Tuesday Afternoon: Quick Questions

My brother and his wife are in town from Michigan, so I don't have as much time as I might to write. Last night we pounded pizza dough and baked our own pizza pies in the oven. Tonight: Off to the Thai restaurant [left]!

Meanwhile, here are a few questions that still bounce around in my head, in no particular order:

• When George Mills taught at Ladycross School in Seaford in 1956, at the approximate age of 60, was he still regularly working as a master, or simply acting as a substitute?

• Is the "Eaton Gate Preparatory School" he mentions in his dedication to the 1938 version of King Willow now known as Eaton House Belgravia—and why won't they answer enquiries regarding that?

• What would a young man of 16 have done with the next four years if he left Harrow School in 1912 and didn't go off to war until 1916? That's what George Mills had done.

• When did Elizabeth Edith Ramsay Mills, mother of George, pass away?

• When did Barton R. V., Elizabeth, George, Agnes, and Violet Mills move in with Sir George Dalhousie Ramsay?

• Were Agnes and Violet living with George in Devonshire when he died in 1972? Or did they perhaps move into his place after he passed?

• Why can't I find a place called "Greyfriars, Budleigh Salterton, Devon"?

• How long did George Mills teach at Warren Hill School?

• When George returned to the southern coast in 1935, he visited a "Mrs. Charles, then in Springwells, Steyning, W. Sussex." Could that have actually been "Mrs. Charles Scott Malden," wife of the former principal of Windlesham House School?

• Why did Barton R. V. Mills leave the vicarage at Bude Haven, Cornwall?

• Why did Barton R. V. Mills leave the Chapel Royal of the Savoy?

• What is in the obituary of Vera Louise Beauclerk Mills, who died in 1942, Barton Reginald Vaughan Mills, who died in 1932, Arthur Frederick Hobart Mills, who died in 1955, and Lady Dorothy Walpole Mills, who died in 1959?

• And, most of all, what is in the obituary of George Ramsay Acland Mills, who passed away in 1972?

I'm just thinking out loud, but if you have any thoughts, please let me know, and thanks!

22 Meads Street

No matter how I may try to breathe life into it, searching for George Mills is really a fairly academic exercise. I do realize I may never know very much about him, his life, or his family. Still Mills was surrounded by living people who knew him and had day-to-day interactions with him. They all helped make up the fabric of Mills' life.

One such person was Eric Streatfeild who would have taught with George (if only as a visiting teacher) in the late 1920s or early 1930s. Streatfeild is linked with Mills, but also to one of the members of the Eastbourne Local History Society [ELHS] who has been helping me a great deal.

Michael Ockenden of the ELHS has come forward with further details of Streatfeild, who taught music at Warren Hill School. Eric does indeed appear on the 1911 census, but the enumerator had misspelled his name as ‘Streatfield’ – no doubt a constant irritation for the Streatfeild family, both then and now. The census has him living in a flat at ‘Coniscliffe’, 22 Meads Street – a mere five minutes’ walk from the school. The other occupants of the house are noted as Frederick Elbro, a 42-year-old bath chair proprietor, window cleaner and carpet beater, his wife Ada Lucy, (aged 41) and their daughter, Ada Valentine (aged 19). This family also had a servant by the name of Ethel Maud Lade, who was 21 years of age.

However, Michael points out that the present house at 22 Meads Street is not the one where Eric Streatfeild lived. That particular house was destroyed, along with numbers 24, 26 and 28, during an air raid on 7 March 1943. The events of that Sunday lunchtime are mentioned in his book, Canucks by the Sea – The Canadian Army in Eastbourne during the Second World War:- “The author was on the receiving end of this raid. I had been invited to lunch with my grandparents and an uncle on leave at 28 Meads Street, but was late because of a broken spring in a clockwork train. My grandmother [Clara Mackay] came to fetch me at 32 Meads Street and arrived just as the bomb exploded at number 28. But for the broken spring, we would probably have been killed along with my grandfather [Glendale Mackay]. My uncle [S D Mackay] was trapped under the debris but crawled free.”

While researching at the BBC archives, Michael chanced upon the transcript of an interview with two of the pilots who had nearly killed him 60 years previously. The returning aircrew were interviewed by reporters of the German Home Service; the interview was broadcast the following day and picked up in England by BBC monitors.

'Coniscliffe', the house where Eric Streatfeild lived in 1911, is pictured to the left - a picture taken on the afternoon of Sunday 7 March 1943 after the air raid on Eastbourne which killed 14 people and injured 50 more. Some of the men clearing the rubble are almost certainly Canadian soldiers, thousands of whom passed through Eastbourne during the course of the war. They shared the dangers and hardships of the locals and many referred to it as their 'home from home'. Some 150 Eastbourne girls had become Canadian war brides by the end of the conflict.

It's certainly all an interesting story, and one that I truly wanted to share. I thank Michael for his permission to do so.

If you're interested in learning more, the book is Canucks by the Sea. The price is £9.99 (plus postage) and the book is available from www.maureenschoice.co.uk with payment in sterling by means of an international transfer, or from www.meadsbooks.com with payment in dollars via credit card. Both booksellers will provide information by e-mail on the cost of postage.

Remember, if you have anything to share about George Mills or the context of his life, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Ladycross Catholic Boys' Preparatory School in Seaford

Booting up the computer on my desk at work, I sleepily sipped some coffee without realizing the surprise I had in store. There in my e-mail box was and e-mail with the subject line reading "George Mills." Now, on any given day, I'm waiting to hear back from a dozen possible sources about a half dozen bits of information I'm trying to tease out of the tapestry of the internet, so I simply wondered what answer to which query this might be.

Little did I know that it would eventually—and rather quickly—lead to the answer to the very first question I ever pursued regarding George Mills: What did he look like?

Here's the message:

George Mills was briefly a teacher at my prep school, Ladycross (in Seaford, Sussex, UK). I have copy of the school photo for summer 1956.

A disingenuous entry for the school is in Wikipedia.

