Messages from George Mills: His Prefaces and Dedications

Let’s take a moment today to reflect a few messages George Mills sent out into the world without knowing who might read them. His books were primarily for children, but the same can't be said for the dedications and prefaces of his texts: They were meant for persons other than schoolboys.

Taking a look at these brief but meaningful messages within the books—but not part of the stories themselves—may tell us something.

Or they may simply let us know how much more we may want to know.


The 1930s:


• First let's look at the preface of 1933's first edition of Meredith & Co.:

PREFACE

ALTHOUGH all the incidents in this book, with the exception of the 'bait charts,' are imaginary, the book gives an accurate impression of life in a Boys' Preparatory School.

I wish to acknowledge, with much gratitude, the help and encouragement received from many friends; particularly from Mr. A. Bishop, the Head Master of Magdalen College School, Brackley, and from my old friend, Mr. H. E. Howell, who have read the book in manuscript form. I am also much indebted to Mr. E. M. Henshaw for his devastating, but most useful, criticisms, and especially to that splendid specimen of boyhood, the British Schoolboy, who has given me such wonderful material.

----------------------------------------------------------- G.M.


We've examined fairly recently the life and career of Mr. A. Bishop—Arthur Henry Burdick Bishop [right]—and have seen some references to Mr. H. E. Howell, although we have no real idea who he was.

The annoyingly critical Mr. E. M. Henshaw—whose mention was deleted from subsequent editions of Meredith—has so far been difficult to identify. Henshaw must have been an unliked and unwanted obligation, one that in later years no longer needed to appear.

Once again, if you have any notion of Henshaw's identity, or have some clever skills in a database like ancestry.com or The Times, please don't hesitate to let me know!


• Next, we'll examine the dedication to the 1933 edition of Meredith & Co.:

To MR. J. GOODLAND, sometime Head Master
of Warren Hill, Eastbourne; to the STAFF AND
BOYS OF THE SAME SCHOOL, and to those of
WINDLESHAM HOUSE, BRIGHTON, THE CRAIG,
WINDERMERE, and the ENGLISH PREPARATORY
SCHOOL, GLION, among whom I spent many
happy years, this book is affectionately
dedicated.


We've had far more luck tracing our way through this dedication. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Over time, we've been enlightened by Dr. Tom Houston at Windlesham and tracked down a smattering of information about The Craig and the English Preparatory School at Glion.

The amount of information we've unearthed about both Joshua Goodland, a mentor of George Mills, and Warren Hill School in Eastbourne [left], seems comparatively to be a wealth of knowledge!


• Mills's next published book was 1938's King Willow. Let's look at its preface:

PREFACE

READERS of Meredith & Co. will recognize here some old friends ; nevertheless King Willow can be read as an entirely independent story. The characters have no connexion with any people, alive of dead, but the book is typical of life in any big Preparatory School.

Once More I wish to record my thanks to my friend, Mr H. E. Howell, who has read the manuscript and offered helpful criticism ; and also to a host of schoolboy readers who have encouraged me to continue.

------------------------------------------------------------- G.M.

June, 1938


Again, by June, 1938, the mysterious Mr. H. E. Howell remains a dear friend of George Mills, schoolmaster and author.


• Let's look at the 1938 dedication to King Willow:

TO
THE HEADMASTERS, STAFF, AND BOYS
OF
EATON GATE PREPARATORY SCHOOL,
LONDON, S.W. 1.


That's a rather all-encompassing dedication. We have discussed the fact that no school by that name has been found (although I would be delighted to be corrected), and the current school at that location has no real interest in exploring its own past or in assisting in educational research.

It's interesting that Mills misnames the school, yet is precise enough to include the location "S.W.1." It's also noteworthy in that, while it must be the most recent school at which he'd worked, Mills singles out no Headmaster or Principal by name. Might that indicate he had already severed ties with the institution, and under less than joyful circumstances?

These inconsistencies make this is by far the strangest of Mills's prefaces or dedications.


• Now we'll examine the 1939 preface of Minor and Major:


PREFACE


THIS book deals with life in a big preparatory school, and tells about the boys and masters, their goings-out and their comings-in. All the characters are imaginary, and no allusion is meant to any living person.

The boys, who first appeared in Meredith & Co. and King Willow, once again present themselves for a short time during a cricket match.

