The Passing of Lady Lydia Elizabeth Acland (née Hoare)

Over the next few entries, we'll be working to get a final few items on-line regarding the life, times, and family of George Mills.

Today, it'll be just a quickie: The obituary of George's great grandmother, Lady Lydia Elizabeth Acland, wife of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland of Killerton, Devon. Lady Acland passed away at the age of 69 on 23 June 1856 at 34 Hyde Park Gardens, London, residence of George's paternal grandfather, Arthur Mills, M.P., husband of her daughter Lady Agnes Lucy Acland Mills.

Lady Acland (née Hoare) is see in the portrait above, left, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, with her children Arthur Henry Dyke Acland and Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 11th Bt., George's great grandfather

Here is the article from page 257 of the August 1856 issue (Vol. 201) of The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review:

June 23, suddenly, at Hyde-park Gardens, London, the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Mills, aged 69, Lydia Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, Bart., M.P., of Killerton, Devonshire. The funeral of the late lamented Lady Acland took place on Saturday evening last, in the yard of the old family chapel of Columbjohn, and was attended in large numbers by the tenantry and their wives, by the poor, and by almost the whole neighbourhood. The scene was one of the most simple but affecting description, and the demeanour of all present evinced not only their reverence for the sacred rite then performing, but also their deep feeling for the departed, and her surviving relatives. The funeral was attended by Sir Thomas Acland and his four sons, by several grandchildren, by Lady Acland's nephews (sons of her brothers, Mr. George and Archdeacon Hoare) by Lord Carnarvon, Lord and Mr. Charles Courtenay, Right Hon. John Fortescue, Mr. Hoare of Luscombe, Mr. Blencowe, Mr. Jenkinson, Dr. Miller, and several other private friends. In the evening the procession started from the house, soon after six o'clock, and consisted of a hearse and four horses; mourning coaches with four horses each; three private carriages; and by some 300 or 400 of the tenantry on the estate. The Rev. J. Hellings, and the Rev. Appom officiated on the occasion. As a proof of the reverential feeling exhibited by the attendants, it may be stated that on the Lord's Prayer, in the funeral service, being commenced, everyone in the chapel-yard, amounting to several hundreds, immediately knelt, and continued in that posture till the whole was concluded.


Lady Acland, pictured, right, in a posthumous mezzotint executed by Samuel Cousins after an 1848 portrait by painter Joseph Severn, was buried in the graveyard of the Columbjohn Chapel at Broad Clyst, Devon, England.

While George Mills never met Lady Acland—he was born exactly 40 years after her death—this obituary does indicate the connections his family would have had among the powerful Aclands. While his grandfather, Arthur Mills, was an in-law, George's father was blood, as were George, his half-brother, and his sisters.

And, as we don't know where George's body was interred (if, in fact, he was not cremated), we must consider the fcat that George's final resting place may be in there Columbjohn, not far from George last residence in Budleigh Salterton.

I have been unable to find and access records regarding those laid to rest within that burial ground.

A Virtual Walking Tour of Budleigh Salterton (While Thinking Aloud about George Mills)

Churches seem to have always played an important role in the lives of the Mills family. This is probably no better exemplified than by the letter that George Mills wrote to The Times on 8 April 1959 entitled "Dogs in Church," apparently in reply to an on-going, whimsical thread of mail that had struck a chord in Mills. The missive is a nostalgic retelling of a story that George's father, the Revd. Barton R. V. Mills often told about going to church with his parents, Arthur Mills, M.P., and Lady Agnes, as well as their black retrievers, Belle and Achille.

The last line of the death notice of George Mills that we saw yesterday reads: "Funeral service at the Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday, December 13, at 10:30 a.m." Friend Michael Downes couldn't find a grave for Mills in the local burial ground in Budleigh Salterton (although that may have been due to the inclement weather), and until we know where George rests, his story in Budleigh ends in a church with that 10:30 a.m. service.

It's a dazzlingly sunny morning here in Florida, but cuttingly cold for this part of the world [37°F / 3°C] and the level of insulation found in the houses. However, technology has advanced to the point where I can sit here and virtually stroll around Devonshire, exploring—thanks to Google Maps. I know this won't be of interest if you are a resident of Budleigh Salterton, but for me, it's exciting to see the town across the pond!

First, let's look for the Budleigh Salterton Hospital [above] where Mills peacefully departed. It's at the corner of Boucher and East Budleigh Roads in what is apparently Otterton. Really it's just across the croquet lawns and cricket fields—both sporting loves of George—from his home, Grey Friars. It's about 1500 ft. from the Mills home to the main entrance of the hospital, but it appears to be a rather circuitous drive from one to the other.



On the way back to Grey Friars, I strolled down The Lawn from High Street and took a look at the beautiful edifice that appears to be St. Peter's Church of England [above], although I couldn't find a sign. After receiving his Master's in History from Oxford, George's father, Barton, had been a vicar in the Church of England from 1887 through 1901, as well as having been a chaplain briefly in San Remo, Italy, and an assistant chaplain at the Royal Chapel at the Savoy. Subsequently, the senior Mills worked as a religious scholar and as a military chaplain during the First World War.

