Edmund's school in Canterbury."

Admittedly, I laboured under the assumption that young Egerton must have been one of those "absolutely free maintenance, clothing, and education" boys, and humbly propose that could have been a somewhat logical assumption, at least from my position at "such a distance and [from] a different culture."

Given the information to which I had access, St Edmund's [left] appeared to me then to have been a charitable school for orphans of men who typically would not have been wealthy. And given what one reads in fiction from the era (at least in classic and popular English literature available to us here in the States), one would assume that even beneficed Anglican clerics who were not fortunate enough to have come from wealthy families before taking their Holy Orders, and who subsequently sired more than just a couple of children, would not have been considered widely as having been 'well-to-do.'

I guess that's why they call it fiction, though, and I stand corrected if I have misconstrued all of the above.

From a purely personal perspective, I will add that one of the greatest 'perks' gained by doing this research is, indeed, gaining some insight into the culture of my ancestors, from "such a distance and a different culture." Hence, I am obliged to anyone who 'sets me straight' in these matters. It's all a work in progress!

Finally, to satiate Camilla's curiosity, my primary interest in her family is in regard to George Mills, a man no one seems to recall very much about, but who was well-educated (as was Egerton Clarke), who wrote children's books (as did Egerton Clarke), was the son of an Anglican vicar (as was Egerton Clarke), who had served in the Army Pay Corps during WWI (as did Egerton Clarke), who had health-issues in the service (as did Egerton Clarke), who later attended Oxford (as did Egerton Clarke), who did not earn a degree from Oxford in the end (as Egerton Cklarke did not), who became a devout Catholic against his family's wishes (as did Egerton Clarke), who never wrote another book after publishing religious texts with Burns, Oates, and Washbourne in the late 1930s (as did Egerton Clarke), and whose health fared poorly during the Second World War (as did Egerton Clarke's), although Mills survived the conflict.

Therefore, I truly hope it does not seem unnatural for me to wonder and wish to learn about the life of a gentleman acquainted with, and who had so very much in common with, George Mills. And if reading any of the suppositions I have made along the way—in the midst of this research—has offended anyone retrospectively, for that I do apologize.


Next time, there'll be more word from Watford, England. However, then it will regard conirmation of a former place of employment for George Mills and a potential link to his teaching career in Glion, Switzerland. See you then!

Mr. Egerton Clarke: Meet the Parents

Moving along to other matters, we come to Mr. Egerton Clarke. Clarke may be the most closely related person to George Mills we've examined for a while. Sometimes, this research can go far afield in an effort to provide context for the life of Mills, but in this case, the two men must have been friends, perhaps close friends.

In order to fully understand Egerton and relate him to Mills, we first have to examine his family of origin and that's what we'll be doing today.

Egerton Arthur Crossman Clarke was born in Canterbury, Kent, in 1899, the son of Percy Carmichael Clarke (1842 – 1902), then Chaplain in Dinard, Ille-et-Vilaine, Bretagne, France, who was the son of London stock broker John Jeffkins Clarke, who was born in Islington, and Fanny Jane Crossman, of Exmouth, Devon.

Percy Clarke was baptised on 12 January 1843, and the document lists his birth date as 4 May 1842 (Other records indicate his birth date was 22 May). His father's occupation is listed as "Gent."

The 1861 census lists Percy's parents' ages as John, 44, and Fanny, 40, in that year.

Percy attended Cambridge [above, left] and his entry in Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900 reads:

Percy Carmichael Clarke. College: TRINITY HALL Entered: Michs. 1860 More Information: Adm. pens. (age 18) at TRINITY HALL, July 26, 1860. S. of J. J. C., Esq. Matric. Michs. 1860. Ord. deacon, 1871; priest (Chichester) 1872; V. of Stapleford, Sussex, 1875-84. R. of St Michael-at-Plea, Norwich, 1886-95. Chaplain at Dinard, 1895-1902. Disappears from Crockford, 1903.

On 30 January 1868, at the age of 25, Percy married Sophia Austen, daughter of foreign merchant Henry Rains, at All Souls, Langham Place, Westminster. The marriage Bann [right] only lists Percy Carmichael Clarke as being "of full age," with his profession being "gentleman" residing in that parish in the county of Middlesex.

The ceremony was witnessed by Sophia's father, her elder brother Rupert Rains, her elder half-sister Ann Sarah Rains, and Percy's brothers, Arthur Doveton Clarke and Egerton Harry John Clarke. Their signatures are all legible on the document.