Kind regards

Barry Mc

This was exciting news for me! From the time Vera Mills passed away in 1942, through 1972 when Mills himself left us—a full three decades—I only was certain that Mills had seen his three most popular books reprinted in the late 1950s. Otherwise, the informational cupboard was bare, so to speak.
Barry had placed Mills in Seaford, East Sussex, in 1956, and still teaching at the approximate age of 60. There had really been no indication of any sort of occupation for George since he had dedicated his novel, King Willow, to the mysteriously forgotten Eaton Gate Preparatory School, London S.W.1, in 1938.

In my excitement, I believe I set the New Millennium speed record for replying to an e-mail, and asked him if there was anything else he'd like to share—and for a glimpse of that photograph! Barry wrote back quickly as well, providing this wonderful reply:

"Ladycross was allegedly a posh Roman Catholic boarding prep school that fed pupils (via the Common Entrance exam) into the 'better' public schools preferably Stoneyhurst, Ampleforth, Beaumont and Downside. Other public schools were slightly de trop. Most boys started when they were 8 or 9 and left when they were 13. It was emphatically rigorous in the maintenance of discipline and had problems keeping staff. There was a queue for beatings every day... Many of the staff were strange, so 'care in the community' would have meant that the boys did more for the staff than vice versa! Prep Schools in Eastbourne and Seaford were very much a good business to be in, say between 1920 and 1970, and they were built in the style of late Victorian mansions with all the concomitant snobbery that the pupils' parents expected. Ladycross did a very good line in recusant connections.

I attach the 1956 school photo in 3 parts so that you have the dated provenance. George Mills has a handkerchief in his breast pocket and is on the left of all the staff. His neighbour is George Robinson whose obituary I have somewhere.

I only vaguely remember Mr Mills and suspect that he used snuff. Many of his books were in the school library and I'm sure I read them as one of the key characters was called Pongo - which was slang at the time for the Army, as in 'the pongos are going in to Suez'. On balance, I would also have been reading the 'William' books by Richmal Crompton. Strangely enough I have no recollection of reading the Jennings books. I cannot remember if I was taught by him - the chances are that he was only there that one summer term; the classes were small and I was only 10 at the time; he was very old in the days when being 40 was ancient and my teachers are only remembered for being gifted (rare) or abusive.

This probably as much as you want to know, but I sense from your blog that incidental trivia could also be useful."

Brilliant, Barry! And you certainly have a good sense of my blog!

As I read the final paragraph there, I can't help but wonder if Mills was still working as a teacher [and moving from school to school as he'd done in the 1920-1930s]. However, it occurred to me Mills may have perhaps retired, but was added to the staff at Ladycross as a temporary master, à la King Willow's amazingly aged and benign substitute schoolmaster and retired butterfly expert, Mr. Aloysius Quole, perhaps a prescient creation of Mills'.

I've included Barry's class photograph here in its three segments, and you can click to enlarge each third of it. I also took the liberty of reassembling it into one image. You'll find that one just below!

Barry has also sent me a wealth of information that I'm enjoying and will share soon. I really do appreciate his thoughtfulness, as well as his cleverness! He's referred to my task here as "mining trivia," and I suppose that insightful term would be exactly what I'm doing, now that I come to think about it. So, as always, if you have any information regarding George Mills, his family, or his world—trivial as it may be—please don't hesitate to contact me, and many thanks!

"George Mills Has a Handkerchief in his Breast Pocket," and I Have a Smile on My Face

There's been a lot of information coming in over the last couple of days for me to sift through, including insight from the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy regarding B. R. V. Mills, but first things first, as they say.

I've spent some time now trying to scare up the mysterious George Mills, but I really had no idea what he looked like. I'd seen his grandfather and his brother, both named Arthur Mills, and I was beginning to think there had been a photographic family conspiracy against anyone without that particular moniker.

Thanks to the efforts of Barry McAleenan of Eastbourne, I'm simply delighted that we can see George Mills here in a photograph taken in the Summer of 1956. Mills would have been about 60 at the time, and he's likely anticipating seeing his three most popular titles reprinted in the very near future.

I can't thank Barry enough! There'll be far more about Barry and George over the weekend. For the time being, though, I'm pleased to have you meet… George Mills!

The Life of B. R. V. Mills, Part 3

I've had some exciting news involving George Mills today, but I feel like I'm on a roller-coaster right now—I just found out my boss is being promoted. Good for him, bad for us here in the classrooms. Now, for most of my career, that wouldn't have been a very large hurdle to clear. Most of the school principals I've worked for are like chewing gum on the bottom of your shoe: Just when you get rid of one bit, along comes another wad. This fellow is definitely different, truly wonderful, and I'll admit I'm more than a bit dismayed and frustrated about the situation. His last day at the school is tomorrow…

Anyway, let's get back to the rest of the life of Revd Barton R. V. Mills. We left him early in the decade of the 1920s, in his early sixties, with one son married, another at university, and two daughters presumably at home.

While recent events in this narrative associated with Barton Mills seemed to have highlighted his continued love of history, he was obviously still working in theology in a scholarly way as well despite being a dozen years removed from the Savoy. In the 25 February 1922 edition of Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, etc., he asked their readership:

LATIN PROVERB : ORIGIN SOUGHT. Can any reader tell me the origin of the Latin proverb "Nescit sanus quid sentiat aeger aut plenus quid patiatur jejunus " ? It is quoted as vulgare proverbium by St. Bernard ('De Gradibus Humilitatis,' &c., cap. iii.), but I have not been able to find it in any dictionary of quotations.

BARTON R. V. MILLS.

Early in my attempts at creating a time-line for the Mills family, I had made the assumption that his work translating and interpreting St. Bernard must have been done under the auspices of some institution. It appears I was wrong, unless he pursued it on behalf of armed forces chaplains. Mills must simply have been driven to understand and explain the teachings of St. Bernard, and I still have much more to learn about why. In the above request, Mills is making certain his citations are correct, indicating that his work is almost finished.

The year 1922 brought news from Barton's daughter-in-law Lady Dorothy Mills, and it must have been quite unusual as it apparently came on the heels of a press conference! First, the Straits Times reported on 4 July, 1922, in an article entitled, "TRACING A TRIBE: An Expedition to the Sahara," that: "Lady Dorothy Mills, daughter of the Earl of Orford, has announced that she will lead an expedition into the mysterious interior of the Sahara Desert."