We know, however, that Barton Mills converted to Roman Catholicism while at Christ Church, Oxford, before becoming a cleric in the Church of England—sometime before 1885. From the United States, it seems odd that a cleric in one denomination would worship as a member of the congregation of a different denomination—Barton Mills certainly must have missed a few Catholic masses while busy delivering sermons for the C of E at the same hour—but no one I've discussed it with in the UK seems very much surprised by that at all (except for the current Chaplain of the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy, Peter Galloway, who found the news implausible and immediately questioned the authoritative 1885 reference book without even bothering to review it because it did not coincide with his bias). Revd. Barton R. V. Mills appears to have been Roman Catholic by faith, Church of England only by vocation. I leave it to the reader to surmise the tenets of which creed would have been passed, personally, from father to children in such a case.

The entire Mills family's repeated affiliation with Catholicism is far more than coincidental, so it's no surprise at all that George's funeral service was held at Budleigh's "Roman Catholic Church" (also named for St. Peter, a fact left out of the death notice, presumably to prevent confusion among those wishing to attend the service). Grey Friars is virtually equidistant between the two churches of St. Peter, so Mills's spiritual choice of denomination clearly wasn't based on mere proximity. The Mills family clearly was no longer associated with the Church of England.


After turning north up Slaton Road and Moor Lane, I turned north on Upper Stoneborough Lane. While walking along Clinton Terrace, I found a lovely, far more simple, brick church [above].

Turning the corner, I found the entrance [above]...

Looking carefully, the sign at front appears to read "Catholic Church of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles," obviously the location of George's funeral. I imagine Mills closing his dripping umbrella and stepping into the warm, dry vestibule on rainy Sunday mornings...

Returning to Moor Lane, I followed it out to the West, to the very end, where it meets Dark Lane, across from the primary school. There I found St. Peter's Burial Ground, presumably where Michael Downes and his wife, Annie, looked for the final resting place of George Mills one misty winter day.

Approaching the entrance, I carefully read the sign, then strolled along the hedge [above], peering over and thinking... Wishing I could enter...

I wonder if this locale is where George Mills finally went to rest. His paternal grandfather was a powerful M.P., and associated with the Efford Down House in Bude, Cornwall. His paternal grandmother was Agnes Lucy Dyke Acland, daughter of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland VI, 10th baronet, M.P., of Broad Clyst, Devon. The Columb John Chapel at Killerton [below] there in Devon was still being used for Acland family burials after Sir Thomas's death. Could George have found a resting place there?

But one wonders where his father, Barton, was buried after his death in 1932? With the Aclands at Columb John, part of the estate where he and his brother Dudley Mills had been raised for much of their youths by the aging Sir Thomas while father Arthur journeyed to many of the empire's colonies? Knowing where Dudley now rests might help in all of this!

George's mother, Elizabeth Edith Ramsay, was the daughter of Londoner Sir George Dalhousie Ramsay, and she may have been laid to rest alongside her father. Might George be resting near his mother in London—or even with other kin in Scotland?

His wife, Vera Louise Beauclerk Mills, was of the lineage of William I on the Beauclerk side of the family, and granddaughter of the legendary Sinophile Sir Robert Hart on the other. Vera, who passed away in 1942 at the age of 48, may have been buried in a family plot with either family. Could it be that George ended up alongside her?

Or is it likely that the childless Mills, along with his spinster (and presumably childless) sisters, Agnes and Violet, rests together with them in the St. Peter's Burial Ground there in Devonshire, near Grey Friars, the croquet club, and the sea, where they'd all lived so happily for a quarter of a century at the end of their lives?

It's even possible, I suppose, that Mills and/or his sisters were cremated. Still, nothing in the family's past would lead me to believe that.

We've followed the life and career of George Mills—schoolmaster, author, paymaster—from his birth in Bude, Cornwall to his passing in Budleigh Salterton, Devon. He spent a great deal of his life moving around, as we're well aware. I'll admit, I'd very much like to know where, exactly, he at long last came to rest.

Tracking the Life and Travels of Vera Louise Beauclerk Mills, Part 2

When last we peeked in on the life and travels of Vera Louise Mills [née Beauclerk], she had just pledged her troth to George Mills at the altar of the Holy Trinity Church in Brompton on 23 April 1925.

A reception was held at the Hans-crescent Hotel afterwards, after which the couple must have honeymooned and began their lives together. The honeymoon likely didn't take too long as George was likely on holiday from his duties as a schoolmaster.

Mills, then recently of Oxford, had just secured what appears to have been a "junior appointment", a position that was "seldom held for long," at Windlesham House School [its gardens as seen in Portslade, above left]. Despite that, the new couple apparently bought a house near on Benfield Way in Portslade.

George appears to have been very active at Windlesham and quite happy. Not only was he a master there, likely in "English or English subjects," he was involved in extra-curricular activities, especially in the arts of drama and music.

In fact, to say that Mills had been happy there may be understating the reality of the situation. Mills wrote three children's books based on the acquaintances and experiences he accrued at Windlesham, and was still proudly proclaiming his allegiance to the school as late as 1935.

As we know, however, by the end of the Summer Term in 1926, Mills surprisingly disappeared from the faculty list at the school, and Windlesham seems to have recorded no reason why—although they know a remarkable amount about him personally, even today. It has been speculated that Mills was one of the prep school masters at that time who were "excited about the General Strike" that occured during term.