Sophia Rains Austen Clarke was presumably a widow and older than Percy by 11 years. She appears on the 1871 census [below, left], living at home with her "foreign warehouserman" father, Henry, her mother, and her sisters. She was 38 at the time of that census, making 1833 her approximate birth year. She also was living with her daughter, Florence L. Austen, then aged 8 years.

Percy's new wife came with an instant family, and one of international pedigree. Sophia apparently was born in India, but there are no records to substantiate that. Little Florence was, indeed, born in Paddington, New South Wales, to her mother and her father, Benjamin Rupert Austen, gentleman, in 1863. Benjamin and Sophia had been married in London on 19 March 1861. Benjamin died in Paddington, NSW, in 1865, and Sophia had returned to England with their child.

Newlywed Percy doesn't appear in the 1871 census (according to ancestry.com). Sophia and Florence were living with her father, Henry, in that year, during which Percy was ordained a deacon.

In 1881 [right], however, we do find him living with his wife, Sophia, and stepdaughter, Florence, at the Vicarage in Staplefield, Sussex, in the Parish of Cuckfield, where he was "Vicar of St. Marks Staplefield." They had no children of their own at this time.

Sophia Clarke passed away in Norwich, Norfolk, on 7 October 1887 at the age of 54.

Her will was probated on 21 December. The notice reads: "21 December. The Will of Sophia Clarke (Wife of Percy Carmichael Clarke, Clerk) formerly of Cliffdown-grange-road Eastbourne in the county of Sussex, but late of St. Michael –at-Plea Norwich in the County of Norfolk who died 7 October 1887 at the Rectory St. Michael-at-Plea was proved at the Principal Registry by Rubert [sic] Rains of 25 Sylvester–road Hackney in the County of Middlesex Manufacturer the Brother and the said reverend Percy Carmichael Clarke of St. Michael-at-Plea the Executors."

Sophia's personal estate was proved at £1,807 5s. 11d., and resworn in December 1888 at £2,688 15s. 7 d.

Now here's an oddity based on the above information:

In 1887 or late in the spring (April-May-June) of 1888 (ancestry.com lists both years, but I only have seen the actual record for 1888), Clarke married Emma Anna Piper, daughter of farmer Francis Caton Piper and Hannah Parsey, who woked 130 acres at Hare Street Village, Royston, Hertfordshire (or Great Hormead, Hertfordshire in 1887). Clarke recently had moved to the living at St. Michael-at-Plea in Norwich, Norfolk [below, left] in 1886.

One way or the other, it didn't take Percy long to climb back into the marital saddle again, as they say.

Marriage records for Emma Piper cite the same pair of 1887 and 1888 dates for her nuptials. Given Sophia Clarke's death in October 1887, the 1888 date may seem more likely—but is it possible there was a quick ceremony late in 1887 that wasn't registered until 1888, or a wedding that was quickly annulled for being too soon after Sophia's death, with a ceremony then performed and consummated in 1888?

The only record of the birth of an "Emma Anna Piper" is in late 1856, and that was in Royston, Herts, where Percy and Emma were married in 1887 or 1888. She would have been about 31 years of age.

Either way, according to census records, 1891 would find 47-year-old Percy living with his young wife, Emma, 33, in Lowestoft, Sussex, along with their two-year-old daughter, Dorothy M. Clarke, and a nurse/domestic servant named Emily Mead. Little Dorothy Mary's place of birth is listed as Norfolk, Norwich, where she was born in spring of 1889. Percy's occupation is cited as "Clerk in Holy Order Rector at St. Michaels at Plea Norwich."

Percy would serve as rector at St Michael-at-Plea until 1895. Perhaps they were on a holiday there in Sussex at the time of the census, 5 April 1891.

After his time at Norwich, however, Percy would be named Chaplain of the église anglicane at Dinard, France, in 1895 [below, right].

Percy Carmichael Clarke passed away in 1902 in Dinard and a window was apparently dedicated to him. An inscription upon it reads:

The window is placed by the English and American colony of Dinard to The Glory of God and the affectionate remembrance of Percy Carmichael Clarke for 7 years the Chaplain who entered into his rest 13th April 1902. When I wake up after thy [sic] likeness I shall be satisfied with it.


I can find only one reference to Mrs. Emma Anna Clarke, that being in the year 2000, in the Bulletin et mémoires (Vol. 103) of the Société archéologique du département d'Ille-et-Vilaine. Unfortunately (for me), it is written in French:

Portrait de Mme Clarke, qu'évoque Lawrence lorsqu'il se rend chez elle, villa Staplefield rue des Bains aujourd'hui rue Georges Clémenceau (la première villa à droite de la photographie).