And before the end of 1922, the journal Current History [April-September, 1922] was reporting: "Lady Dorothy Mills, daughter of the Earl of Orford and granddaughter of D. C. Corbin of New York, is on an expedition to the remote regions of the southeastern Sahara to discover the habits of mysterious white cave men [troglodytes], first reported by Captain de St. Maurice last year."

The rest of the Mills family is quiet as reports continue to surface during 1923 that Lady Dorothy Mills, traveling alone except for guides and porters, drove deep into the heart of North Africa and became the "first white woman" to reach Timbuktu, although some accounts do label her as simply the "first Englishwoman." I'm now reading her book, and she isn't quite in Timbuktu yet, but I'll mention here that she certainly met plenty of pale, perspiring French women along the way. Still, I'll reserve judgment until I finish her account.

1924 found Barton's son, Arthur, and his daughter-in-law, Lady Dorothy, both publishing books in the same year once again: Arthur's The Broadway Madonna, which received favorable reviews, and Lady Dorothy's The Road to Timbuktu [Duckworth & Co.: London, 1924], a stunning success, after which she embarked on a new path in her writing career.

George Mills soon returned to the story when he began teaching as a junior appointment at Windlesham House School, then in Portslade, beginning at Lent, 1925. Mills claimed to have earned a B.A. from Oxford, presumably in the "English or 'English subjects'" he taught at Windlesham.

George married Vera Louise Beauclerk on 23 April 1925 at the Holy Trinity Church, Brompton, with his father, Barton, as one of the presiding clergy. They also purchased a home on Benfield Way, Portslade, that year. It appeared the young couple was settling down together. George wouldn't be staying long however.

In 1925, Arthur and Lady Dorothy Mills—neither of whom attended George's wedding—each published yet another new novel, The Gold Cat [Hutchinson & Co., London, 1925; pictured left, in its German edition] and The Dark Gods [Duckworth: London, 1925], respectively. It isn't as if publishing houses were taking on extra hands to keep up with the writing of the Mills, but that was an output that even Danielle Steele or Nora Roberts might be envious of.

Lady Dorothy was also making news simply for being herself, anywhere. Among other celebrity appearances, she attended a debutante's dance, an event that turned out to be so newsworthy that coverage of it ends up in the Straits Times in Singapore on 7 July, 1925: "In a paragraph from the Morning Post of June 9… over 100 guests were present at the Langham Hotel [London] at a dance given by Hon. Mrs. Adderley and Mrs. C. Alma Baker for Miss Julitha Baker… Among those present at the dance, many of whom took parties were:- The Duke of Manchester, Lady Southampton, Lady Dorothy Mills, Lord Fermoy, M.P., Lady Muir Mackenzie, the Hon. Lady McCalmont, Lord Edward Montagu, the Hon. Charles Fitzroy, the Hon. Edward Portman, Sir Henry and Lady Fairfax-Lucy… [etc]."

After the Summer Term in 1926, George Mills was no longer on the teaching staff list at Windlesham—a position and a place he seemed to dearly love—and no one really seems to know why. In the same year, though, Barton Mills, published perhaps his finest and most renowned work, De Gradibus Humilitatis et Superbiae by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux [University Press: Cambridge, 1926], which he edited along with his friend and colleague, Rev. Watkin W. Williams. Barton was approximately 69 years of age at the time.

Lady Dorothy, however, dominated the family's literary efforts that year by publishing yet another novel in 1926, the sci-fi tale Phœnix, [Hutchinson & Co.: London, 1926], and a pair of travel books Beyond the Bosphorus [Duckworth & Co.: London, 1926], and Through Liberia [Duckworth & Co.: London, 1926; illustration, right].

What's really unclear is how close Barton Mills was with his elder son and daughter-in-law. Were they reveling in each other's successes, or had Arthur and Dorothy by then begun moving in completely different circles? And how much did the success of the rest of the family in 1926 provide a stark contrast to new husband George's departure from teaching? It must have been gratifying for George to see such success amoing loved ones, but how frustrated might he have felt about his own fledgling career?

Over the next several years, George also taught at Warren Hill School in Eastbourne, The Craig School in Windermere, and at the English Preparatory School in Glion. Although more still comes to light about Warren Hill every day, little is now known about The Craig, and virtually nothing at all about the school in Glion, Switzerland, or George's time there.

One thing we do know is that, while George was in Windermere and Glion, he was not often spending time with his aging father, Barton, who had turned 70 in 1927. George's lack of occupational stability would be just the beginning of a period of familial difficulty that couldn't have been comforting for Barton in his declining years.

While George was away, teaching at various locales in the U.K. and in Europe as well, Lady Dorothy continued her own travels. In 1929, however, a relatively short jaunt would have an enormous impact on her life. She was involved in a car accident returning from a trip to Ascot that her scarred for life. Then, as opposed to traveling, she spent her time writing a memoir, A Different Drummer: Chapters in an Autobiography [Duckworth: London], that was published in 1930.

Seemingly recovered by 1931, Lady Dorothy heard of a expedition planning to discover the source of the Venezuela's Orinoco River. She hurriedly arranged an expedition of her own to get there first and publicly announced her plans to the press. Was this ego driven, a desire to stay on top of her literary game, or was Lady Dorothy fighting the ravages of time and injury, trying to prove something to herself as much as she was to her public?

The book about her journey, The Country of the Orinoco [Hutchinson & Co.: London] was written and published in an amazingly short amount of time, before the year of 1931 had even drawn to a close. And in that same year something of great import to her had occurred halfway around the world. Lady Dorothy's father, Robert Horace Walpole, the last Earl of Orford, had died in New Zealand on 27 September and his remains were transported home to Norfolk for burial on 8 November. Lady Dorothy, then 42 years of age, attended the services with her stepmother, Emily Gladys Oakes, then the Countess of Orford, and Dorothy's twelve-year-old half-sister, Lady Anne Walpole.

The death of the Earl at last allowed Lady Dorothy access to the trust fund she'd been unable to touch since 1918. By the time the international paperwork all had been completed, and the barristers fees deducted, one can likely assume it was well into 1932 before the funds she had inherited became available to her.