British teachers at the time, according to the book, The General Teaching Council, by John Sayers, were more politically charged—confrontational and involved in unionization—than ever in the 1920s, and Mills could well have been involved. Still, given his family and connections, and those of his new bride, along with his newfound position as household breadwinner, I simply find it hard to believe that Mills would have been willing to chuck a plum job like the one he'd found in Portslade in favor of playing union politics. I find it more likely that the school found he'd lied about having a "B.A. Oxon" but, liking him very well, allowed him to resign rather than being dismissed.

Over the next decade or more, Mills became an itinerant teacher, and given the economic landscape of the Great Depression, he may well have been forced to find work at other positions as well to support his young bride.

Mills lists his teaching stops between 1926 and 1933 as the defunct Warren Hill School [right] in Eastbourne [actually Meads], The Craig School in Windermere, the mysterious English Preparatory School in Glion. Later, in 1938, he will add the surprisingly unknown Eaton Gate Preparatory School in London. How long Mills taught at each institution is simply unknown as these schools have been largely if not completely forgotten by their various communities.

Vera Mills, we can assume, had a mother still residing at 4 Hans-mansion, S.W., for at least the outset of this time period of one dozen years. Would she have traveled with Mills as he moved about?

It's possible George lived in the master's dormitory at Warren Hill, but perhaps not, preferring to reside in Portslade and drive to Eastbourne. From Benfield Way by automobile, he'd likely have to have driven down Old Shoreham Road east, turned south until it met the coastal highway, A259, through Seaford and between Eastbourne Downs and Beachy Head, on into The Meads. The trip would have been over 35 kilometers, one way, each morning to make the school bell and breakfast with the boys.

Given the technological advances of the time, autos were clearly hardy enough to make that journey easily in 1926. However, with a round-trip of 70 km, each day, all week, one wonders if there was such a 'commuter culture' at the time that Mills would have done it. Would Mills really have spent that much time behind the wheel of an automobile to teach?

It's natural to assume, from today's perspective he might've commuted by auto, but it simply seems to me so unlikely. Perhaps he rode the London Brighton and South Coast Railway, traveling from Brighton into Eastbourne daily on the East Coastway Line. Would that have been a better possibility? I suppose it's also possible he'd sold the house and just moved Vera over to Eastbourne, but I'm not sold on that idea either.

Either way, he was subsequently off to Windermere in Cumbria, anyway, and then to Glion, Switzerland, and one wonders for how long those positions were held, and whether or not Vera was in tow in those cases as well.

Vera's family had been certainly not one to worry about whether or not a wife accompanied a breadwinning husband at his out-of-town [or out-of-country] employment. Her grandmother, Hester Hart, as we know, gained a reputation for being "the absentee wife" of Sir Robert Hart in Peking, China, and she consequently almost evaporates from the family record.

Hester left China with two of her children, Bruce and Nollie, in 1881. Except for what were characterized as "rare and brief visits," she never returned to live with Sir Robert [right]. He faithfully corresponded with her until he left China in 1908, and there was one 17 year period during which the husband and wife never met, although Hart "provided generously for her rather luxurious style of life in England."

By 1878, Hester had "established" her children with her mother in Portadown, Ireland, to arrange for and oversee their educations, and then she began "the life of independence and travel that was to be hers over a long lifetime." Hart's London agent in Customs "reported her whereabouts from time to time, but mainly by hearsay."

Sir Robert provided Hester, then Lady Hart, "a house in a good section of London together with a handsome allowance and frequent presents. [She] entertained well and traveled widely."

Vera's mother, Evelyn Amy Hart Beauclerk, had been educated in England and Ireland and apparently came to visit Sir Robert in Peking in 1892, having been between "Aden and Colombo" in March earlier that year, traveling to China with her uncle, James Hart.

While in Peking with her father, "Evey" decided to marry the First Secretary of the British Legation, William Nelthorpe Beauclerk, a British diplomat who was assigned to China, Hungary, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia from 1890 through his death in 1908.

Her mother, Hester, did not attend the "Jerusalem style" ceremony in Peking.

After her honeymoon, the soon pregnant Evelyn was in England in early in 1893 when her father posted a letter to his London agent, Campbell, on 18 February to cover the cost of a new maid for "Evey." Where Beauclerk was or why he could not cover the cost is unknown. She would soon return to China, however.

Vera was born on 5 September 1893, and Evelyn left China the very next day! "Evey" would soon return to Peking, as her younger sister, Hilda, would be born there in 1895.

By 1896, however, Beauclerk was assigned to the legation in Hungary, and I find it hard to believe that with an endowed mother in London and a rich father in Peking, that "Evey" would be raising her two infant girls in Hungary. This is especially true since the duties he would encounter in his new eastern European locale were characterized as a "hard card to play—against Russia and France politically, and against Germany (von Brandt) economically."

Evelyn, who had family and economic roots in both the United Kingdom and Peking, may indeed have followed Beauclerk, twenty years her senior, from Asia, to Europe, and on to South America. From her earliest life, though, Evelyn would not have seen a her own father and mother together as husband and wife very often, if at all.

And it's quite likely newlywed Vera Mills had never seen that either. It's hard to imagine Vera sitting alone in Bowness-on-Windermere in distant Cumbria, waiting for Mills to come home from a hard day up at The Craig, especially after she had led a relatively cosmopolitan lifestyle—one that certainly was not in any way limited in its opportunities to socialize and travel.

