Tracking Ernest and Kenny Goodland across the Globe

A woman named Grace L. Goodland passed away in Merthyr Tydfil, Galmorgan, Wales, in 1964.

There are no U.K. records for the passing of any Margaret Esther Goodland. Perhaps she married, but there is no U.K. record of such a marriage. Margaret Goodlands with a different middle initial got hitched, and perhaps she is one of them: A transcription error.

There are death records for three women named Esther Goodland, in 1926 (Bridgwater, Somerset), 1943 (Bristol, Gloucestershire), and 1950 (Cheltenham, Glocestershire). All those locations are close geographically to some key locales in the lives of the Goodland clan—but they all can't be our Margaret. In addition, we have no knowledge of her being referred to as Esther instead of Margaret. With a mother named Frances, there'd have been no need to call her by a middle name.

The Goodland girls disappear into the mists of time. Let's take a look at some of the brothers of the clan to find out if any struck it rich by 1901 or so and could ensconce a widowed mother in London and fund brother Joshua Goodland's lengthy higher education.

Kenny Arnot Goodland was born in 1887 during the three-month span of "Apr-May-Jun" in the St. Thomas parish of Exmouth, Devonshire. Kenny was born just six years before his father, Gillmore Goodland, Sr., passed away at the age of 51 [right].

Frances Goodland, his widow, was left with a soon to be 6-year-old boy, Kenny, in January 1893. His brother, Theodore, would have been almost 12. Brother Ernest, would have been going on 15 years old. All three younger sons were all living at home and listed as "scholars" on the 1891 census [below, left].

Margaret would have been 10 years old and away at school in Yeovil when her father died. Spinster sister Grace would have been a ripe old 17 years old in 1893. She was still in Yeovil in 1891, but would she have finished her studies at Park School by 1893? Was she still at home? We just don't know.

Joshua would have been 17 years old, still living in Exmouth with his parents at the time of his father's death. Just two years before, during the 1891 census, Joshua's occupation was recorded as "school teacher's assistant" and he was at home when the count was made.

In 1891, there was also a 29-year-old Eliza Butland living with the family. Butland was Frances Goodland's maiden name, and she is listed as a "sister" who was "living on her own means." Was she yet another mouth to feed, or had she a fortune that allowed her to pay board?

The last entry on the Goodlands' 1891 census form [seen, left] is Emily Darling, a 55-year-old widow (apparently not a family member) from Cheltenham, Gloucestrershire, who was also "living on her own means." She, however, is listed as a "boarder." Emily was the widow of Andrew H. Darling, recently of 66 Bromley Street, London, but born in Northumberland, who was a "Missionary to Foreign Sailors." Would I be correct in assuming that a family taking in at least one boarder—and with no servants on hand—was not flush with money?

Back in 1881, the Goodland household had two boarders—both pupils at the elder Goodland's school—as well as a nurse and a general domestic servant.

This simply doesn't seem like it would have been a rich family by 1893, with a flock of children still in school, a deceased father, and a 44-year-old widowed mother.

Let's scratch young Kenny Goodland from the list of possibilities regarding the care in London of his widowed mother and Cambridge education of Joshua.

Kenny, who would have been about 14 years old, cannot be found on the 1901 census. He wasn't with his mother, visiting in Islington. And he doesn't show up at any home or as a boarder at any school.

He won't show up on the 1911 census rolls, either. On 27 July 1907, the HMS Miltiades, sailing from London under the command of A.H.H.G. Douglas, R.N.R., steamed into Sydney, New South Wales, bearing Ernest and Kenny Goodland as passengers [right]. The occupation of both is listed as "engineer." Would this imply some relatively advanced schooling achieved by both? It's hard to say. The last record we'd had of Ernest was the 1901 census from Glamorganshire, Wales, and his occupation was recorded as "sailor (mate)." I cannot say with any accuracy what the occupation "engineer" might have implied in 1907.

I can, however, find records that Ernest had visited Sydney at least once before. He sailed into the harbor there on 23 September 1896 at the age of 17 on the Carnedd LLewelyn of Liverpool, having departed from Sharpness, Gloucestershire. He is listed as a crewmember with an occupation of "APPTICE," presumably "apprentice."