Mme Clarke née Emma Anna Piper le 1 1 décembre 1857 à Beithingford, Angleterre, semble être une grande amie de la mère du jeune homme. Lawrence évoque cette dame en ces termes : "Je pars pour voir Mme Clarke et peut- être le frère Fabel» et encore «Je suis allé chez Mme Clarke et ai porté mon linge en lui donnant une liste» et enfin «Elle vous offre toute sa maison et


That is the entire fragment available to me. Using the Google's on-line translator, I found it roughly means:

Portrait of Mrs. Clarke, Lawrence evokes when he goes home, villa Staplefield now rue des Bains St. Georges Clemenceau (the first house on the right of the photograph).

Mrs. Clarke was born Emma Anna Piper 1 1 December 1857 to Beithingford, England, seems to be a great friend of the young man's mother. Lawrence refers to this lady in these words: "I'm going to see Mrs. Clarke and perhaps the brother Fabel" and even "I went to Mrs. Clarke and I wore my clothes by giving a list" and finally "It gives you all his house and...

My hunch is that the translation is none too perfect, so I will refrain from adding anything here. (Assistance from Francophones would be greatly appreciated!)


Egerton Arthur Crossman Clarke had been born in Canterbury, England, in July 1899 to Percy and Emma. His sister, Dorothy, would have been about 11 years old. His father would have been about 57 and his mother—quickly widowed when Egerton was just three years old—would have given birth to him when she was around 43. He also was baptized there on 18 October 1899 despite his father having been employed at Dinard [below, left, circa 1900].

Egerton was born to older parents and without a sibling close in age or of the same sex with whom to bond. His household obviously would have been a religious one, and at the point in Percy's life at which Egerton was born, it was likely to have been quite devout: Percy had taken his family abroad to France in search of a congregation at a time when many men may have been thinking about settling down into retirement.

Of course, Percy had young children to support, so it may have been practical and economic decision. And, while there is no evidence, there may have been some scandal, or at least an irregularity, in Norwich, leading to Reverend Clarke becoming ensconced in Dinard. That would have been a very practical solution to such a problem: Get him out of England.

Remember that Clarke's tenure at St. Michael-at-Plea virtually began with the death of an aging wife and an almost immediate marriage to a very young one

No matter what, it was unlikely that Percy Carmichael Clarke took over as Chaplain in France as a promotion from St. Michael-at-Plea, or simply as part of some mid-life crisis. And we know the family, after all, never cut ties with England even a little—Egerton was born and baptised there, not in France.

Young Egerton does not appear on the 1901 UK census, likely because he was in France, the very young son of older parents, with no siblings, alone in a country in which everyone spoke a language different from the one used by his parents at home when they conversed, and with a congregation of transient vacationers on holiday, arriving for the mild climate... and the casino.

On top of all that, Egerton soon would be fatherless.

We don't know what happened to the family at that point, but an 11-year-old Egerton Clarke soon shows up in a summary for the 1911 UK census in an "institution" (presumably a school) in the village of Blean near Canterbury, Kent. The family still had ties to the area.

Pictured, right, are children from the Blean School in 1910. 11-year-old Egerton is very likely one of the boys in the middle row, if this was, indeed, the "institution" he was attending in 1911. One hopes that Egerton had escaped the infamous workhouse there, but only greater access to the 1911 UK census would provide an answer..

[Note: It is actually unlikely that any of these children are Egerton; according to his family he did, indeed, attend St Edmund's School in Canterbury, Kent. (08-17-11)]


Let's fast forward, however, to the part of young Egerton's life during which he lost his mother. He was 31 years old when she passed away.

According to probate records, Egerton's mother, Emma Anna Clarke, would pass away on 24 October 1930. She had been living at 30 Portland-road, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, but passed away at "Silverdale Sydenham Kent Administration (with Will)." Despite having at least one living child, the will was cited as "Limited" and probated on 23 January 1931 to George Ogilvy Jackson, solicitor attorney of Edward Arthur Baring-Gould,. Her effects were £194 12s [below, left].

This was not a rich woman. Percy Clarke may have left her a nice sum upon which to live—there are no probate records after his death—but we can see there was little left by 1930, if there ever was much. Even at that, it appears her legacy in 1931 went to solicitors, not family.


