Croquet Gazette: Who is George Mills?

From April/May 2011 (Issue 331) of the Croquet Gazette...



Click the images to enlarge each page in a new window!

Many thanks to the Croquet Association for allowing me space to be a guest author in that issue. For an interactive copy of the entire issue which can be increased to an even greater size, go to: http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1s2ne/CroquetGazette/resources/17.htm

"Ya Can't Tell the Players Without a Scorecard!"

Despite the title above hearkening back to early 20th century American baseball (a sport that's on my mind now that Spring Training has started here in Florida for northern teams), here's a breakdown of the important characters in our ongoing story of the Mills siblings of Budleigh Salterton--George, Agnes, and Violet--on the equally verdant croquet lawns of England, 1950-1971. If possible, they all have been listed with their associated club, and I've done my best to record their accomplishments on the lawns and any positions held.

If you can add any information about a player or their affiliations, offer a photograph (or a better image), or could suggest adding another interesting or important player to this list, please don't hesitate to let me know--and thank you! I will update information and images as frequently as I can [Last update: 15 July 2011].

Now, please scroll down to see the players...

	Agnes Edith "Aggie" Mills Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club Won the 1953 Luard Cup at Roehampton; for Agnes's prize lists, please click HERE
Violet Eleanor "Vi" Mills Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club Accomplished amateur in golf, lawn tennis, and croquet; participant in tournaments in all three sports throughout England; for Violet's prize lists, please click HERE
	George Ramsay Acland Mills Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club Schoolmaster, author, and veteran of both World Wars; for George's prize lists, please click HERE
Barbara May Chittenden The Compton Club at Eastbourne The wife of Mr. Hugh F. Chittenden, former Head Master of Newlands School in Seaford, Sussex
	Veronica Claire "Vera" Gasson Hurlingham Club Secretary of the Croquet Association, 1960-1970
Lt.-Col. Gerald E. Cave Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club Croquet and Tournament Secretary, 1965-?; 1974 Manager of Great Britain's MacRobertson Shield Series Team
	Mrs. Geraldine Cave Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club Gerald Cave's mother, with whom he lived
J. G. "Guy" Warwick Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club South of England Championship, 1962; Referee, MacRobertson Shield Series, 1974; Brother of Joan Warwick
	Edith Joan "Joan" Warwick Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club Played on MacRobertson Shield winning team in 1963; CA Women's Champion, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1968; Captain, British Wanderers Women's Hockey Team; Author, Umpiring for Women's Hockey, 1971
E. A. "Tony" Roper The Compton Club at Eastbourne Former Head Master of Ladycross School, Seaford, East Sussex
	Maurice B. Reckitt President of the Croquet Association, 1967-1975; CA Men's Champion, 1935, 1946; Surrey Championship 1934; South of England Champion, 1950; Author, Croquet Today, 1954; Played on 1956 MacRobertson Shield winner
Evelyn Aimee "Aimee" Reckitt Ranked Women's Tennis Player: 1922 (58th); 1923 (28th); 1924 (60th); 1925 (72nd); 1926 (78th); 1927 (62nd); Epsom Tennis Finals, 1923, 1925, 1926 Wimbledon, 1923, 1925, 1927
	Lady Ursula Abbey The Compton Club at Eastbourne? Well-known Breeder of show dogs at Cruft's; a noted outdoorswoman and shooter
Maj. John Roland "Jack" Abbey The Compton Club at Eastbourne? Renowned antiquarian book and manuscript collector, entrepreneur, and veteran of both World Wars; Tournament croquet player as far back as Brighton, 1913
	Rev. Canon Ralph Creed Meredith East Dorset Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club New Zealand Badminton Champion, Singles, Doubles, Mixed, 1927; Doubles co-champion, 1928; Player on losing MacRobertson Shield team (New Zealand), 1930; Past President of both the New Zealand Badminton & Croquet Associations
Sir Leonard Daldry Cheltenham Croquet Club? Referee, MacRobertson Shield Series, 1974 Banker and Senator of Federal Legislature, Nigeria
	Mrs. Alex Fotiadi Bowdon Croquet Club Member of Bowdon C.C. from 1939 until her death in 1990; Club President, 1972-1981; Donor of Bowdon's Novices Silver Challenge Bowl, 1957
Dr. Harold John Penny Winner of the Faulkner Cup, North of England Championship in 1939, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1951
	Isobel Marion Roe Cheltenham Croquet Club CA Women's Championship, 1961; British Women's Ski Champion, 1938-1949; 1937 (Downhill) & 1939 (Slalom & Alpine) Skiing World Championships; 1948 GB Winter Olympic Team, St. Moritz, (Slalom, Downhill, Combined); 1948 Ladies Lowlander Champion; President, The Ladies' Ski Club (England), 1957-1960; Guiness Book of WorldRecords, 1986, Most British Women's Ski Titles Held
Bennett Gregory "Bill" Perry Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club Played on Great Britain's MacRobertson Shield winning team in 1974; winner of 12 tournaments from 1966-1981
	Dr. H. R. "Herbie" McAleenan The Compton Club at Eastbourne Beat E. A. "Tony" Roper in the X Handicap Finals at the age of 83 at the Saffrons in 1964
Dr. William P. Ormerod East Dorset Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club Played on MacRobertson Shield Series winning teams, 1956 (age 19), 1963, 1969, 1974; Won CA President's Cup, 1966; and Men's Championship, 1970; 7 time winner of Open Doubles Chamionship; 9 time winner of Parkstone Dorset Salver Open (54 years between his 1956 and 2010 victories); Current UK/Ireland Ranking: 97th (2011); Donated Wm. Ormerod Trophy to Austrian Croquet Federation, 2006; now coaching golf croquet at Swanage Croquet Club; won Delves-Broughton Open Golf Croquet Doubles Championship in 1954 at the age of 17 with A.E. Stokes-Roberts