I can imagine her seeing George in Glion once or twice, but not finding herself by any means chained to an English prep school there. It simply doesn't seem to have been something the women in her family would have ever considered!

In my mind, there's no way Vera was following George around the United Kingdom and Europe, simply in his tow. Her own mother was clearly quite established in a nice part of Kensington in 1925, and her monied grandmother, Hester, wouldn't pass on until 1928 in Bournemouth, Hampshire, at the age of 80. Vera clearly had places to stay and people to spend time with while George pursued his career in the preparatory education of boys!

By 1933, however, the sands had begun to shift.

In that year, George Mills published his first book, Meredith and Co.: The Story of a Modern Preparatory School, with the Oxford University Press. Aspects of it indicate that he'd been back in London for a while.

In the book's preface, Mills thanks a close friend, Mr. H. E. Howell, who has been associated with All Saints Church Margaret Street, just to the northeast of Hans-mansions, past Hyde Park Corner and Grosvenor Square, as well as mentioning a headmaster from a school in Brackley.

He's also had a difficult, perhaps even bitter, time editing the book under the eye of a Mr. E. M. Henshaw, whose name disappears from later editions of the book. It's unkown if Henshaw was employed by the O. U. P., but Mills obviously was obliged to pay attention to his "devastating, but most useful, criticisms"—criticisms he may not have found in a softer editor outside of the hard core of British publishing in London.

George's parents were probably still in Onslow Gardens, at least until the passing of George's father, Barton, in 1932. Mills's brother and sister-in-law, Arthur and Lady Dorothy Mills, also lived just south of there on Ebury Street, at least through their divorce in 1933.

Yes, there certainly were a lot of reasons for Mills to have finally returned to this area by the early 1930s!

There's no reason to think, then, that Vera is not with George at this time, 1933, no matter where she may have been during his nomadic years just before. The questions are: Did they have a place of their own in 1933? Were they living with George's parents in Onslow Gardens? Or might they have been residing with Vera's family? One wonders where George was actually sitting as he was writing the manuscript for Meredith and Co.!

1933 brings us to another interesting piece of paperwork as well: A manifest from a ship called the Dempo from the Royal Rotterdam Lloyd Line that steamed into the harbor in Southampton, England, on 10 April 1933. Aboard were Vera's mother, Evelyn Amy Beauclerk, and sister, Hilda de Vere Beauclerk, ages 64 and 38 respectively, sailing in from Surabaya, Indonesia, on an itinerary that had included stops in Singapore, Belawan, Colombo, Tanger, Port Said, Marseilles, Gibraltar, and Lisbon.

The address of both Mrs. Beauclerk and Hilda is listed on that document as "45 Knightsbridge Court, London SW. 1." That address today would seem to be in the vicinity of Harrod's, premier hotels, fine shopping and dining, the Kuwaiti Embassy, and an awful lot of expensive-looking automobiles. Might it have been a pretty nice area back then as well?

Yes, perhaps I can imagine Vera shopping out on Knightsbridge in April 1933 while George pecks at his typewriter near a window in his mother-in-law's fine home, awaiting the arrival of both "Evey" and Hilda from their voyage to the Far East.

Hilda would very soon marry Canadian Miles Malcolm Acheson [who puzzlingly was not aboard the Dempo, at least not as a passenger, but was employed then by Chinese Maritime Customs] on 21 June 1933, just over two months after their arrival in Southampton. Had she arrived home for just in time for her own wedding, which was held in Canterbury, Kent?

Unfortunately her mother, Evelyn Beauclerk, never attended the affair, having passed away on 10 June 1933, exactly two months after their arrival!

Given the 1928 passing of Vera's grandmother, Hester, the 1932 death of George's father, Barton, with his sister-in-law, Lady Dorothy, still recovering from a horrific car 1929 accident, with his brother Arthur's divorce dragging from 1932 into 1933, which had followed on the heels of the death of Lady Dorothy's own father in New Zealand in 1931, it certainly had to have been a difficult five years for the families of George and Vera, particularly with George seemingly having apparently suffered concurrent employment woes and the world having been embroiled in a Great Depression!

1935, however, found George casually visiting Steyning, and singing the praises of Windlesham House School, while mentioning he'd authored a book based on Windlesham and Warren Hill back in 1933. Was Vera along? Perhaps not. Either way, he was apparently in good spirits that day!

1938 saw George publishing a sequel to Meredith and Co. called King Willow, this time with G. G. Harrap & Co. In the book's dedication, dated June 1938, he mentions that "Eaton Gate Preparatory School" in "London, S.W. 1," where he presumably had been teaching sometime between 1933 and that year. Eaton Gate is in Belgravia, just a stone's toss from "Cadogen Gardens" [where George's sisters will be living by 1935] and presumably less than a half-mile south of where Evelyn Beauclerk had lived at Hans-mansions in 1925, and in Knightsbridge in 1933.

Unfortunately, the school using that particular name has been forgotten completely, although there is another prep school at Eaton Gate today.

In 1939, George published two more books, Minor and Major [the third in his trilogy of tomes based at least partly on beloved characters from his fictional Leadham House School] and St. Thomas of Canterbury, which was published in Burns, Oates & Co.'s "Shilling Series" of children's books.