[Note: Boy, was I wrong! Solicitor Baring-Gould was married to Emma's daughter Dorothy, sister of Egerton Clarke. From Janine, Egerton's granddaughter: "Dorothy married a Baring Gould. He was referred to as Uncle Ted - so Edward Arthur Baring Gould - was one and the same." So, her probate was, indeed, handled by family. (08-17-11)]


It's likely that Egerton was raised by a mother who didn't have a great deal to spare. It’s possible his schooling may have been attended by his namesake uncle, Egerton Harry John Clarke, who had taken to the profession of young Egerton's grandfather, John Jeffkins Clarke: Stock Broker.

In retirement, when Uncle Egerton Harry John died in 1927, his probate left £18,525 17s. 3d. to his widow. We may need to look no further as to how young Egerton Arthur Crossman's education may have been funded, at least in part.

Next time we'll take a look at the results of that education, Egerton's time spent in the military during the First World War, and his relationship with George Mills.

Stay tuned…

Working Out Where Mills Was in the First World War

In trying to piece together the service record of George Mills, some of the work must be done by inference. As we saw in the previous entry, Mills was sworn into the army in Kensington, London, on 15 January 1916 and apparently immediately assigned to the "Rifle Depot (Res)." His papers were stamped at Whitehall on 11 July 1916, and you see the original form at left.

Oxford archivist Anabel Peacock has records that show him assigned first to the Royal Rifles, and subsequently to the Royal Army Service Corps. Oxford records the date of his entry into the military as 16 June 1916, though, so perhaps he left home until June, well after he'd been sworn in.

Well, George wasn't the only fellow entering the service in England at the time, so let’s take a look at an exchange I found on-line regarding another couple of soldiers who were enlisting at a quite similar time:

ray hurley
Apr 11 2009, 11:38 AM

Hi i am trying to find out when my grandfather went over to france

name Arthur Hurley

private

9th battlion the rifle brigade service no S/26044 formerly R/29675 KRRC

killed Cherisy Arras 3rd may 1917

many thanks Ray Hurley


Stebie9173
Apr 11 2009, 01:45 PM

Whilst Arthur Hurley's Service Record appears to be lost, I hope that I can offer a possible timeline for his service by reference to a man who has apparently very similar service.

Henry Alfred Gunning

Enlisted 29-6-1916

Posted to Rifle Depot, 29-6-1916

Posted to 23rd (Reserve) Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps, No. R/29614, 8-7-1916 (The 23rd Battalion was a "Second Reserve" battalion, set up, in theory, to supply the volunteer New Army ("Service") Battalions with trained recruits).

Posted to 111th Training Reserve Battalion (this was the 23rd KRRC converting as a whole battalion to a Training Reserve battalion), No. TR/13/33981, 1-9-1916

Posted to 9th (Service) Bn. Rifle Brigade, No. S/26040, 7-10-1916

Embarked to France, 8-10-1916.Arrived in France, 9-10-1916, and posted to 47 Infantry Base Depot at Havre.

Joined 9th Battalion Rifle Brigade on 27-10-1916.

Henry Gunning had a bout of sickness in April 1917, was wounded in August 1917, and later transferred to the Army Service Corps, No. M/427995, on 30-11-1918.

Now, George's papers had been stamped at Whitehall on 11 July 1916. Gunning's were stamped there on 29 June 1916—less than two weeks earlier. Gunning clearly must have been at the Rifle Depot upon George's arrival there, and given Oxford's record of 16 June 1916, Mills may even have beaten Gunning there!

Gunning obviously had been assigned to the 22nd Battalion of the King's Royal Rifles, but his paperwork must have been stamped with that information later.

Mills, on the other hand, has the letters "R.B." [Regimental Barracks? Royal Battalion?] stamped on his, although it's uncertain to me what that meant and at what time it was done. And, as we saw last time, the letters "MY PAY CORPS" clearly had been typed or stamped near the "Corps" line at the upper right of the enlistment document in a location similar to Gunning's "22ND BATTN K.R.R." stamp. That easily could have been added later. Could it be that Gunning, 33, was assigned to combat immediately, while Mills, 19, might've been seen to need additional maturation and assigned elsewhere? I've always heard it was the other way around.

Something else that strikes me as interesting about the above record of H. A. Gunning is that he eventually transfers to the Army Service Corps in late November of 1918. Mills, as we know, eventually transferred to the RASC before the end of the conflict as well.

Would George Mills have followed the same or a similar itinerary into the Great War? It's certainly not beyond reasonable speculation that he easily could have, even though I admit to being ignorant as to how recruits showing up daily at the Rifle Depot would have been deployed, perhaps into the 9th Battalion Rifle Brigade [pictured, left--Is Mills among them?] circa 1916.