[Update (8 July 2011): Many thanks to Budleigh's Judy Perry for the colour photographs used here!]

October in Devonshire Park, Eastbourne, circa 1957

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lady Ursula Helen Abbey and Some Other Surprises

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rev. Canon R. Creed Meredith, Sir L. Daldry, and Super Bowl XLV

This morning begins Super Sunday, an unofficial U.S. holiday, and I'm anticipating the playing of the American football championship game, the Super Bowl. During the baseball World Series and football playoffs so far I've won two pizzas from Carlos, the custodian at my school. He's bet two more, double-or-nothing (a bet he's already lost once), on the Pittsburgh Steelers, winners of two of the last four championships, hoping to get even. I've bet the pizzas owed me on the Green Bay Packers, the only team owned by its fans—the residents of tiny Green Bay, Wisconsin—and not a corporate conglomerate or egotistical multi-gazillionaire.

Last year I had a similar bet on the Indianapolis Colts, favored against the New Orleans Saints. Throughout the years, I've never been able to pick a Super Bowl winner to save my life, so its safe to say Carlos will likely owe me nothing at the end of the day. Betting my pizzas on the favored "cheeseheads" from Wisconsin almost guarantees that the Steel City will take away the trophy.

My only real chance of being involved in a victory today rides on my wife Janet's chili con carne. The host of the party we'll attend, my colleague Debbie, holds an annual Chili Cook-Off Contest. Last year Janet took the 2nd place ribbon, and this year she's looking to come home with the title!

Anyway, shifting to another field of play, while looking over my vast, panoramic Excel spreadsheet of croquet opponents, partners, and results, a few names do jump out. They may not have been the most regular friends or foes of George, Agnes, and Violet Mills, but they're noteworthy.

First, let's introduce ourselves to the Rev. Canon Ralph Creed Meredith. Creed Meredith played singles against Agnes on three occasions (according to the notoriously "iffy" Times search engine) and beat her twice.

Meredith was a cleric and a mason—something that apparently was a bit controversial at the time. According to the blog The hermeneutic of continuity:

"In 1951, Hannah wrote an article in the journal Theology, entitled 'Should a Christian be a Freemason?' which caused considerable controversy in England, particularly since King George VI and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, were both freemasons. As a result, the Church Assembly of the Church of England later that year discussed the issue. The Rev R Creed Meredith, a freemason himself, proposed that a commission be appointed to report on Hannah's article. This was overwhelmingly rejected and the Assembly did not reach any particular decision on the matter."

"Hannah" was Walton Hannah, an Anglican clergyman, who according to the blog "was later received into the Catholic Church."