Would this brighten the future of Arthur and Lady Dorothy of Ebury Street, London? To assume so would leave you right by half, but that's another tale for another day.

More immediately, Arthur's father, Barton Mills, passed away not very long after the Earl's cold November funeral. Barton died on 21 January 1932 in London. Soon after, a stained glass window bearing the image of St. Bernard was designed, applied for, funded, and installed in Chancel North of the St Michael & All Angels parish church at Bude Haven, Cornwall, in his lasting memory. The colourful window still glows there in his memory.

Barton Mills did not live to see his son, George, publish his first book, Meredith and Co., in 1933, finally tasting some of the success that others in the family had. One hopes, though, that George had talked to his father about writing it, and that, as the manuscript lengthened, Barton had many chances to share in his son's process, as well as his excitement. Barton wouldn't ever know that eventually George would follow in his father's footsteps and author a book about a religious icon, his son's choice being St. Thomas of Canterbury [right].

Barton Mills wouldn't know that Lady Dorothy would file for divorce from his elder son, Arthur, that very same year, 1932, or that his spinster daughters, Agnes and Violet, aged 36 and 29 at the time of the elder Mills' death—women who had presumably lived with Barton for virtually their entire lives—would remain unmarried.

Barton Mills wouldn't know of Vera Mills' passing in 1942. And he wouldn't know that all four of his children apparently lived the rest of their lives "without issue."

It seemed the story may have drawn to a close after a series of deaths: Arthur passed in 1955, George in 1972, and both Agnes and Violet in 1975—the final three all in Devonshire, and seemingly all distant from anyone who would or could have recorded their daily hopes, fears, sorrows, joys, or regrets during the last thirty or forty years of their lives.

But, strangely, their story didn't end. If you're reading this, it turns out that we're all here today considering the lives of this family of almost forgotten people, even though there were no daughters, sons, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren, seemingly no kin at all, left to continue to try to weave together the threads of their story—or even at the very least to upload to the internet the contents of a diary, a love letter, or a wedding photograph, or even to post a series of dates recorded in the family Bible on a blog. If there was anyone left to eventually do any of that, well... where is it all?

One piece of the story had been left here, another clue there, and a memory over in the mind of someone else. Just this morning, for example, I was delighted at having been contacted by a gentleman with a memory of George Mills. The story of George Mills is still around. It's simply scattered about us, a bit here and a bit there, like an overturned jigsaw puzzle...

So if you have any of those pieces, no matter how small, to add to this tale, if you know a friend of the Mills family, a former student, or anyone else who might remember George Mills or his family, please don't hesitate to let me know.

[Read Part 1 and/or Part 2]

The Life of B. R. V. Mills, Part 2

In 1891, recent widower Barton Reginald Vaughan Mills, father of a young son, Arthur, was appointed vicar of Bude, on the coast of Cornwall, on a stipend of £170 a year, a sum considered less than his contemporaries, but still more than he'd recently earned at Poughill. Was money an issue? Perhaps, but it would seem, more importantly, that although he may have dreamed of a more metropolitan life, this living kept him close to kith and kin, especially to the patrons of Bude parish, the family of his grandfather, Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, who had helped raise Barton as a child in nearby Killerton, Devon.

We had no news for several years after Barton took up residence at the vicarage, but finally, on 10 January 1894, Barton R. V. Mills married Elizabeth Edith Ramsay, daughter of George Dalhousie Ramsay, C.B., in Kensington, London. In 1893 at the age of 64, Ramsay had just completed thirty years of service to his country as Director of Army Clothing. Various sources have Elizabeth Edith born in either 1865 or 1866, making her 28 or 29 years old at the time of the wedding. Barton himself was 36 on the day of his nuptials.

Soon after, in 1895, Barton's mother, Lady Agnes Lucy Dyke Acland, died on 23 May. But, on 11 June of that same year, Agnes Edith Mills was born in Stratton, Cornwall, to Barton and his new bride.

In 1896, the couple had their second child together and third overall, George Ramsay Acland Mills, born on 1 October 1896 in Bude. That same year, Fairbairn's Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland‎ lists George Dalhousie Ramsay as residing at "7. Manson Place, Queen's Gate, S.W." That seemingly irrelevant fact would soon loom larger in Barton's life, just as my recent discovery of it did in this story.

In 1898, Barton's father, Arthur Mills, died on 12 October, and his estate was probated at £42 035 to Reginald Brodie Dyke Acland, barrister, Theodore Dyke Acland, M.D., the Rev. Barton Reginald Vaughan Mills, and Dudley Acland Mills, a major in the Royal Engineers and Barton's younger brother.

Barton's son, Arthur Frederick Hobart Mills, then aged 13, entered Wellington College, Berkshire, in the Hardinge House, in 1900. His father is listed as "Rev. B. R. V. Mills", at the address: "The Vicarage [right], Bude Haven, N. Cornwall".

One might assume that an inheritance could very easily change the family's prospects, and that seems to have been the case here. In the new century, things are about to change quite a bit for the family of four-year-old George Mills.

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."

1901, however, is a particularly interesting because of Barton's sudden change of employment. As we see above, Mills is still Vicar of Bude Haven on 22 January. Soon, though, he resigned his position as Vicar of Bude Haven, becoming an assistant chaplain of the Chapel Royal of the Savoy in London.

In the 1901 census taken on 31 March, the Mills family is listed as living in "District 14, Brompton, Kensington, London", but I'm uncertain exactly where, or if they are living in a dwelling by themselves because I haven't seen the entire page. George's half-brother, Arthur, is not listed among the family members in London, or among any of the entire list of "Arthur Mills" within that census. Still, they've departed Bude, Cornwall, and it seems for good.

A new holy cleric preached his first sermon at the Chapel Royal of the Savoy [left] as assistant chaplain on the 25th Sunday after Trinity, 24 November 1901—the preacher of record was "Barton R. V. Mills, Assistant Chaplain."

No lay person I've asked has seemed to think the fact that Barton Mills converted to Roman Catholicism in the late 1870s would have made much of a difference in his becoming an Anglican Vicar or gaining employment at the Savoy. However, in a recent e-mail, the current Chaplain of the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy expressed doubt: "I should be surprised if Mills was appointed assistant chaplain of the Savoy (it was known as the Chapel Royal, Savoy in those days) having 'renounced the Anglican Church.'"