1896 is just three years after Gillmore Goodland's death. Ernest, a 12-year-old "scholar" on the 1891 census, is at sea as an apprentice, perhaps implying there was no money to continue Ernest's education. In 1901, he'd become a sailor's mate, and in 1907 he claims he is an "engineer." I'm not sure exactly what to make of this career arc, but my best guess is that Ernest had not become a wealthy man between 1893 and 1907.

The 1914 Electoral Rolls of Victoria, Australia, record Ernest and Kenny Goodland living at Irymple in Mildura, Victoria. Kenny is listed as an "accountant." Ernest is listed as a "labourer." Let's scratch them both off the list of possible monetary benefactors of their mother, and brother Joshua.

Ernest would marry Winifred Margaret Owen in 1908 and they eventually would have three children (although Australian records are spotty at best) who would live on and off with Ernest or near their mother for many years, Owen Ernest Goodland, Gilmore Frank Goodland and Kenneth Garnier Goodland.

[Note (31 July 2011): We now know that Winifred sailed alone into Australia in 1908 to wed Ernest. She returned to Wales in 1911 with her son, Frank Gilmore Goodland, to visit family, Florence and Selina Owen, in Cardiff, Wales. They were recorded on the census that year. Thanks to John Owen, a descendant, for the insight! (Selina was John's grandmother.)]

Ernest would eventually become a director of International Harvester Co. in Australia.

Incidentally, Kenny (described on his enlistment papers as a "secretary") would enlist in Australian Imperial Force in 1915 and become a decorated war hero, having served first as a 2nd lieutenant and then as an temporary acting captain in the 29th infantry battalion, which embarked aboard the HMAT Ascanius on 10 November 1915.

He earned the Military Cross [description, left] on 18 March 1918 (according to the London Gazette of 3 June 1918), and was awarded the title of "Chevalier" upon being awarded the Order of the Crown of Roumania (with Swords) [pictured, below, right] early in 1919 (London Gazette, 20 September 1919). He also earned the French Medal of Honour—Gold [Medaille d'Honneur Avec Glaives (en Vermeil)] according to the London Gazette, 5 November 1920.

He also accrued the famous trio of the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal. His courage and demeanor are mentioned and praised in numerous recorded despatches throughout his service on the Western Front and in Egypt during the Great War.

He would marry Constance Robinson in New South Wales in 1926. They apparently would have no children and live together on and off through Kenny's retirement. His last employment was as an "industrial officer" of Broken Hill Proprietary Co., Ltd., in Newcastle. The final document recording the couple is dated 1954. I have found no records of their passing.

It appears Kenny never returned to England.

However, the most interesting aspect of Kenny's military records, however, is recorded upon his embarkation in 1915.

His next of kin is listed as "Mrs. Francis Stirling, mother, Belliela, Mildura, Victoria."

It seems Frances M. Goodland, widow of Gillmore Goodland, Sr., relocated to Australia sometime after her residence at Gresham House, London (Joshua used her address there as his own "home" on a ship's manifest during travel in January 1908), and not only settled near sons Ernest and Kenny (who were still rooming together in 1914), but was already remarried to a gentleman named "Stirling" by that year. (It's unclear if "Francis" was his Christian name, or a clerical misspelling of hers.)

In examining Messrs. Ernest and Kenny Goodland, we don't find fellows who'd have been bankrolling both their mother and brother between their father's death in 1893 and the end of Joshua's education at Cambridge in 1908—a full 15 years—but we do find the children to whom Frances M. Goodland eventually gravitated for some sort of support, even if that support was not measured simply in dollars or pounds.

So, how did Frances end up in London? And how could Joshua afford to spend eight travel-filled years at Cambridge? We've narrowed the list of possible philanthropists down to two: Brothers Theodore Thomas Goodland and Gillmore Goodland, Jr. Theodore, as we've seen, was just 11 at the time of his father's death, but we'll take a look at his interesting and apparently somewhat lucrative life next time.

Stay tuned…

Meeting Misses Grace and Margaret Goodland

Despite my optimism about finishing the saga of Joshua Goodland, I just can't seem to get any traction. First of all, we're entering our annual block of state achievement testing. We've been preparing feverishly for the high-stakes FCAT test here in Florida, but the only thing tougher than teaching a full year's worth of material in just 7 months would be learning it in that short amount of time!