Is it safe to say that Private George Ramsay Acland Mills, 24209—or possibly 12892 as his papers have in no uncertain terms been amended—was sent to France, at some point probably joining the Rifles, later in 1916. He may have seen action near the base in Havre, or further afield.

George's brother, Arthur F. H. Mills, had been an officer in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, and had been wounded at the Aisne in late 1914.

Sometime between 1916 and 1919—Is 1918 a good guess?—Infantryman George Mills received a transfer to the Army Service Corps, a branch of the military whose clothing department had been run by his maternal grandfather, Sir George Dalhousie Ramsay.

It is apparently from there that Mills was discharged from the service in 1919, holding the rank of Lance Corporal. Why does it apparently say "Army Pay Corps" on his primary enlistment document? We don't know—perhaps it was just coincidental, given that George would later re-enter the British Army as a lieutenant in the Royal Army Pay Corps in 1940.

At this point, there's not much else to know about the WW I service of George Mills except to know that, no matter where he had been deployed, he returned safely and enjoyed the benefit of being a veteran to gain admission to Oxford, where he became a student.

Of course, despite having left Harrow some four years before his enlistment in 1916, Mills still listed himself as a "student" on the papers filled out on the day he was sworn in.

Next time, we'll take a look at how Mills might have, indeed, been a student during those "missing years," and a bit of evidence that may or may not back up my speculation…

1914: George's Brother Goes to War

Yesterday, we looked at the later career of Arthur F. H. Mills, the brother of George Mills. Educated at Wellington College and Sandhurst before entering the military in 1908, though, he eventually became a captain and a "Platoon Commander," a pseudonym he used in writing his first book, With My Regiment: From the Aisne to La Bassée [Lippincott: Philadelphia, 1916]—actually a compilation of articles written for The English Review, The Evening Standard, and The Westminster Gazette.

Arthur's writing at this time is measured and a bit stoic, even impersonal, under what must have been very passionate circumstances. As an American, I can't help but stereotypically think of Lieutenant Chard in Cy Enfield's Zulu, only in khaki. According to the book, presumably just after the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 3 August 1914, Mills is "staying at the time in a large house by the banks of the Thames" with his hostess, a mother of soldiers who "said goodbye to her eldest boy, who was to go with the first troops that left England, arranged for the outfit of her two second sons, and sent for her baby from Eton, whom she saw dispatched to the Royal Military College."

Mills continues, "I went up to London to my rooms to collect a few things." The 1911 census shows Arthur's father, Barton, and his step mother, Elizabeth, living at 12 Cranley Gardens, S.W., in twenty rooms [not counting the scullery, bathrooms, office, shop, or closets] with Arthur's half-sisters, Agnes and Violet, and seven servants. George must be at Harrow. Barton is no longer at the Savoy, having left there in 1908, and its uncertain what his employment at the moment might have been. He still, however, lists his occupation as "Clergyman, Church of England." Arthur's "rooms" still may have been among these, even at 27 years of age.

While his landlady helped him pack, Arthur "ransacked drawers [and] came on a bundle of letters and absurd comic postcards. the letters had a faint scent of violet about them. They had to be sealed up and left behind, with directions for their disposal if I didn't come back."

In the most stunningly personal note in the book's introduction, Mills writes: "And there was a photograph to be taken from the mantelpiece and put in a pocket book, a photograph which had been in many places with me. Well, now it must go on its travels again. I got an aching in the back of my throat and hurried to my club for a drink."

About his actual departure, Mills continues: "Many women had come to see their menfolk off, and some to travel with them as far as they could." Does his observation here imply that no one came to see off Arthur as he set off to war, especially no special girl?

Mills would marry Lady Dororthy Walpole in 1916. He's quite obviously not then in the trenches. In August, 1914, he's lingering over violet-scented letters. Are they from Lady Dorothy?

They aren't from Arthur's mother. Arthur was born in 12 July in the year that his father was installed as vicar of Poughill, Cornwall, 1887. The Reverend Mills had just departed from a position as chaplain in San Remo, Italy, and must have arrived to take his new position by July as Arthur is listed as being born in Stratton, Cornwall.

However, Arthur's mother, the Lady Catherine Mary Valentia Hobart-Hampden, passed away on 25 September 1889, the same year his father leaves the vicarage at Poughill. Arthur is just two years old, and Barton, left with a young son, doesn't return to work as a clergyman until taking over as vicar of Bude Haven, Cornwall, in 1891.