I've sent the surprising results of my research to the Queen's Chapel and, hopefully we'll have an answer soon regarding why a Roman Catholic had been holding positions of such influence in the Anglican Church. It's true that Mills may simply have changed his mind back about his affiliation just as suddenly as he had in changed it the first place. Still, I know that in the United States, if it became known that the clergyman of a Protestant church had ever been a convert to Roman Catholicism, and then flip-flopped back, it would likely cause somewhat of a tempest.

Also in 1901, Barton R. V. Mills published a book of sermons, Marks of the Church [Skeffington & Son: London, 1901], putting some additional funds in the family coffers. That would not have been a bad thing at all, considering the number of mouths to feed in his family was about to increase.

Violet Eleanor Mills was born on 17 November 1902, and in the following year, Arthur F. H. Mills, aged 16, left Wellington College, Berkshire, at the end of three years. It's unclear where young Arthur might have gone, but the most likely possibility would seem to be a return to the home of his father in London.

The Mills family then makes no news, as far as I can discern, until 1906 when Arthur resumes his schooling, entering the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, on September 12. He's rated "Fair" in both his first and second terms, and "Good" in his third term.

At some point during that span of time, though, George Mills was attending Parkfield Preparatory School in Haywards Heath. I'm not having much luck at all finding information on that now-defunct institution, however.

Then, in 1907, Barton R. V. Mills published Fundamental Christianity: an essay on the essentials of the Christian Faith (Reprinted from "The Churchman") [Masters & Co.: London, 1907].

A year later, Arthur F. H. Mills was "gazetted" [as he described it] into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. Actually, Sandhurst describes him as having been "commissioned" into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry on 19 September 1908. It's likely the notion of Arthur saying he had been "gazetted" occurred when the Territorial Force was formed on April 1, 1908, as a result of the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907. Mills then likely went directly into the 5th Battalion of the 214th Infantry Brigade.

Also in 1908, Rev. Barton R. V. Mills, speaking in his capacity as assistant chaplain of the Savoy, participated in that year's Pan-Anglican Congress and, in response to a discussion called The Drink Traffic, the minutes show he "suggested that there was an alternative solution to that of the Licensing Bill. It would be for the State to buy up all of the licensed houses at market value and convert the liquor trade into a Government monopoly. The profits of the trade would easily cover the cost of the purchase."

With prohibition also being discussed, it does seem odd—at least from today's perspective—having had a clergyman speaking on behalf of turning the liquor trade into a profitable government monopoly. Where Mills was then going with that line of thinking is unclear, though.

Perhaps coincidentally, but perhaps not, Barton Mills left the Savoy in that same year, 1908. He would have been about 52 years of age. Could this separation simply have been for the purposes of retirement?

In 1910, Barton sent George Mills, aged 14, following in his footsteps own to Harrow School in London. I'm uncertain of the family's exact address at the time, but in 1911, The Plantagenet Roll of Royal Blood is published, listing "Rev. Barton R. V. Mills" as living at "12 Cranley Gardens S.W."

There was a census in 1911 that showed Barton Mills, still listing his occupation as "Clergyman, Church of England," as the head of the household there at 12 Cranley Gardens, S.W., living with his wife, two daughters, seven servants and a governess in the 20+ room home.

Mills is listed in the 1911 edition of Kelly's Directory of Dorset: "The living [at the church of All Saints] is a rectory, net income £260, including 56 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Rev Barton R V Mills, M. A., of Cranleigh Gardens, London SW, and Major D. Mills [again, Barton's brother, Dudley]." The parish is Tarrant Keynston.

In 1912, George Mills left Harrow School, presumably to return home. There's quite a gap in the family history, then, until at last George's half-brother, Arthur, was mobilised after the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 3 August 1914 and sent to France. Arthur was wounded in both legs during or just after the fighting at La Bassée, probably very late in 1914, and soon returned to England.

George, however, had later entered the First World War as a Private in the Rifle Brigade in 1916, where he also may have seen immediate combat in France.

The Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry regiment created to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They participated in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on 15 September 1916. This was during the Somme Offensive, one of the first uses of tanks by the British in a large scale battle. The tanks in the end proved largely to be a psychological asset. They emboldened attackers and intimidating defenders whenever they advanced. Tactically, however, the tanks did not provide much advantage or support for the British regiments because so many of them broke down as they advanced. Depending on the date of Mills' active assignment to the brigade, he easily could have been a part of that battle.

Mills later transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps where he reached the rank of Lance Corporal before returning to civilian life. This transfer made sense as George's namesake grandfather, Sir George Dalhousie Ramsay, had been Director of Army Clothing through 1893 and the RASC was responsible for transportation of non-ammunition stores such as food, water, fuel, and general domestic stores [such as clothing]. In addition, his uncle, Major Dudley Mills, was an officer in the Royal Engineers.

Also in 1916, perhaps still recovering from his leg wounds, Arthur married Lady Dororthy Rachel Melissa Walpole, daughter of Robert Horace Walpole, the Earl of Orford, in London. The couple apparently had had little income and publishing newspaper and magazine stories had bolstered the household income until, in 1916, they each published the first of their many novels.

During the war, the Mills family as a whole doesn't generate much news at all, save the distant death of Lady Dorothy's maternal grandfather, D.C. Corbin of Spokane, Washington, in the United States on 29 June 1918. Although they couldn't have met more than a handful of times, the multimillionaire American railroad magnate left her an iron-clad trust fund that she could not access until the death of her father, the scandalous Earl of Orford, who had just remarried in 1917.

In 1919, George Mills left the military and matriculated to Christ Church College, Oxford. Barton Reginald Vaughan Mills, "a cleric in holy orders and a scholar, of 7 Mawson Place, Queens Gate," is listed as George's father on the admissions documents at Christ Church.

It is unclear if "Mawson" was transcribed incorrectly at the time, read incorrectly recently, or simply transcribed to me incorrectly, but such a thoroughfare, if it ever had been there, certainly does not now exist in Queen's Gate.