In addition, I'm still stalled and wondering where Joshua Goodland's money came from, not only for his eight-year Cambridge education, but for the daily living expenses and costly holidays enjoyed during that time.

Just when I think I've covered all of the possibilities, something new crops up!

This time, it's a new sibling: Margaret Esther Goodland, who would have been 18 years of age at the time of the 1901 UK census, and 23 years old in 1906 (a date fixed in my last entry ascertaining Joshua's continued residence at Cambridge until at least then).

I did hedge in my speculation last time: "Frances Goodland gave birth to at least six children who had survived infancy, listed giving their approximate ages in 1906: Gillmore, Jr. (34), Joshua (32), Grace L. (29), Ernest Talbot (27), Theodore Thomas (25), and Kenny Arnot (18)."

So, make that: Gillmore, Jr. (34), Joshua (32), Grace L. (29), Ernest Talbot (27), Theodore Thomas (25), Margaret Esther (23), and Kenny Arnot Goodland (18).

There's a Grace Leviah Goodland appearing in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire, Wales [seen, right], during the 1911 census (although right now I can't access the actual census document), so I am uncertain what her situation there might have been. She also appears to have been too young: 28. There is also a Margaret Goodland showing up during that same census in Edmonton, Middlesex, almost 10 miles north of the City of London proper (I haven't access to an address, occupation, or household for her, either).

In lieu of seeing the actual documents, my best guess is that Grace was living in Wales, and might have been married at the time of the 1911 count.

The earlier 1901 census recorded Grace as a visitor to the home of 54-year-old Edwin Lee, managing director of a brickworks in Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales. Lee's eldest son, Sidney, 25, was of the same age as Grace on that day, 31 March 1901. Documents show that a 'Grace Goodland' was soon married in the summer of 1901 in Glamorgan, Wales, and that a 'Sidney Lee' also was married during the exact same time frame in the very same locale.

Were they wed in 1901? And were they still united by 1911? It's difficult to say. 1911's Grace Leviah Goodland obviously still uses the surname "Goodland." I am unaware as to what the possibilities might have been regarding a married British woman using her father's surname after marriage at the time in Wales. And without a look at the census form, we can't say with whom she was residing—or what she was doing as an occupation.

In 1901, Grace Goodland was listed as a visitor in Cardiff, and as having no occupation at the time. She was in the company of her younger brother, Ernest, then 22, whose occupation was given as "sailor (mate)." Both hailed from Exmouth, Devon.

While I do believe it is possible that Grace, in the time between the 1901 and 1911 censuses, came up with an occupation (or a husband) that could have provided money allowing her mother to move to Gresham House, London, and her brother, Joshua, to spend eight leisurely years at Cambridge, I also think it is extremely unlikely.

If she did, indeed, marry Sidney Lee, why would a man who had been living at home modestly with his family until the age of 25 suddenly start throwing money at his in-laws? And if this 1901 visitor's name later remained Grace Goodland because it was another Grace Goodland who was married that summer of 1901, what line of work might Joshua Goodland's sister—a single woman in Wales at the turn of the 20th century— have entered that would have supported not only herself, but her mother and her globe-trotting brother?

Grace had a fine education. She was recorded in the U.K. census of 1891 as a 15-year-old student boarding at Mrs. Martha Bennet's well-regarded Park School [the original boarding house is pictured, left] in Yeovil, Somerset, an institution that had opened its doors in 1851 and which still maintains an excellent reputation. Is it possible Grace learned skills that would have become lucrative by 1911?

Surely. But in 1911, we also find out that her brother, Gillmore, Jr., and his wife, Kathleen, have an infant named Gillmore Desmond Goodland (called Desmond), age 1, who is being cared for in Merthyr Tydfil. Where? I can't say exactly, at least not without seeing the document itself, but is it safe to conclude that little Desmond is being cared for in Wales by his father's sister, Grace?

The family of Gillmore Goodland, Jr., has older children: Kathleen, 10, and Joan L., 9, who are listed as being in Godstone, Surrey, on census day, 2 April 1911. The Goodlands had a home at Hoving Shaw, Woldingham, Surrey, at the time.  However, Gillmore, Jr., and his wife, Kathleen, seem to have been abroad in early 1911, visiting the United States, but likely having spent more time in Mexico (and Gillmore likely spent some time in a Mexican jail cell). They finally steamed back into Liverpool on 5 July 1911 on the Campania of the Cunard Line, having departed New York City some time before.