Surprisingly, at least for me, 1939 also found Mills abandoning any career he might have had as an author and returning to the military as a commissioned officer and paymaster at the outset of Britain's entry into the Second World War on 3 September 1939. Mills, 44, was commissioned on 11 October of the same year and given the rank of Lieutenant.

Not bad for a fellow who, some twenty years before, had checked out of the army after the First World war holding the rank of Lance Corporal!

I had assumed Mills had been assigned to a Royal Army Pay Corps in London or Sussex, but I now believe that I was wrong. I think he must have been assigned to the RAPC in Taunton [right].

His grandfather, Arthur Mills, had been an M.P. from Taunton from 1852-1853 and 1857-1865. The family of George's grandmother, Lady Agnes Lucy Acland Mills, owned a great deal of land in northern Devon and into Somerset. His great-grandfather, Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, had been a lord and power broker over an area of land that ranged from the rocky coast of Cornwall, through Devon, past Exmoor, and on into Taunton throughout the late 19th century.

The Holnicote Estate in Exmoor has been owned and managed by the National Trust since 1944, but it had been a home of the Acland family, along with Killerton in Devon. I'm not suggesting that Mills lived there while he worked for the RAPC, but I suspect he at the very least may have lived nearby.

The death certificate of Vera Louise Mills was filed in Exmoor, Somerset, on 5 January 1942. Holnicote House is a good ways from Taunton, but the Aclands would have had plenty of land around there [pictured is a 1890s cottage in part of the estate called Selworthy Green]. Perhaps George rented one of the estate's 170-some cottages from the Aclands. Perhaps, with a war on and George in the service, he was even given a place to stay with Vera free of charge. Could it even be that Vera stayed on as a guest of the estate itself with George at the barracks? One could easily imagine a cosmopolitan girl like Vera making herself quite at home in such surroundings!

Perhaps, though, George Mills simply had been randomly assigned to Taunton. After all, there wouldn't have been too many places around southern England where he could have landed and you couldn't have made a case that he'd have had some kin nearby, or in a locale that had had something to do with his family's history. Still, he didn't end up in Manchester, Leicester, or York with virtually no connections. He landed in Taunton.

The circumstances of Vera's death are unknown to me. Just 48, she seems to have been so very young to have died. Still, I don't know what caused her passing. Illness? An accident? It's hard to say, just as it's hard to say exactly what effect it might have had on George.

Mills, a man who was known for his humorous stories and for "making people laugh, a lot," presumably had a good relationship with his wife. He obviously had been working well at his desk in the Pay Corps, having been promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in April of 1942.

Yet, on 3 November 1943, Mills relinquished his commission on account of "ill health" and was given the honorary rank of Lieutenant.

Is it a coincidence that Mills took so sick within two years of Vera's death that his health drove him from the armed forces during the middle of a global conflict during which Great Britain literally had its hands full?

Perhaps. But one actually might tend think that George—not coming from a nuclear family in which husbands and wives lived separate lives, and by 1942 finally having the chance to spend quality time together with Vera while he was gainfully and steadily employed—took her death very hard.

[To read Part 1, click HERE.]

Flat for Sale in Efford Down House, Bude, Cornwall - 2 Bedrooms, 1 Reception Room, 2 Bathrooms

It will be another scorcher here in Ocala, Florida, with the temperature scheduled to tickle 100°F yet again today. Let's just say it's been warming up nicely around here, and it will be a great day to sit in our cool, air conditioned living room and watch the United States play England in the first round of the World Cup in South Africa. For weeks now, we repeatedly have seen that the cover of The Sun regarding the draw on television in anticipation of today's match…

Looking at yesterday's entry, I couldn't help but feel a bit like a real estate agent running from address to address. With that in mind, let's look at an actual listing for flats in Bude, Cornwall, at the former home of George Mills's grandfather, Arthur Mills!

Here's the text from the internet listing [pictured, right]:

Efford Down House was constructed in the early nineteenth century. It was the private residence for Agnes Acland and her husband Arthur Mills MP. Her father Sir Thomas Acland had given the land to Agnes as a wedding gift, Arthur Mills was the member of Parliament for Taunton and later Exeter and was a leading figure in the Bude community. The house later became a hotel. In 1989 Efford Down House was tastefully converted into individual luxury apartments offering superb accommodation in one of the most enviable positions in Bude. In all this 2 bedroom apartment would be considered ideally suitable for holiday use or retirement and early viewing is recommended to avoid disappointment. The accommodation briefly comprises entrance hall, lounge/dining room, kitchen two bedrooms with en-suite to master and separate shower room, further complimented by gas fired central heating and UPVC double glazing.

Room Dimensions

Entrance Hall

Sitting/Dining Room 14'4 x 12'6

Kitchen 11'4 x 6'7

Master Bedroom 10'11 x 9'6

En-Suite Bathroom 6'11 x 5'10

Bedroom 2 10'3 x 8'1 plus door recess

Shower Room 7' x 5'2

Outside Services

Lady Agnes Lucy Acland Mills [presumably in the carriage, left, being driven by husband Arthur] had passed away on 23 May 1895, never living to see the births of grandchildren Agnes [her namesake, born just 19 days after her death], George [1896], or Violet Mills [1902]. The executor was Reginald Brodie Dyke Acland, barrister, not Arthur Mills. My hunch, then, is that the Efford Down House did not go to Arthur after her demise.