However, as I just discovered yesterday, The County Families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland [Ballantyne & Co., London: 1919] lists Rev. Barton Reginald Vaughan Mills among its entrants, and cites as his address "7. Manson Place, S.W."

What a difference a single letter makes!

That's particularly interesting because "7. Manson Place, S.W." is, at the time, also the exact address of Barton's father-in-law, Sir George Dalhouisie Ramsay. It appears the family had at some point moved from Cranley Gardens into the home of Sir George, then some 91 years of age.

In that same 1919 text, Barton's occupation is listed as "Acting Chaplain to the Forces and is Joint-Patron of 1 living." Presumably, that living is Tarrant Keynston.

"Acting Chaplain to the Forces" is a title that I'll need to investigate more. Wikipedia states: "The current form of military chaplain dates from the era of the First World War. A chaplain provides spiritual and pastoral support for service personnel, including the conduct of religious services at sea or in the field."

In 1919, Barton Mills would have been some 62 years old. While I'm certain that he was neither "at sea," nor "in the field," his interest in war was quite evident—even if somewhat academic.

Not many months after the Armistice had been signed on 11 November 1918, Mills had a letter published in the journal History: The Quarterly Journal of the Historical Association, vol. IV, April, 1919, reading:

CORRESPONDENCE:

The Athenæum,
Pall Mall, S.W.1.

SIR,
May I, as a new member of the Historical Association, suggest the consideration in an early number of HISTORY, of the following question?
What is the historical evidence of, or against, the theory of the "nation in arms," of which so much has been heard during the war? My own impression is that it is a retrograde movement, and that the tendency of modern civilisation has been to restrict warfare to professional armies instead of arming "the manhood of the nation."
The discussion of this question by an expert ought to be most interesting.

BARTON R. O. MILLS [sic]

It's not the most passionate response to a horrific war ever, but in that brief missive, we do discover that Barton Mills, having recently become a member of the Historical Association, had also become a member of the prestigious Athenæum Club. Members of the Athenæum at the time included Rudyard Kipling, sculptors Gilbert Bayes, Sir Thomas Brock, and Sir George Frampton, and painters John Collier and Sir Luke Fildes. It seems Mills has truly established himself in London.

Sir George Dalhousie Ramsay then passed away on 16 January 1920. Can we assume that the Mills family stayed in his home at 7 Manson Place, S.W.? Is it also reasonable to consider that there may also have been something of an inheritance received by the Mills family? In 1889, Ramsay himself had come into a sizable inheritance, and in 1909, Ramsay and Mills both had been named trustees in the will of one John Crawfurd, who had died in 1868. There had apparently been quite a bit of "capital accumulation" of properties in the will by 1910. It's unknown at this point if this had had any effect on their relationship, business or otherwise.

Also in the year of 1920, Lady Dorothy Mills, Barton's daughter-in-law, received a very favorable review of her latest novel The Laughter of Fools [Duckworth & Co.: London, 1920] in Punch. The novel had been first published in the month of April and had to be reprinted just one month later.

In 1921, George Mills [or perhaps Barton] paid for his admissions examinations on 21 May and entered the University of Oxford. As an Army veteran, he "was exempted from taking Responsions (preliminary examinations for entry) and the examinations of the First Public Examination, under a decree of 9 March 1920… on condition that he had obtained permission from the Vice Chancellor and the proctors; and that he had paid the fee for admission to the examinations the decree excused him from." It's unknown at this point what George then may have studied after his admission or even how long he remained there.

So, Barton and family had likely settled into 7 Manson Place after the passing of Sir George; young George began following in his father Barton's footsteps at Oxford; Arthur—a war hero—was busily writing popular novels; and Arthur's wife, Lady Dorothy, had been finding some success with the pen as well. Everyone had survived the Great War, and Barton Mills—now some 63 years of age—must have felt some contentment.

Still, he had yet to accomplish his own most memorable achievement. And, just as he had experienced in his own life, he would see many unexpected changes visit the lives of those he loved.

But more on those changes, and the remainder of the life of the Revd Barton R. V. Mills, M.A., next time in Part 3!

[Read Part 3, or go back to Part 1.]

The Life of B. R. V. Mills, Part 1

Details, details, details…

Sometimes one tiny item sets off a string of revelations. In doing a search on Sir George Dalhousie Ramsay, I stumbled on yet another detail that was quite interesting regarding Rev. Barton Reginald Vaughan Mills, father of George Mills. I thought about writing about it immediately, but took a quick look at what a long and winding road the path of the Rev. Barton's life had become, and I was shocked. Those details all begin to add up!

To put the life of George Mills into perspective, I think we first need to examine the foundation upon which George's life was constructed: We need to look at his family of origin, and especially—given the glaring lack of information about George's mother and sisters—at the life of George's father.

He's the man who truly sets the metaphorical stage for George's adult life. And Barton Mills' life is one that had indeed taken some unexpected twists and turns that I've put off writing about for too long. In fact, it's probably far too much for a single post here, so let's just get it started right now…

Barton R. V. Mills was born on 29 October 1857. His father, Arthur Mills of Bude Haven, Cornwall, was the new Tory M.P. from Taunton at the time. He was named after a member of the Acland family and relative of Barton's mother Lady Agnes Acland. He was also named in honour of Rev. Charles John Vaughan, apparently a friend of Arthur Mills and later the scandalous Head Master of Harrow School.

Barton attended Harrow School in 1870 and 1871, years after his namesake's departure. In 1873, his father became the M.P. from Exeter, but the Mills family was also maintaining a London residence at 34 Hyde Park Gardens, W., at the time as well as their home in Cornwall. Barton later attended Christ Church, Oxford, beginning in 1876.

In 1880, Barton earned a B.A. degree in History from Oxford, and receives his M.A in 1883. Arthur Mills had spent much of Barton's lifetime traveling the world and becoming an expert on colonial economies, and may have been en route from New Zealand when the advanced degree was conferred.

In 1884, we find "Rev. B. R. V. Mills," now a clergyman, sitting on the Battersea Committee as an active member, according to a 15 December report by The Council of the Society for Organising Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicity. The committee, chaired by the Vicar of Battersea for relief of the poor, may be where Mills met his longtime friend, Rev. Watkin W. Williams, who also served as an active member.