I wish to record my thanks to my old friend, Mr H. E. Howell, for so kindly reading the manuscript and proofs. I also recognize the kindly aid of a schoolboy, Terence Hadow, whose criticisms have been invaluable, as also has the encouragement given to me by my friend, Mr Egerton Clarke, who has read the book in manuscript form. My thanks are also due to Mr A. L. Mackie, who has kindly helped to read the proofs.

------------------------------------------------------------- G.M.


Mills for a third time pays tribute to "old friend" Howell, but this time extends thanks to a few more individuals.

Schoolboy critic Terence Hadow died in 1942 serving as a chindit[some are pictured in Burma, right] under Major-General Orde Wingate. His remains were interred in Burma.

Egerton Clarke, as we recently learned, was a friend of George's in the Army Pay Corps, and at Oxford before leading George to the publishing house that would print Mills's final new book in 1939. Egerton passed away in 1944.

Finally, we simply do not know the identity of the kindly Mr. A. L. Mackie. Once again, if you have any idea, please let me know!


• Moving along, we arrive at 1939's dedication to Minor and Major:


To the Headmasters, Staff, and Boys of
Parkfield, Haywards Heath, where I received
my early education, this book is affectionately
dedicated


For the first time, Mills takes a nostalgic bent in creating a dedication, hearkening back to the first decade of the 20th century in dedicating Minor and Major to his own masters, as well as the boys with whom he attended Parkfield.

Parkfield is a school we've located and learned about to some degree after hearing from alumni.


The 1950s:

The prep school books of George Mills all were reprinted, Meredith and Co. twice.


• The edition we'll look at here is from 1950, published by Oxford University Press.

In addition to the preface and dedication found in the first edition, Mills, as we know, added this verse by Rudyard Kipling [left]:

Give me a willow wand, and I
With hide and cork and twine,
From century to century,
Will gambol round thy shrine

------------- —Kipling


There is also a subtle change in the preface. The last sentence of the 1933 original reads:

I am also much indebted to Mr. E. M. Henshaw for his devastating, but most useful, criticisms, and especially to that splendid specimen of boyhood, the British Schoolboy, who has given me such wonderful material.

The 1950 version simply reads:

I am also much indebted to that splendid specimen of boyhood, the British Schoolboy, who has given me such wonderful material.


Oxford University Press kept no records from that era, so we have no way of knowing if Henshaw was associated with the company in 1933, but had passed away or moved his career to another locale by 1950. Hence, the expression of gratitude to person for whom it's likely Mills cared very little was no longer necessary


• Jumping ahead to the late 1950s and the undated edition of King Willow, we find this revised dedication:


To
BERYL and IAN

Two young people who have just set
out on a long voyage in the good ship
Matrimony. May they have smooth
seas and following winds: may they
from time to time take aboard some
young passengers who will become
the light of their lives until they sail
into the last harbor.


Here George looks back on his life in the context of looking ahead to the lives of this young couple. He reflects on growing old together—something George was himself unable to do with his own wife, Vera, who died 30 years before he did. George and Vera passed away childless, and there is more than a little melancholy in Mills's best wishes for for the couple to be blessed with children.

Despite help from Michael Downes in Budleigh Salterton via his blog, we still have been unable to determine the identity of the newlyweds, Beryl & Ian, who probably would have been born between 1930 and 1940, and would be 70 or 80 years of age by now.

If you know Beryl & Ian, or if you actually are Beryl & Ian, please let me know!


• The 1950s edition of King Willow of also contains an expanded preface:


READERS of Meredith & Co. will recognize here some old friends ; nevertheless King Willow can be read as an entirely independent story. The characters have no connexion with any people, alive of dead, but the book is typical of life in any big Preparatory School.

Once More I wish to record my thanks to my friend, Mr H. E. Howell, who has read the manuscript and offered helpful criticism ; and also to a host of schoolboy readers who have encouraged me to continue.

I also wish to record my thanks to Benedict Thomas, a schoolboy who has suggested many practical alterations for this new edition.

---------------------------------------------------- G.M.


Here we meet a youthful Benedict Thomas, a lad who was helping an approximately 60 year old George Mills with his latest reprint of King Willow.

The only person of that name born in the U. K. between 1940 and 1960 was a "Benedict J. G. Thomas," who was born in late 1953. If Willow was published in 1960, Benedict would have been about 8 years of age when he offered his practical advice to Mills.

The only record at ancestry.com involving a Benedict J. G. Thomas involves his birth—nothing else. There is a location—Northeastern Surrey—and one other interesting bit of information: Benedict's mother's maiden name was Bishop.