Arthur himself passed away on 12 October 1898 leaving an estate probated at £42 035 to Reginald Brodie Dyke Acland, barrister, Theodore Dyke Acland, MD, the Rev. Barton Reginald Vaughan Mills, and Dudley Acland Mills, major in the Royal Engineers.

Even adjusting in my mind for inflation, cost of living, etc., I just can't see how that £42 035 included the property and home at Efford Down [pictured in the 1890s, below, at right, and today, below, at left]] , as well as Arthur's colonial properties, flat in London, and various other holdings.

Soon after Arthur's demise, Rev. Barton Mills left the vicarage at Bude for the Chapel Royal at the Savoy in London in 1901. It is presumable that he had some of that £42 035 in his pocket, possibly up to ¼ of it, and perhaps more, depending on how barrister-proof was Arthur's will on behalf of his sons Barton and Dudley.

The Mills family, as we know, ended up in London in 1901, and that he'd already conducted a service at the Chapel Royal by that time: The year of 1901 marked the passing of Queen Victoria on 22 January. Barton R. V. Mills preached his first sermon at the Chapel Royal on 2 February 1901 at the Festival of the Purification, Memorial Service on the day and at the hour of the Funeral at Windsor of Queen Victoria. Records show that the preachers on that day were "T E Franklyn, Assistant Chaplain, and Barton R V Mills, Vicar of Bude Haven, Cornwall."

It's unclear whether he'd been invited to participate, and as a result ended up in the employ of the Savoy, or if it was already accepted that he'd soon become a cleric there. He'd apparently also preached Ash Wednesday and Good Friday services in the Chapel Royal before he was officially listed as an assistant chaplain on the 25th Sunday after Trinity, 24 November 1901.

Nonetheless, the family of the Reverend Barton had been residing at 13 Brechin Place in London by the evening of the 31 March 1901 census. Had he come to town knowing he had a job at the Savoy waiting, or because he needed to find work and London seemed the place to find it?

I've always assumed that Barton left the vicarage at Bude of his own accord, but the vicarage itself was endowed by the Acland family. Perhaps I've been mistaken. Is it possible he actually had been removed from his post in Bude Haven in favor of a new vicar who was a closer relative of the Aclands, or at least someone held in higher esteem at the time? After all, he'd seen a long-time vicar of Poughill unceremoniously thrown over in favor of him in the recent past. Might the connections of the powerful Aclands have arranged for his position at the Savoy, or at least been a foot in the door? Had he, his wife, and his children, been disenfranchised since his most direct living benefactors had all passed away by the outset of the 20th century? One wonders.

I have to doubt that much, if any, of the value of the property and manor at Efford Down went to London with Reverend Barton, or covered his moving expenses.

You, however, have an opportunity he likely never had: To own a piece of Mills family history in Bude!

For just £245,000, you could own a two-bedroom flat [sitting/dining or "reception" room pictured, right] in the manor at Efford Down! Just call 0843 315 1302.

£245000 for two bedrooms and two baths: It's enough to make a wealthy fellow like Arthur Mills believe that he was born by far in the wrong century!

I invite any thoughts, information, or speculation you might have into wills, probate, inheritance, or property you may have regarding the late 19th century.

That said, enjoy England vs. the U.S.—it should be a good one!

Gen. Hallam, Col. Dudley, and the Ten Missing Pages

Mail's in!

I've received parcels from England and Australia in the last couple of days, but they haven't quite lived up to the excitement of the arrival of the 1933 edition of Meredith and Co. last week.

A real disappointment came from Australia, whence I received a a partial copy of Col. Dudley A. Mills's significant publication, British Diplomacy in Canada: The Ashburton Treaty. It was published, not as a stand-alone piece of literature, but in United Empire: The Royal Colonial Institute Journal, New Series 2 (Oct 1911) on pages 681-712, and included the apparently definitive 'Mitchell Maps' [above, left].

Unfortunately, I've received only pages 681-702.

Dudley Mills is the uncle of George Mills, and spent his career traveling the world with the Corps of Royal Engineers. A brief biographical sketch on-line describes him in this way [my emphasis]:

"Dudley Acland Mills was born at Eastbourne in 1859. He appears on the 1861 census staying at Killerton House at Broadclist in Devon, the home of his grandfather Sir Thomas Dyke Acland. His parents were Agnes Lucy (née Acland) and Arthur Mills, the M.P. for Taunton from 1857 to 1865 and the M.P. for Exeter from 1873 to 1880.

Dudley Acland Mills joined the Royal Engineers as a Lieutenant in 1878, rising to the rank of Captain in 1889 and Major in 1897. In 1896 he married Ethel Joly de Lotbinière. They had one son and two daughters. Colonel Dudley Acland Mills died on 22 February 1938. According to his obituary in The Times (26 February 1938), he was 'an authority on things Chinese and early maps and a man of all-round culture and knowledge.'"

Researching the Ashburton Treaty is on my big "to do" list of all things Mills, but the journal United Empire itself describes Mills's well-researched document full of painstakingly reconstructed maps as "a valuable step towards clearing away misapprehensions which, in the past, have sometimes clouded the relations between Canadians and their Mother-land."