In that same year, Barton Mills published a pamphlet entitled The Early Sieges of Exeter and their connexion with the General History of England that was based on a lecture he had given earlier. In 1895, the journal The Western Antiquary, concluded: "We must commend this paper as one of value and interest."

Even more interestingly in 1885, Barton R. V. Mills is surprisingly mentioned in the book, Converts to Rome: A list of about four thousand protestants who have recently become Roman Catholics by W. Gordon Gorman [W. Swan Sonnenschein: London, 1885]. The listing within a section headed "CHRIST CHURCH" reads: "B. R. V. Mills, son of Arthur C. Mills, M.P. for Exeter." No date is given for Barton's conversion, nor why Arthur had gained an unexpected middle initial.

Although Barton Mills had already become a clergyman by the year 1885, in this text he isn't titled as a 'Reverend,' or even a listed as a B.A.—at least not at that point in his conversion to Roman Catholicism. He is simply recorded among the recent converts from Christ Church.

As we know, according to Oxford University, Mills "matriculated from Christ Church on 13 October 1876, aged 18" and "the degree of BA was conferred in 1880 [by Oxford]." So, the conversion of Mills likely occurred while he was still a student at Christ Church, sometime between 1877 and 1879.

Now things started happening relatively quickly: In the Summer of 1886, Barton R. V. Mills married Lady Catherine Mary Valentia Hobart-Hampden at St. George, Hanover Square, London, on 10 July. She is granted the rank of an Earl's daughter at the wedding.

That same year, Barton and Lady Catherine left England and family behind as Mills became "Chaplain at San Remo" in 1886. Where, exactly, in San Remo he was appointed chaplain is still under investigation. There is as of yet no record found showing him to have been chaplain at either All Saints or St. John's Churches at that time. No real matter: He wouldn't be there very long.

On Ash Wednesday morning, 23 February 1886, with many churchgoers already attending services, a deadly 6.5-level earthquake devastated San Remo, Italy, as well as many nearby towns and villages. Lady Catherine Mills was probably just over 4 months pregnant with their first child and, unless the newlyweds were quickly parted, probably in San Remo at the time of that disaster.

The very next day, a Cornish newspaper announced: "Bude - The Living of Poughill - The Rev. Barton V. Mills, eldest son of Mr. Arthur Mills, Bude, has accepted the living of Poughill, near Bude. Poughill contains 1,700 acres, with a population of 399. Probable gross value of the living about £125 per annum. The Rev. T.S. Carnsew, who is promoted to the living of Constantine, near Falmouth, has been vicar of Poughill for 30 years."

Word travels quickly, apparently just as quickly as thirty-year vicars could when it was deemed necessary.

Just months later, Arthur Frederick Hobart Mills, the brother of George Mills, was born on 12 July 1887 in Cornwall. It's unknown at this point if Arthur was full term, or if Lady Catherine had suffered any injury in San Remo, any discomfort on her return from Italy, or any difficulties during the birth itself.

Sadly, Lady Catherine passed away just two years later, on 25 September 1889, the same year Barton Mills left the vicarage at Poughill. Did he leave because of her death? Was it sudden? Had he taken leave of his duties earlier to care for her? It's unclear if he left before or after that exact date, 25 September, and I am waiting for word from Poughill that may provide a clue.

It's now well into Autumn, 1889, in our story and winter's fast approaching. We've left the widowed vicar, Barton Reginald Vaughan Mills, and his young son, Arthur, in the care of 73-year-old Arthur Mills, Esq., M.P., in a house cared for by 10 servants at 128 Efford Down in Bude, Cornwall [left].

Barton will still be living there as a resident during the census in the Spring of 1891, along with young Arthur, then three years old. But Barton, 33 himself, in that document will state his occupation as that of being the new "Vicar Of Budehaven."

And that won't be the only change made as Barton returns to the Anglican Church and starts a new family—one that will include a young chap by the name of George Mills—as we'll see in Part 2!

[Read Part 2 or Part 3.]

Visualizing Warren Hill School and Some Possible Muses

I slept in this morning, a wonderful lie about that's allowed me to really enjoy the cool, sunny morning here in Ocala. The trees were not long ago brown and grey scratches on a sky that was becoming increasingly blue. Now the breeze has trouble making the boughs, heavy with leaves, sway in the breeze. The delicate blossoms are falling gently from the fig tree, and even the birds seem languid as they call this morning.

I couldn't have been more relaxed when I opened my e-mail box, but now my heart has sped and I'm truly excited: I've seen Warren Hill School!

Sometime between 1926 and 1933, George Mills taught in Eastbourne, and along the way, the members of the Eastbourne Local History Society have gone out of their way to help me understand the world he lived in at the time, from the location of the school, to the school's history and staff, right down to the local where Mills likely would have had his pint after a long day in front of the desks.Still, the images I'd seen of the area were from today. Warren Hill as it stood in the time of G. Mills, full of laughing [well sometimes laughing] boys at work and at play, lived only in my imagination. Today, however, we have our first glimpse of what Mills saw [click images to enlarge].

Here's word from Michael of the ELHS:
Hello Sam:

Another Michael of Eastbourne Local History has turned up these two photographs of Warren Hill School. The first is probably from a postcard and shows the view looking up what is now Beachy Head Road with the school on the left. It's hard to date precisely but one can suppose that it is pre 1900. The masters' residence must be the house on the right. The girls walking down the hill are almost level with a group of flint cottages which still stand. One of these was rented during various summers by Arthur Conan Doyle.

The second is a private photograph showing a cricket match on the playing field behind the main building. (See the plan of the school.) The picture clearly shows the spaciousness of the school grounds. The low structure to the left is probably the house which still stands on the site (50 45 22 95 N and 0 15 52 90 E) - the last vestige of Warren Hill School [see image, far below, left].

Brilliant! Thank you, Michael, and the other Michael! It's interesting to see students engaged in one of the sports that Mills obvously loved so much, and that are also an integral part of his novels. And, now that I've discovered how to enter latitude and longitude into Google Earth correctly—What a difference adding a decimal point makes!—we can see that "last vestige" of Warren Hill from above, and not just an anonymous field in France!