If I were a betting man, and I'm typically not, I'd wager it was a photo of his mother that had accompanied young Arthur on his travels to Wellington College in Berkshire, to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, into the service in 1908, and off to France in 1914.

Although locations in the book are almost always deleted with a long dash [the war was continuing at that point, after all], we can assume by his book's dedication [left] that his story takes place at least in some part near La Bassee, a commune in northern France near the border with Belgium, some time after 21 October, 1914. Covered with mud from the trenches while fighting alongside the Dorchester and Westshire regiments, Mills is shot in both legs and evacuated, eventually to Plymouth, where he spends five days convalescing. And, upon being given permission to travel with the intention of ending up in London, Arthur ends the book.

Mills follows this story with a book called Hospital Days [T. Fisher Unwin: London, 1916], and the cover art depicts a soldier standing just as Mills had described himself, waiting to board a hospital ship for England, in With My Regiment: "I smiled gratefully at the doctor, tied the ticket round my neck, put on a woollen waistcoat, muffler, and dressing gown (all presented to me by the hospital) over my pyjamas, and waited my turn to be carried downstairs."

Before, however, on a troop train to the base hospital in Boulogne, Mills recalls in With My Regiment: "The visit from the hospital nurse is one of the things I remember most clearly from an otherwise clouded period. It was the first taste of the infinite sympathy and solicitude which women give to men returned fro the war. All who have experienced it—as every wounded man has in abundant measure—must have felt that anything that he has suffered was worth such a reward."

Mills is definitely implying here that this was the first of his subsequent 'tastes' of the pleasure of feminine attention. While I'm sure his half-sisters met his with pride and affection, there seems to be something that will blossom into being more than just familial within this description.

That's echoed in this tender excerpt from With My Regiment regarding his stay in Boulogne. He had arrived some 10 days after receiving his wounds and awaited surgery: "I had been in the same clothes for a fortnight and they were very muddy, and I remember having my breeches cut off and being helped into a flannel night-shirt. I woke later to find a nurse beside me with a basin of water. 'Would you like to wash?' she asked. I gazed at her apathetically. 'Come on then, I'll do it for you,' she said kindly. She dipped a piece of flannel in the basin and rubbed it gently over my face. Then she took one of my hands and rubbed that; then streaks of white appeared down my fingers as the caked mud was cleared. 'There, I think that is all we'll do for the present,' she said, and feeling beautifully clean—though in reality with ten days' beard and looking perfectly filthy—I lay back on the pillow."

Arthur and Lady Dorothy are listed in records as having been married in Middlesex. Her penchant for travel and adventure—she journeyed abroad with her mother and enjoyed hunting with her father as a girl—likely made Mills a quite appealing suitor upon his return from the horrors he'd endured on the continent [What remained of La Bassée is seen in stereoview, left, circa 1915]. They were soon married, apparently with Lady Dorothy wearing a wedding ring made from the bullet that the surgeon had extracted from Arthur's ankle in Boulogne!

With little household income, Arthur and Dorothy pay the rent in 1916 by each publishing a book, Arthur's text above [which had apparently been first sold in bits to periodicals], and Dorothy's novel, Card Houses.

Lady Dorothy researcher and academic James Earl Wallace has written, "My hunch is Lady Dorothy Mills was a very minor writer who got published at the peripheral of the literary world." If that's true, her listing in the 1933 edition of Who's Who in Literature: The Literary Yearbook next to the entry for A.A. Milne seems at least a bit odd.

Clearly, if Lady Dorothy was a 'very minor writer,' her husband Arthur's career was virtually microscopic—he is not included in the volume—although the fact that the availability of With My Regiment: From the Aisne to La Bassée to this day [You can download it by clicking here and then clicking PDF] gives Arthur a bit of internet immortality that Lady Dorothy doesn't seem to have—yet.

At that point in 1933, apparently, Lady Dorothy lived at 91 Ebury Street, London, S.W. [pictured with open windows, right]. What I don't know is whether that was her residence before, during, or after she was using The Ladies' Empire Club, 69 Grosvenor Street, W., as her address. It was a confusing period of time.

Events had occurred in the lives of both Arthur and Lady Dorothy in the early 1930s that helped their tear their marriage— a union, as we have seen, likley based at least in part on the tenderness shown by a kind-hearted woman toward a wounded soldier—asunder.

But we'll examine those events—and the life of Lady Dorothy Mills—more closely another time.

And, as always, if you've anything to add, take issue with, or want to comment on, please let me know!