That could make young Benedict the grandson of Arthur H. B. Bishop, mentioned in the first preface of George's first book. It would indicate that Mill's friendship with Bishop was long-lasting, but it could also indicate that the aging Mills may have been teaching or living in or near Surrey.


• The 1950s-ish edition of Minor and Major has the same dedication as the original in 1939, but has omitted the original preface seen above.

But there is this, in italic font:


All the characters in this book
are imaginary, and no allusion
is meant to any living person.


Did the publisher, London's Spring Books, include that as matter of course in all fiction books printed in that year? If so, that would provide evidence that the reprinting of Minor and Major was, indeed, the last of the late 1950s – early 1960s reprints. If not, could it be that a schoolboy, schoolmaster, or even headmaster from back in George's past had an issue with a character, thinking it Mils had taken a slap at him?

We'll never know if the latter was the case, but it seems that as the world approached our seemingly increasingly litigious times, that disclaimer may have been inserted across the proverbial board.


The Missing Text:


There is only one bit of information I have been unable to uncover: What might we find in the dedication and/or preface to Mills's final book, Saint Thomas of Canterbury, published in 1939 by Burns, Oates and Washbourne, the Catholic publishing house in London.

A glimpse of what is there could be most informative. One wonders if—given it was Mills's 'swan song' as an author—there might have been some clue in a dedication or preface that would provide insight as to why he never penned another book. Although I frequently check booksellers around the world, a copy of this title simpy hasn't arisen, and the closest library copy to here is about 600 miles away! It may be some time before we get the very last of the messages of George Mills...


As we wind our way down to the last few topics regarding George Mills that I have left to write, many thanks once again to everyone who has contributed in an effort to help me answer the question: Who Is George Mills?

Gallery 7: Artwork by an Anonymous Illustrator

Looking very much like a Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew mystery from my childhood here in the United States, the late 1950s/early 1960s edition of the third book in the schoolboy trilogy of George Mills is likely the most colouristically most eye-catching and appealing of all his books, as far as children might be concerned. Perhaps even to grown-ups as well, being the ones who presumably allowed or disallowed the purchase.

Here we have a text, printed in Czechoslovakia by Spring Books, London, in which, as we know by now, there is no copyright date. There is also no illustrator named, and for the first time among the books of Mills, there is not even a signature or set of initials woven into any of the works of art.

Following a format similar to all of his post-WWII books, the book has a full colour dust jacket and frontispiece, as well as four black and white plates inside.

The execution of the painting is energetic and makes use of a rainbow of saturated hues to create the cover illustration. It's attractive, and quite appealing in a nostalgic way that I'm not sure it would have evoked at the time it was created.


The frontispiece is a knock-off (or should I more politely say, an "appropriation") of John Harris's frontispiece from the 1939 first edition. Harris's was actually too delicate, unwisely using colours that were too high-key and pastel-y, to give a real feel of that doggedly gritty race at a boys' school. It was not the particular artwork in that edition he should have focused on stealing.

This anonymous paean to that less than noteworthy painting certainly saturates the colours more, and our anonymous artist handles the paint more expressively. However, one can almost see within the image the small, desktop wooden mannequin used by artists to pose human figures at the drawing table in lieu of an actual model. Those clunky wooden figures can be arranged in some awkward poses that the human form won't comfortably do, and we see two of those in this awkward painting.

You can see a comparison of the 1939 watercolour with an indistinctg and ineffective vignette edge and the 1950s-ish gouache duplicate with crisply masked edges. [Click any image to enlarge it in a new window.]


The pen and ink drawings on the inside plates [below] are nothing to write home about to say the least. They are 'children's-book-illustration-mediocre,' which is a step or two down from 'grown-up-book-illustration-mediocre'—clearly the weakest works of art in any of Mills's texts, first editions or reprints.



"'All right, it's only me'" [Page 55]



"'What on earth are you doing, Fleming?'" [Page 99]



"His diary was not there!" [Page 165]



"Fleming Minor rushed in" [Page 215]


That last plate contains an image of a soaking wet boy, Fleming Minor, who is running—and a mirror image theft (uh... "appropriation") of the embellishment John Harris added to the Table of Contents page in the first edition of Minor and Major. The figure is completed by the 1930s-style uniform he is wearing, exactly like the one in the 1939 version. (To see Harris's original figure, click HERE.)