Would I be wrong in assuming that daughters Kathleen and Joan could have been at school in Surrey, or perhaps living with a neighbour named Edmund Stephenson, a rubber merchant?

Stephenson and his wife may have offered Kathleen and Joan a place to stay while their parents were away. They may also have been boarding at a nearby school in Surrey. Again, seeing the actual census document would answer many questions!

Anyway, if Grace herself had time to look after her young nephew Desmond Goodland, she was unlikely to have been the lynchpin in any venture that provided a great deal of money that she then could have lavished on her family. It seems that, if Grace had been simply paying someone else, a relative stranger, to care for Desmond while the baby was in Wales in 1911, the Goodlands could have found someone to do exactly that for them back in Surrey!

(For that matter, why wouldn't Gillmore and Kathleen have left Desmond with brother Joshua's wife Florence, who was in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, with Joshua's own 10 ½-month-old daughter, Josephine Mary Goodland, and a nurse at the time? That is, if they were looking strictly for kin to provide Desmond's care?)

The bottom line: It simply doesn't appear that Grace Goodland could have been the financier behind Frances Goodland's rooms at Gresham House in London and any economic assistance with Joshua's Cambridge degrees.

Grace's sister, Margaret? 1891 finds her the youngest boarder, aged 8 years, at Park School in Yeovil, along with older sister Grace.

The 1901 census [below, left] hurls that eight-year-old into the future and adult life rather quickly. She then lived in Blandford, Dorset, with the family of a farmer, Owen C. Richards, who resided at Whatcombe Farm with his wife, Ellen, and four children, ages 9 to 14. There were two servants in the house on 31 March, along with the children's governess: 18-year-old Margaret E. Goodland of Exmouth, Devon.

No, Margaret was a working girl on a Dorset farm in 1901, not someone who was footing the bill for her brother Joshua's further education and world travels. By 1911, as mentioned above, we find her in Edmonton, Middlesex, still using the name Margaret Goodland, presumably still unmarried. What she was doing there is known only to those with access to the document itself.

I'm loath to assume that these girls, Grace and Margaret, are the only two sisters of Joshua Goodland, but they seem to be right now. Neither of them seems to have become wealthy by the turn of the 20th century.

Did Joshua somehow fund his entire education and his holidays by drawing up the odd plan for builders around Cambridge when he wasn't studying law, coaching law, or traveling the world? Did his mother actually inherit enough from Joshua's father to live in the center of London after her husband's passing in Exmouth in 1893?

Before we jump to any conclusions, let's take a look at Joshua's brothers and their fortunes as the 19th century faded into memory.

Stay tuned…

“Follow the money”—William Goldman, 'All the President's Men'

After a much-needed "fix" of Opening Day baseball—and isn't it ironic that the contest of my greatest interest was played in Philadelphia amid 41°F temperatures and a frigid winds that starched the pennants?—Spring finally has sprung in my mind and I'm ready to return to the life of Joshua Goodland.

Goodland is mentioned in the 1906 edition of The Cambridge Yearbook and Directory: "Goodland, Joshua. Trinity Hall. 2nd Class Law Trip., Part I., 1902. 2nd Class Law Trip., Part II., 1904. 20, Trinity Street, Cambridge."

So Goodland was still residing at 20 Trinity Street [as seen today, left] when this was published, having received his bachelor degrees, and was working on his M.A. This is assuming that, in 1906, one actually needed to be studying at the university to earn an advanced degree. Twenty-three years earlier, we know the Rev. Barton R. V. Mills earned an 1883 Oxon Master's degree which "required no further study or residence" at Oxford at that time.

Goodland's entire time at Cambridge wasn't spent with his nose to the proverbial grindstone, however. Vyvyan Holland, in his autobiography, Son of Oscar Wilde, reminisces: "Trinity Hall specializes in Law and has provided the Bar with many of its greatest lawyers," and Holland and Goodland were to be among them. He nostalgically continues: "Having been duly entered as an undergraduate at Trinity Hall, I spent the remainder of the Long Vacation at Seaford, with Goodland and another Law coach. And there I had the misfortune to learn to play golf, an affliction from which I have never wholly recovered."