I'd like to think I could report on the entire article, but may only be able to survey through page 702, depending on the reply I receive from Serendipity Books in West Leederville WA, Australia, about the missing pages.

I also received printed material from Alton, Hants in the U.K.: A brand-new, apparently self- or privately-published edition of An Account of Stewardship: 1979-1984 by Major General Giles Hallam Mills, Resident Governor and Keeper of the Jewel House, Her Majesty's Tower of London [title page, right]. It has been implied that General Mills [not to be confused with the American cereal company] is a relative of George Mills and family, but I've been unable to verify that independently.

It's a thin, 41-page text, hand bound by E. A. Weeks and Son, London, and is comprised of nicely reproduced photocopies of typewritten pages, probably "pica" if I'm correctly recalling the days before word processors when a "font" was better known as a reservoir than as a typeface. It promises to be a very factual read.

How Hallam Mills is related to the Mills family of our interest isn't quite known, but I'll read the volume anyway. At least it arrived with all of the 41 pages intact.

Meanwhile, wish me luck in my quest to receive the missing pages 703 to 712!

It's a gorgeous, sunny, hot morning here in Florida, and I'm still basking in the glow of pitcher Roy Halladay's perfect game for my beloved Philadelphia Phillies last night in Miami [left]. It was only the 20th perfect game in the history of baseball, and the second this year. The last time there were two perfectos in a season was 1880, accomplished by pitchers from the Providence Grays and the Worcester Red Rubys—the first two perfect games ever thrown.

I'm not sure exactly how a perfect game might translate to cricket, but I have read exciting passages in the books of George Mills about bowlers striving for "hat tricks." My cricket knowledge is obviously not exactly what it should be.

I recently read about the triple-centuries in Test cricket, accomplished by only 20 different players since 1930. Would this be a similarly rare accomplishment?

Dogs in Church

Since I've been stalking George Mills, I never quite know what to expect when I open my e-mail each morning. Here's a note from Barry Mc today:

Sam

Is this why you were asking about Grey Friars?
Kind regards

Barry

The text he's referring to is a letter published on page 11 of the London Times on Wednesday, April 8 1959:

DOGS IN CHURCH

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES

Sir,—When my father was a young boy he lived with his parents at Bude, and would frequently drive over to evensong at Morwenstow, where the eccentric and much beloved Reverend R. S. Hawker was the vicar. They would always be accompanied by two big black retrievers, Belle and Achille, who would wait outside the church while the service was going on.

On one occasion during the sermon Achille came into the church and walked up the aisle looking for my grandmother, who took him by the collar to lead him out. Hawker, who loved dogs, stopped his sermon. "Let him be, Mrs. Mills, there were dogs on the ark." During the rest of the sermon Achille sat motionless on the pew apparently listening devoutly.

Yours faithfully,
GEORGE MILLS.
Grey Friars, Budleigh Salterton, Devonshire.

What a great story! The father would appear to be our Rev. Barton R. V. Mills, the grandfather would be Arthur Mills, along with his wife, Lady Agnes.

I soon replied:

There were two places on the internet where I found a reference to that location, one spelled Grey Friars and one spelled Greyfriars, both in Budleigh Salterton, Devon. One was from a biography of Vera Mills' grandfather, Sir Robert Hart, and the other was a snippet in a book at books.google.com, but its name escapes me at the moment.

The letter is an interesting one! My first thought was of a Vicar of Dibley episode in which Geraldine actually welcomed animals to church based on the same premise. It's also interesting that this story would be of a very old vintage--the 1860s. George never met his grandmother, and his grandfather passed away just days after George turned two, so the story must have been quite important to Barton Mills for it still to be told by George [and likely his sisters] so much later in time. I imagine it made its way into a number of Barton's sermons as well.

You may already have seen it, but I've attached a photo of George's grandfather, Arthur, preparing for a drive in the early 1890s [pictured, right]. It's another image that stuck in my mind as I read the letter!


Thanks very much, Barry!

He followed up with this wonderful line: It's not for me to say whether this George Mills is your George Mills. I'm counting on your skills as a pedagogue - not merely a pedant! [A very British joke of my own devising.]

Thanks.... I think! Anyway, I decided to check and see if the dates matched up well enough for this George Mills to indeed be "my" George Mills, complete with a family from Bude. I was soon fascinated by a peek I took into the life of the Rev. R. S. Hawker this afternoon, and followed up with this:

It seems too coincidental for this not to have been the George Mills of my interest. The fact that the family had lived in Bude and Barton's boyhood [he was born in 1857] would have overlapped the end of Hawker's career fit in nicely. And, as usual, something like this [from Wikipedia] always seems to crop up where the Mills family is concerned:

"Hawker died in August 1875, having converted to the Roman Catholic Church on his deathbed. He was buried in Plymouth's Ford Park Cemetery. His funeral was noteworthy because the mourners wore purple instead of the traditional black."

He [Hawker, pictured at left] certainly sounds like an exceptionally interesting fellow when one reads of his entire career! Are you familiar with him?

In thinking about Mills' books, the quality of the character of a schoolboy or a master was often equated with his fondness for dogs, especially Uggles the bulldog. It sounds like it was a family trait!

Yes, it does seem like the above letter references the Reverend Barton R. V. Mills, et al, in Bude. And I can't help but notice that, once again, the subject of conversion to Roman Catholicism seems to trickle into a story about Anglican Vicar Barton Mills and family. Hmmmmm... that's quite a few coincidences!