One can almost see, by the relentless downgrading of the quality of the illustrations, the esteem in which the writing of Mills was held. From beginning with the legendary cross-genre illustrator C. E. Brock [his cover for Mills's 1933 novel, Meredith and Co., is seen below, left], Mills ended up with illustrators that were just average—in the field of children's literature—and below average overall.

Of course, fine children's book illustration was changing at that time, and I can't see the work of Ronald Searle, for instance, working well in one of Mills's books, despite Searle's brilliance. It simply wouldn't be a good "fit."

And with that we close the final gallery of art relating to the literary works of George Mills—that is, unless a copy of 1939's Saint Thomas of Canterbury goes on sale somewhere in the world, or I can get access to some scans or photocopies of the 57 page text from one of the few libraries still carrying it on their shelves.

That would complete our artistic journey! But until then, this is the last of it.


Mills would have realized, after receiving advance copies of this reprinted edition of Minor and Major, that what he held in his hand then would, indeed have been "the last of it" for him.

One wonders what seeing that dust jacket above, and flipping through these final illustrations, meant to him. From this point in his life, until his death in 1972, Mills lived in Budleigh Salterton with his spinster sisters, Agnes and Violet Mills. He would never publish another book.

Beyond the fact that he was sociable, no one there seems to have known much about him. Not a single person seems to have known that he was a children's book author. No one really remembers George at all.

One wonders why.

Gallery 3: The Artwork of John Harris

Welcome to our third gallery art here at Who Is George Mills?

1939 brought the third book of George Mills into existence, Minor and Major, published in London by Geo. G. Harrap and Co., Ltd. It was published in the same size and in the same format as Mills's preceding book, King Willow, published by Harrap in 1938: Four full-page black line illustrations, a full-colour frontispiece, and various embellishments throughout the cover and first few pages. The format, down the the hand-lettered titles, is identical to Willow. [Click any illustration to enlarge it.]

While not strictly a sequel, some of the boys from King Willow do, in fact, appear in Minor and Major, albeit briefly.

This time around, however, the illustrator is not one of the Brocks, C. E. or H. M., but John Harris. Trying to find background information on a "John Harris" rivals what it once had been like looking for George Mills, so nothing is known of his background.


His watercolour work pales—quite literally—next to the colourful paintings of the Brocks. But watercolour is not the best Harris has to offer.





Harris's pen and ink work is of a similar character as that of H. M. Brock, at least in so far as his black line drawings have some of the flavor of an engraving.Still, Harris's talented hand is uneven. While each of the full page illustrations requires different aesthetic attributes in describing various scenes in the story, I might have surmised that two, or ever three, different draughtsmen had executed the four full-page illustrations.

Harris is more than competent, but following the Brock brothers, his work appears of lesser quality by comparison. They would be a tough act to follow, even for an above average chap like Harris.


"All right, it's only me" (Page 61)



"The headmaster threw open the door" (Page 109)



"All right, just you jolly well wait and see, Sandy" (Page 139)



"Competitors for the 440 come her at once" (Page 211)


Check in next time, when we'll take a look at Oxford University Press's 1950 reprinting of Meredith and Co. See you then!

Dating Later Editions of the Prep School Titles of George Mills

Today, I'll be spending time cleaning up the living quarters around here. Yesterday was filled with a wedding celebration for a colleague [left], but now I am facing visits from my daughters this week. One is a Zoo Studies major on spring break from college and the other is a junior forensic analyst at a firm in Philadelphia. I'd like them to arrive, as my mother would have so delicately said, without the place looking like a tornado swept through it!

As much as I'd like to put off this bout of spring cleaning longer, I'll go today with something quick: A message found recently in the Who Is George Mills? mailbag in response to an earlier post. It's from Martin of Mollie's Loft Books:

Harry - I'm the owner of Mollie's Loft Books, with the copy of Minor and Major.

I think that you've made a leap too far in assuming that this book was published in 1962. It has a presentation label dated 1962, but that just shows that the book was already in existence at that date. There is, unfortunately, not the slightest sign of any date of publication anywhere, though at the bottom of the verso of the title page there is "T 563" which may or may not mean "March 1956". Sorry that I can't help more. My DJ, incidentally, is rather better than the one on your site - if you want a scan, please tell me.


email books@mollies.freeserve.co.uk


Thanks, Martin!

Just to review, it appears that the three prep school books of George Mills (Meredith and Co., King Willow, and Minor and Major) were re-released in the 1950s or early 1960s based on the updated haircuts and style of artwork as compared to earlier editions.