It's interesting to think that Mills, besides being from a family that frequented the publishing houses of London, had the opportunity to meet novelist Kitty Barne, wife of Eric Streatfeild who likley taught music at Warren Hill, and their cousin Noel Streatfeild, not to mention the possibility of having an acquaintance with Arthur Conan Doyle, who published 10 books between 1924 and 1930, including The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes in 1927. And all of this was likely happening at, around, or near Warren Hill School, pictured again at right.

Eric and Kitty married in June, 1912. Kitty had studied music at the Royal College of Music, and was listed as living in Eastbourne in the 1911 census. Eric isn't to be found on that census [Correction: We now know Streatfeild was, indeed, listed in the 1911 census—his surname had been misspelled]. There is a household of the Revd. William C. Streatfeild in Eastbourne listed at the time. The reverend is Eric's father.


[Note (6 Oct 2012): From Roger Sharland in a comment recorded below: "William Champion Streatfeild was not Eric Streatfeild's father but rather uncle. William Champion was the father of Noel Streatfeild, but his brother Alexander Edward Champion Streatfeild was Eric's father."]

Information from the 1901 census has Eric L. Streatfeild born in Nutfield, Surrey in 1872, but living in Eastbourne and working as a "schoolmaster's assistant," presumably at Warren Hill. That would make Streatfeild 40 years of age at the time of his marriage to Miss Barne. If he were to have known George Mills in, say, 1926, he'd have been approximately 54 years old. Mr. Streatfeild passed away in Sussex in 1954.

Now, we already know George Mills was clearly interested in the performing arts, as indicated from his time spent at Windlesham House in Brighton just before. He had even written songs, so his involvement with the Streatfeilds is even more likely.At that time, Streatfeild's wife, Kitty was on the verge of becoming a children's book author herself when she must have become acquainted with Mills. However, she had already put herself on the proverbial map: In 1925, she published The Music of Amber Gate: A Pageant Play [J. Curwen & Sons; London, 1925] with a pianoforte score, after having previously published Winds ... A play written by Kitty Barne & D. W. Wheeler. Composed by Kitty Barne. Illustrations by Lucy Barne. (Staff and tonic sol-fa notation.) [J. Curwen & Sons: London, 1912], Timothy's Garden: A Children's Play [J. Curwen & Sons: London, 1912] with a vocal score, and To-morrow. A play written by Kitty Barne and D.W. Wheeler. Composed by Kitty Barne. Illustrated by Lucy Barne, all in the year she was wed [Note: All of those titles appear just as they are catalogued in the British Library]. The last published work that I can find credited to her would be Introducing Mozart in 1957. Wikipedia has her dying on 3 February 1961, "after a long illness."It's presumable that George Mills had also made the acquaintance of Eric and Kitty's cousin, the renowned Noel Streatfeild [pictured, right], who was born in Sussex, trained as a performer at the Academy of Dramatic Art, and learned to write through a correspondence course after spending volunteer time authoring plays to entertain wounded soldiers during the First World War. Noel later published novels for adults, the earliest I can find being in 1931 [The Whitcarts], but before that she had also written children's plays and had a story published thatb had been printed in a children's magazine. Perhaps she was involved in learning to write professionally while George Mills, himself from a family of then-currently popular authors [Arthur Hobart and Lady Dorothy Mills], was in Eastbourne.

Streatfeild, born on 24 December 1895, would have been just a year younger than George when he found himself in Eastbourne where Noel was presumably writing those children's plays. She published a collection of them, The Children’s Matinée, in 1934, just a year after Mills had published his successful children's book, Meredith and Co. Streatfeild was soon convinced to write her first children's book, Ballet Shoes, by J.M. Dent & Sons, London, in 1936. Many feel it is still her most enduring work.Contemporary Americans best know Noel Streatfeild as the author of the books higly and very personally recommended by the character played by Meg Ryan in the film You've Got Mail.

After coming from a family of authors of both fiction and non-fiction in many genres, and finding himself at Warren Hill in the midst of the Streatfeilds and Kitty Barne, not to mention the possibility of Arthur Conan Doyle, Mills must have been inspired beyond anything we can imagine. Suddenly, a man who'd left relatively little mark on the world is poised to write unprecedentedly realistic books about the British preparatory schoolboys he found himself among at the time. Imagine the conversations about books, music, drama, and the effect of those on youth that must have filled the air around Meads!

Artistically, Warren Hill must have been the place where the seed of his books was first planted and nurtured. One can see that in the back cover art of the 1950 Oxford University Press edition Meredith and Co. The façade of the master's residence of fictional Leadham House School is depicted with a single, unadorned gable [right, click to enlarge], extremely similar to the building to the right in the first image of the school above. Windlesham has no gables at all, and The Craig has gables that resemble Dutch "crow stepping". This illustration, which substitutes a school bell for chimneys atop the building, much more resembles Warren Hill than either of the other two!

How much of an influence did the Streatfeild family, either en masse or individually, have on George? How much influence did George have on them, as well as on the school and Meads? Did Doyle, who rented a flint cottage at Warren Hill in the summers figure into this community in any way, despite his international renown, or was he simply reclusive? Even if Doyle's presence was not simultaneous with George's, how could the author of Holmes, Watson, Moriarty, and much else not have left some sort of a "legacy" around the campus? How much influence did the community of Eastbourne have on them all, and vice versa?

That is all, at this point, open to conjecture. In Warren Hill and the community of Eastbourne, though, he seemingly had found a place where he felt more free to express himself tha he might have before, and lived and worked among friends and colleagues with whom I suspect he might have felt he truly belonged. To me, it would be simply stunning if a gregarious, creative, arts-oriented chap like Mills had managed to avoid the influence of the Warren Hill of that era, despite Eastbournbe's overall reputation for staid respectability.A final note, according to wikipedia.com: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was found dead, clutching his chest on 7 July, 1930, in the fall of "Windlesham," his home in Crowborough, Sussex. Windlesham...?

Did the onset of the Great Depression hasten George's departure from Warren Hill? If so, what a shame! Anyone with any information about how Mills may have thrived, and why he eventually left, the apparently fertile soil of Meads [left, as seen from above today], please don't hesitate to let me know!