Another nice thing this letter does is place George Mills in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, over a decade before his death there in 1972.

In 1956, you'll recall, Mills was working during the summer at Ladycross Catholic Boys' Preparatory School in Seaford, seemingly a good distance from Devon. Is it safe to assume that Mills may have moved from the southeast to Devon between autumn of 1956 and April of 1959?

Perhaps, but only time will tell! Meanwhile, I invite you to weigh in with your thoughts...

A Glimpse into a 19th Century Acland Family Photo Album

On this warm and wonderful afternoon here in Florida, due to the modern miracle of the internet, we're about to travel back in time to "see" the world through the eyes of young George Mills, his half-brother Arthur Frederick Hobart, and his older sister, Agnes Edith.

Thanks to a portfolio donated to the University Of Canterbury [Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, in Maori] in Christchurch, New Zealand, by the Acland family [descendants of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet, of Killerton, Broadclyst, Devon, the maternal great-grandfather of George Mills] after they emigrated, we can see Cornwall, Devon, and much of southern England exactly as it looked to the very young Mills siblings, circa the late 1880s or the 1890s. [Click an image to see it full-sized.]



This amazingly unexpected photograph is labeled "Mills driving horses," so I suppose we're to assume that's George's grandfather, Arthur Mills, Esq., M.P., there at the reins. The passengers may be visitors to his home, but if so, would I be wrong in assuming he'd be sitting with his guests? My hunch is that he's taking out the family, but what do I know?

Would it also be wrong of me to assume that smartly dressed fellow in the carriage could be Revd Barton R. V. Mills, Vicar of either Poughill or Bude, and he could be sitting with his mother, Lady Agnes, and possibly his first wife, Lady Catherine [who passed away in 1889] or Elizabeth Edith Ramsay Mills, whom Barton married on 10 January 1894?
Lady Agnes died on 23 May 1895, so if that is both Elizabeth and Lady Agnes, that certainly narrows the list of possible dates on which this image could have been taken. Should it perhaps be Lady Catherine, this image would then be of an 1887 to 1889 vintage.

Barton's brother, Col. Dudley Acland Mills, was an officer in the Royal Engineers who is not found anywhere in either the 1891 or 1901 census. It seems unlikley that the he's the gentleman in the carriage. Barton, however, was listed in the 1891 census as living at 128 Efford Down, Cornwall, with his mother Agnes Lucy, father Arthur, and his son, young Arthur F. H. Mills, who was then 3 years old. Put this address, Efford Down Park, Bude, Cornwall EX23 8SE, UK, into Google Maps and see if you don't think this is the same place!

This is the lovely church at Poughill. Reverend Barton R. V. Mills was rector there from 1887, to 1889. Arthur Frederick was born in 1887, and Lady Catherine, young Arthur's mother, died in 1898. Is it likley this was taken during that time by the Aclands to show visitors the church where their grandson Barton was vicar?


This beautiful picture was taken on one of the Acland estates. Young George Mills was born in 1896, and his half-brother Arthur was 9 years older than George. Is it possible that this healthy looking lad could be young Arthur visiting Killerton?


This gorgeous image shows the Cornish coast that the Mills family must have known and loved so well. While I know that could be anyone who just happened to wander into the photograph, it still makes me wonder...


Why are this boy and, I suppose, his mother, so disinterested in someone taking outdoor photographs in Bude Haven in the 1890s? Could that have been such an everyday occurrence, compared to seeing a sailboat? It occurs to me they must have had the same interest as the photographer, having accompanied him to this spot: That wonderful vessel! Could that lad be young Arthur—or even George Mills himself? After all, how many tots in Bude would have likely been that disinterestedly close to a party of traveling, photographing, parasol-wielding Aclands?

If that is, George, date this image 1898 or 1899. And, if it's Arthur, make it 1891 or 1892. And perhaps it was different in the late 19th century, but I can't imagine why the Aclands would've taken the camera to Bude if not on an visit to see Arthur, Barton, and the children...

And in this photograph of the coast, we see a panorama of Bude Haven. It features the stately home of Arthur Mills, Esq., M.P. resting comfortably atop the hill.

Here's yet a closer shot of the Mills family's residence in Bude. Nice place, eh? I wonder what it costs to heat, though...


This image depicts Killerton in Devon. Barton and Dudley Mills were raised there as young boys until it was off to boarding school. The only residents of this manor listed in the 1861 census were Sir Thomas, himself, and "Barton Reginald Vaughan Mills (age 3) and Dudley Acland Mills (age 1) (Children of Arthur Mills, Esq., M.P.), + 18 servants." The boys' father would have been either in London, serving at the time as the Tory M.P. from Taunton, or may have been on one of his many excursions abroad. Mills had recently published his definitive book on the costs of the Sepoy Mutiny and the state of the colony, India in 1858.

This time, we've actually entered Killerton of the 1890s. The painting is entitled "Great Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet," and was painted by William Owing. Sir Thomas had died in 1871, having been succeeded by Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 11th Baronet, but obviously is still watching son-in-law Arthur Mills like a hawk.


Before returning to the 21st century, let's just take a look at a few images of the southern England of the late 18th century that the family of George Mills must have loved so dearly...