George's titles, according to informed opinion, appear to have been the precursors of the Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge. Mills, however, never published a children's book after the whimsical Minor and Major in 1939, and lost his foothold as the originator of the genre. I have read on-line speculation that the three titles by Mills were released for the purpose of "cashing in on" the popularity of the Jennings series.

All three re-issues of George's titles were printed in Czechoslovakia. Meredith and Co. was published by Andrews Dakers, Ltd., Spring House, Spring Place, London NW 5. King Willow was published by Spring Books, Spring House, Spring Place, London NW5. Minor and Major's publisher information is identical to that listed in King Willow, Spring Books, at the same address.

In my same edition of Minor and Major, there is "T 563" printed beneath the publisher's information. Specualtion above indicates a publication date of March 1956.

In the reissue of King Willow, also by Spring Books, there is printed: "T 486" [pictured, right, with identifying fly leaf] Might that indicate publication in June of 1948?

I should note that both above editions are of exactly the same dimensions, and are described as being part of the "Fanfare Series" by Spring Books."

Meredith and Co., however, is a Dakers publication, although from the same address. On-line searches don't turn up much, but Dakers and Spring Books both appear to have published books in 1954 according to volume 168 of The Publisher in 1985. Is it probable that they were simply two branches of the same company?

My Dakers edition of Meredith has a handwritten gift inscription dated "Xmas 1957," and no similar configuration of letter and numerals as found in the other two Mills books. Otherwise, the overall design of the Dakers edition is identical in format except for its dimensions, it being exactly 1¼ inches taller and ⅜ of an inch wider.

My hunch is that the "563" and "486" do not appear to be dates, unless these editions were published eight years apart, which is possible—King Willow is listed as part of the Fanfare series on the dust jacket of Minor and Major, but not vice versa, probably indicating King Willow was, indeed, published first.

I simply can't think of a reason, however, that after purchasing the rights to Mills's work, there would be an eight year delay between publications unless Spring Books actually reissued these titles multiple times throughout the 1940s and '50s—and there is simply no reason for us to believe that was the case.

And despite the fact that the well cared for edition of Minor and Major at Mollie's Loft has a presentation label dated 1962 that is apparently relatively meaningless in determining the publication date of a book, it still seems logically more probable than less so that the presentation label of the book would have been written closer to the publication date rather than farther from it.

I'm still willing to state that these titles by Mills are far more likely to date from 1957 and after, even into the 1960s, rather than back into the 1940s.

Either way, there appears to have been a rekindled interest in the prep school titles of George Mills sometime during the postwar era. They remain excellent "reads" today, if you haven't already enjoyed them, and Mollie's Loft might be a good place to start if you're hunting for the fine literary efforts of George Mills!

Minor and Major and 2nd Lieutenant Terence Hadow

Back from my holiday visiting family in Michigan, what did I find waiting for me but the first edition of Minor and Major by George Mills that I'd ordered a month ago! Here are the details of my shipment from Chesterfield, U.K.:

Sales Order No.: 69490803

Bookseller: J.A'S BOOKS

Estimated Delivery Date: August 9, 2010

Author: George MILLS

Title: MINOR TO MAJOR

Bookseller Book No.: 013655

Book Description: THIS BOOK IS IN GOOD+ CONDITION IT DOES HAVE SOME WEAR AND TEAR BUT A MUCH LOVED BOOK.

Date Processed: June 7, 2010

Approximate Shipping Speed: 14 - 45 business days

Well "GOOD+" is somewhat of an exaggeration in this case: The book has a broken binding. For my purposes, however, it's a delight!

This 1939 first edition published by G. G. Harrap & Co. matches perfectly the format of their 1938 first edition of King Willow. The cover art, color, and typeface are meant to mirror King Willow's appearance and the line illustrations of H. M. Brock. The illustrator here, though, is John Harris. Harris is a stylized draftsman whose layouts, compositions, and craftsmanship are laudable, but whose figures lack the breath of life that previous illustrators C. E. and H. M. Brock imbued in the characters created by Mills.

As I'd suspected, there is more to be found in this edition than in the circa 1959 reprinting by Spring Books that was published in Czechoslovakia. The first edition contains a preface written by George Mills in 1939 that is not found in the subsequent impression. It reads, with my emphasis on names:

PREFACE

THIS book deals with life in a big preparatory school, and tells about the boys and masters, their goings-out and their comings-in. All the characters are imaginary, and no allusion is meant to any living person.

The boys, who first appeared in Meredith & Co. and King Willow, once again present themselves for a short time during a cricket match.