Nonetheless, Creed Meredith served as chaplain to George VI and Elizabeth II [above, right]. On 28 June 1946, the London Gazette published an announcement which offically appointed him "Chaplain to his Majesty." In 1954, his address is listed in Time & Tide Business World (vol. 35) as "The Vicarage, Windsor."

I'm admittedly unsure how that combined vicarage and appointment [Would this have been simply a title, Honorary Chaplain to the King (K.H.C.)?] relate to the being a chaplain at the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy, where Reverend Barton R. V. Mills served as an assistant chaplain from 1901 to 1908. Nevertheless, it was a likely conversation starter for the Mills siblings with the Reverend Canon. You'll remember that Barton Mills was involved in the official ceremonies at the funeral of Queen Victoria and stayed on at the Savoy, moving his family, including his daughter Agnes (age 6) son George (age 5) to London in time to be counted in the census. Violet was born in 1902.

Around 1960, Creed Meredith had moved to at 9 Kingsbridge Road, Parkstone, Dorset, according to the Church of England Year Book, volume 85, making him a probable member East Dorset Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, where he beat Agnes Mills (+12) on 13 September 1960. The aging vicar, then 73, fell to her (-4) on 11 July 1961 on her home lawns at the Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club.

According to RootsWeb at ancestry.com, Creed Meredith was "was born 10 Jul 1887 in Dublin, Ireland, and died Jan 1970 in England. He married Sylvia Ainsley [on] 21 Apr 1915, daughter of Joseph AYNSLEY. She was born 16 Aug 1894 in Blyth House, Blyth Bridge, Stoke-on-Trent, and died 20 Sep 1987."

Another fellow the Mills knew on the lawns, one whom we first met yesterday, was Sir Leonard Daldry. The Times archive has himm playing with and against them in croquet twice, under unusual circumstances.

On 10 May 1968, Sir Leonard was victorious over George Mills (+2 on time). Later in the day, he beat George again. In a doubles match, playing alongside Violet Mills, he defeated George and his partner Barbara (Mrs. H. F.) Chittenden (+12), the Mills siblings scoring both a tournament win and loss in the same tilt. Although I'm uncertain exactly how doubles pairings were created at the time, one can assume the Sir Leonard knew at least two of the Mills somewhat well for at least that one day!

Daldry was born on 6 October 1908 and died at the age of 80 in October 1988 in Swindon, Wiltshire, 25 or 30 miles south-southeast of the Cheltenham Croquet Club. The Mills siblings played in croquet tournaments in Cheltenham at least three times, two in 1961 and 1965, during both of which it's possible that Sir Leonard was not in Nigeria.

The National Portrait Gallery describes Daldry in this way: "Sir Leonard (Charles) Daldry (1908-1988), Banker and Senator of Federal Legislature, Nigeria." He is a sitter in 18 portraits taken by the famed photographer "Bassano." In some portraits, Daldry appears with his wife, Lady Joan Mary Daldry (née Crisp). Those were taken on 30 October 1963. He later had individual portraits taken by Bassano on 23 April 1976. Disappointingly, none of these portraits are available on-line. Presumably, they may be of slighly higher quality than the image of Daldry [above, left] I was able to crop from an on-line 1974 MacRobertson Shield teams photograph.

According to Nigerian Wiki: "Leonard Charles Daldry was resident director of the Barclay's Bank for West Africa and later that of Nigeria and the Cameroons. He joined the bank in 1929. In the 60s, he was chairman of the Nigerian Barclay's bank." He is also listed there as a member of the Nigerian First Republic Senate.

On 1 January 1960, Daldry was appointed to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire "for public services in the Federation of Nigeria," according to the London Gazette.

Daldry is also described as "Nigeria Board of Barclay's Bank, DCO... a member of the Nigerian Railway Corporation [and] a Special Member of the House of Representatives and as a Senator, 1929-61," in Accessions to repositories and reports added to the National Register of Archives by The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts in the National Register of Archives (Great Britain, 1969).

It seems that Daldry was intimately involved with Nigeria's economics and governance before and slightly after it gained its independence from Britain on 1 October 1960.

He certainly must have had a great many stories and insights to share on the lawns and at the bar in various croquet tournaments around England.

There is a third name of interest among the players during my "Mills Era" of croquet in south England: Lady Ursula Abbey.

We'll save Lady Ursula for another day, for reasons that we'll find out soon. Stay tuned...