I wish to record my thanks to my old friend, Mr H. E. Howell, for so kindly reading the manuscript and proofs. I also recognize the kindly aid of a schoolboy, Terence Hadow, whose criticisms have been invaluable, as also has the encouragement given to me by my friend, Mr Egerton Clarke, who has read the book in manuscript form. My thanks are also due to Mr A. L. Mackie, who has kindly helped to read the proofs.

G.M.

It may not seem like much, but short of the discovery of an unexpected trove of letters authored by George Mills, this snippet of writing is a welcome new insight into the man as a person.

An interesting acquaintance of Mills is schoolboy Terence Hadow, who was born in Kensington, London, in 1921. Hadow would have been approximately 12 years old at the publication of Meredith & Co. in 1933, about 17 upon the publication of King Willow, and around 18 when this undated preface was composed in 1939. Presumably, Hadow was a friend of the family, living in Kensington near the Mills. He may even have been taught by Mills at the mysterious "Eaton Gate Preparatory School" in London between 1933 and 1938.

We know that Mills, who would soon become an Army paymaster after the publication of Minor and Major, must have been rocked during the war by the death of his wife Vera in 1942. Tragedy seems to have touched Mills again, and quite soon, a year later.

Here are details from the U.K. Army Roll of Honour, 1939-1945:

Name: Terence Hadow
Given Initials: T M S
Rank: Lieutenant
Death Date: 18 March 1943
Number: 172204
Birth Place: London W
Residence: Down
Branch at Enlistment: Infantry
Theater of War: Burma
Regiment at Death: Royal Welch Fusiliers
Branch at Death: Infantry

The 28 February 1941 issue of the London Gazette lists Terence Michael Scott Hadow (172204) as having been promoted from a cadet in the 142nd O.C.T.U. to a 2nd lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers on 15 February 1941.

Hadow was obviously close to Mills, although how close is open to speculation. Still, his death following relatively closely on the heels of Vera's had to affect Mills in some way—remember, the London Gazette would quite soon also publish a notice that Mills relinquished his commission due to "ill-health" on 3 November 1943.

Hadow was laid to rest at the Rangoon Memorial in the Taukkyan War Cemetery, the largest of the three war cemeteries in Burma. The following is recorded on-line at the website Britain at War:

HADOW, Lieutenant, TERENCE MICHAEL SCOTT, 172204. 1st Bn. Royal Welch Fusiliers. 18th March 1943. Age 21. Son of Patrick Hadow, and of Monica E. Hadow, of Kensington, London. Face 9.

At the memorial, inscribed on a frieze in the rotunda that is surrounded by the graves of over 6,000 men, an inscription reads:

1939 - 1945
HERE ARE RECORDED THE NAMES OF TWENTY-SEVEN THOUSAND
SOLDIERS OF MANY RACES UNITED IN SERVICE TO THE BRITISH CROWN
WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN BURMA AND ASSAM BUT TO WHOM THE
FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED THE CUSTOMARY RITES ACCORDED
TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH

Also engraved on the rotunda in English, Burmese, Hindi, Urdu, and Gurmukhi is the additional inscription:

THEY DIED FOR ALL FREE MEN

We don't know for sure how the loss of Terence Hadow, just 21 years of age at the time of his death in Burma, affected Mills. We do know that Mills was ailing after the death, and that he never again wrote a book.

Did the Second World War and its consequences cost George Mills some of himself, a part that he could never really recover?

As always, additional information, ideas, and informed speculation are most welcome!

George Mills Enters the 1960s...

Here's something I just found on-line that fills in a little bit more of my timeline of the life of George Mills [my emphasis]:

Author Name: George Mills.

Title: Minor and Major.

Book Condition: Very Good

Jacket Condition: Very Good

Publisher: London. Spring Books.

A very good undated book with a presentation label dated 1962 on front endpaper. Pages browned overall. Extreme bottom edge of spine faded. No measureable wear. DJ is very good, rubbed at corners, rather more at spine ends, a couple of short closed tears.

That's all from Mollie's Loft Books, a bookseller in Pontardawe, Swansea, in the United Kingdom.

It may be no big deal, but with this reprinting of Minor and Major in 1962 [pictured, right, but that's not Mollie's copy], Mills is still drawing upon the popularity of his books well into the early 1960s—and cashing checks attributable to them. Mills would have been 65 or 66 years old in 1962, and hadn't authored a book since 1939.

I had previously estimated the release of the Spring Books impression on Minor and Major to have been in the 1950s, and I had seen other internet sites selling copies estimating the publication date of this edition as having been anywhere from 1950 to 1955.

Mills passed away in 1972.

Thinking aloud once again about George Mills

Thinking aloud: I've made quite a bit of George Mills securing a teaching position [likely a junior appointment] at Windlesham House School, then in Portslade, just after having left Oxford, quickly marrying, and buying a house on Benfield Way in Portslade, all within the course of just over a calendar year. I've wondered in print quite often about why he didn't end up staying right there for some time thereafter.

Let's review some things: Mills did not possess the Oxon Bachelor of Arts degree that, through this very year, Windlesham believed he had earned.

Despite being heavily involved in extra-curricular activities around campus, by the end of the summer of 1926, Mills apparently was simply no longer there—and there is no record as to why. In fact, it is apparently only speculation that Mills had been hired to teach "English or 'English subjects'" at the school. The only thing that seemed to be eminently clear is that he "made people laugh, a lot."

By the time he published Meredith and Co. in 1933, Mills listed his subsequent teaching assignments as Warren Hill in Eastbourne, The Craig in Windermere, and the English Preparatory School in Glion, Switzerland. This is somewhat corroborated by a "Mrs. Charles" [possibly Mrs. Charles Scott Malden, principal at Windlesham] in 1935 when George drops by her house in Springwells, Steyning, West Sussex, for a visit, telling her he'd written a book "largely about Windlesham" and had been at "2 or 3 schools since, but is very faithful to Windlesham."

In 1938, however, Mills published his second novel, King Willow, then revealing he was at the time, or had been recently, associated with the Eaton Gate Preparatory School in London, S.W.1.

In 1939, Mills published two more books, Minor and Major and Saint Thomas of Canterbury. My original hunch was that his career as an author was really taking off, and I couldn't help but wonder what seemed to have nipped it in the proverbial bud.

I now have to admit, the dedication to Minor and Major that we peeked at last time suddenly has me rethinking some things.

George Mills married Vera Louise Beauclerk in 1925 and they settle into a nice house near his work. Over the next 13 years or so, Mills teaches in at least four more schools, even one in Europe. We have no way of knowing how many of those 13 years he actually spent working at the schools he'd mentioned. I've been assuming all along that he was employed at one place or another during the entire span.

His 1939 "shout out" to Parkfield makes me wonder about that now, though. There are no acknowledgements in it, no thanks to any individual or two or a current employer, just a hearkening back to the early years of his boyhood, circa 1905-1910, in Haywards Heath. Were times that hard? And was Mills yearning for a simpler, happier time?

Were things truly going badly for Mr. and Mrs. Mills? Had Meredith and Co. been written, not as an amusing diversion in 1933, but as a way to bring some money into the household. George's brother, Arthur, and Arthur's wife, Lady Dorothy, had written articles, stories, and novels as a means of support from 1916 well into the 1920s when, at last, their careers seemed to take off. With the world paralyzed by a dire economic depression by 1933, did an unemployed George decide to do the same?

Despite a respite—likely some sort of employment at 'Eaton Gate'—was George soon out of work again, and for an extended time in 1939? Was his relatively prodigious output of books that year not a creative outpouring, but simply a way to put bread on the table for Vera and himself? Was he grateful for the chance to publish, but even more eager to secure a steady job that would make him less susceptible to the vagaries of the publishing houses, the economy, and the fickle reading tastes of the general public?

We know that by the onset of the war in late 1939, Mills had returned to the military, becoming a 44-year-old lieutenant in the Royal Army Pay Corps. After settling back into a uniform for the first time since the close of World War I when he left for the university, he would never write and publish a brand-new book again.

Vera died in London in 1942. Mills subsequently relinquished that commission in 1943 due to ill health. Almost thirty years later, he died in Devonshire, childless and apparently having never remarried.

During the intervening time, we know Mills worked for a summer in Seaford at Ladycross School in 1956, just before new impressions of his three prep school novels were printed in Czechoslovakia and re-released in the U. K.

Thirty years before those reprints, Mills had written a prologue and songs for a staff concert at Windlesham during the Michaelmas term in 1925. He had written articles for the school magazine. He was involved in productions by Windlesham's Amateur Acting Association. He later became a novelist of at least some renown, dedicating much of his success to Windlesham—as well as the mysterious and unkown trio of J. Goodland, A. Bishop, and H. E. Howell.

This seemingly-creative, humorous, talented, outgoing, and decidedly people-oriented fellow disappears in to the military in 1939, and then into the woodwork for the rest of his life.

Why?

I have to think back to an e-mail I received from Heather at Peakirk Books, Wednesday, 10 March 2010, at 8:26 AM. Here's what she had written, but that I'd never recorded here:

Hello

Keep hunting - and I would be interested to know anything you discover [about George Mills]. Likewise I will let you know any information I discover. I will try contacting the author of the boys school stories book I consulted to see if he knows any more.

[In answer to a question about why Mills might not have continued to publish,] It is possible he just got fed up with writing!

Kind regards
Heather

Heather & Jeff Lawrence
Peakirk Books
Cherry Tree Lodge
Guist Bottom Road
Stibbard
Nr. Fakenham
Norfolk
NR21 0AQ

"It's possible he just got fed up with writing." Heather is probably correct. I just couldn't see that then. Since March, however, I'm beginning to see how the chips may have fallen in such a way that George Mills may have, indeed, simply become "fed up with writing."

I'd love to have a look at Vera's obituary, if one exists. Perhaps there might be a clue or two in there…

Exploring Haywards Heath

Working once again through the preface to Meredith and Co. (1933) reminded me of my unsuccessful attempts to probe into the dedication of the third novel of George Mills, Minor and Major, published in 1939.

The edition I own and am reading right now [published by Spring Books in what would appear to be the late 1950s] has a dedication that reads: 'To the Headmaster, Staff, and Boys of Parkfield, Haywards Heath, where I received my early education, this book is affectionately dedicated.'

Information about the life of George Mills and his family around the turn of the 20th century is sketchy at best. Mills was born in Cornwall in 1896, and his father, Barton, took a position at the Chapel Royal of the Savoy in 1901, moving the family to London before George's 5th birthday.

George was then at Harrow School from 1910 to 1912. Would it be correct to assume that Mills likely attended Parkfield from approximately 1905 through 1910? I'll assume that, having 'named no names' in his dedication above, he was not currently working there, and was simply reminiscing about a happier, less complicated time in his life.

I haven't had much luck regarding a Parkfield School or Haywards Heath. It appears there had been a "Wick and Parkfield Preparatory School" in Haywards Heath, but all I've really been able to find out about it on-line is that it would have been located on Cuckfield Road and once had full inspection in 1936. Google Maps didn't help much, either. I "drove" up and down rural Cuckfield Road [B2114], east of Haywards Heath itself, from B2115 up to Handcross and only "passed" one school: Newish-looking Brantridge School in Staplefield.

Neither three enquiries sent to the Independent Association of Prep Schools, nor two enquiries of the Haywards Heath Archives, have brought so much as a single reply, let alone any information. It seems to be somewhat of a black hole in the landscape of Sussex history. [UPDATE, 30 July 2010: I apologize for my reference to a "black hole." Thanks to brilliant research by Barry McAleenan and Liz Graydon, we've located Parkfield School!]

Given the difficulty that I've had investigating prep schools, I appreciate all the more the gracuious offers of help and exceptional assistance rendered by the Eastbourne Local History Society during my search for Warren Hill School in Meads, and from Windlesham House in Brighton. Thanks once again to everyone involved in those investigations for all your help!

George Mills in the British Library

These are titles attributed to George Mills held in the collection of the British Library. Mills is listed as a "Writer of Tales for Boys". Each title is listed exactly as it apears in their database, along with its year of publication and its shelfmark:

• King Willow, etc. , 1938 , 12821.bb.9

• King Willow. (New edition) , 1951, 12834.aa.28

• Meredith and Co. , 1957, X.990/4427

• Meredith and Co. The story of a modern preparatory school, etc. [With plates.] , 1933, 20053.ee.1

• Minor and Major ... Illustrated by John Harris. , 1939, 012807.ff.83

The next and final entry is actually listed under this author: MILLS, George, Thomas, à Becket, Saint, 1118?-1170 1939 to ----

• St. Thomas of Canterbury. , 1939, 20030.e.136

I find it odd that "Saint Thomas, à Becket" is listed as a co-author of that 1939 book, especially since his year of death is given as 1170. I'm not sure how the British Library figures that, except that the book may also contain excerpts of writing by St. Thomas himself, along with that of Mills.

What's even more peculiar is what a hard time I'm having locating a copy of St. Thomas of Canterbury on the internet. Anyone with any ideas, or a copy to sell, please contact me--and thanks!