We already know that Goodland and Holland, along with Australian-born school mate Peter Wallace, traveled to Sweden and Russia as well as spending time hunting in Quebec. This additional "Long Vacation" is interesting for a few reasons.

First, we find further evidence of Goodland being an avid sportsman. Holland's specific use of the first-person singular implies that Goodland at the time was already acquainted with the 'good walk, spoiled,' and (Goodland being ever the teacher) may have even been Holland's first coach on the links.

It also forces one consider the economic aspects of that long holiday in Sussex, though, as well as Goodland's other vacations. While I am aware that costs then were nowhere near what they would be now, he was still the son of an elementary school teacher. No census shows Joshua's father, Gillmore Goodland, Sr., as having been a "Head Master," the family did not live at the school (in fact, we don't know the name of Goodland's institution), and neighbors of the Goodlands through the senior Gillmore's death in 1893 are described uniformly as laborours, plasterers, carpenters, grocers, tailors, retirees, and a wine merchant's assistant, according to census records. Could the widow and family, especially with the father deceased, have had the means to send a working age son off to Trinity [pictured, right], especially with younger children in the brood?

Between 1893 (when he was about 20) and 1906, Joshua went to Cardiff, Glamorganshire, Wales (to spend several years as an apprentice to architect G. E. Halliday), was briefly practicing architect himself in 1899, and, in 1900, he enrolled at Cambridge, studying law.

1906 found Joshua still at Cambridge, and enjoying golfing, shooting, and traveling—taking, in fact, at least one trip around the world during those years—before he actually began practicing law after earning his Master's in 1908. During those years, he was using his widowed mother's address at Gresham House, London, as his "home address" for at least part of that time.

With a mother apparently ensconced in London just north of the Temple, and her son Joshua studying law for eight years (and traveling around the world between lectures), someone must have had some real money, somewhere.

To understand fully Joshua Goodland's lengthy experience at Cambridge, it's probably necessary to adhere to the advice given in this entry's title (from the film All the President's Men): "Follow the money."

It's possible that Goodland was doing architectural work on the side to earn some cash. Still, could it have been enough to pay for school, lodging, and his first class "saloon" tickets on voyages circumnavigating the globe? Add in the hotels, the meals, and the entertainment at exotic locales—I don't envision Goodland, Holland, and Wallace booking austere stays in monasteries, hostels, or cloisters while ashore after having traveled first-class—and it seems that doing enough plans for small builders as a side line might have made it quite difficult to keep up with his studies. After all, I understand Cambridge somewhat of a rigorous academic institution!

There simply are no probate records available to me that would indicate what sort of legacy school teacher Gillmore Goodland, Sr., might have left to his widow and children. I am an elementary school teacher, though, and it is no "get rich quick" scheme...

The 1901 census records the elder Goodland's widow, Frances M. Goodland, 55, as a woman "living on [her] own means," and visiting a friend at 358 Holloway Road in Islington [pictured today, upper left]that day, 31 March. The only resident at 358 on the census form is the house's "Head," Edith Adams, 32, born and residing in Islington, whose occupation is described as "assistant editor," but to which the boldly-scripted word "author" has been added. (Is this Edith U. Adams, author of 1925's The Honourable Philip [A tale.], or Edith C. Adams, author of Idylls of Love and Life, back 1893? It would seem to have been the latter, due to the publication dates, but "author" need not imply the writing of novels. Periodicals were paying writers as well as assistant editors. Perhaps a long-awaited novel came later.)

Sifting through U.K. records for an "Edith Adams" is as needle-in-a-haystack daunting as searching for a "George Mills." I lean toward the above author having been Edith U. Adams, as I have found a record of a woman with that exact name marrying a fellow named Walter H. Ellis in the summer of 1936. I can find no other record that I can be certain belongs to either of them, however.

The reason I suspect Edith U. Adams is that her marriage took place in Glamorganshire, Wales—a place, as we will continue to see, that was and is very much associated with the Goodland family! (Interestingly, Edith U. would have been approximately 63 at the time of that marriage, if she is, indeed, the author/editor above.) But there is no reason at this point to believe that Edith Adams (or anyone in Glamorgan; Merthyr Tydfil is seen right) was funneling any money toward anyone in the Goodland family in 1901.

There is no documentation regarding where the visiting Mrs. Goodland above actually lived in the early part of the 20th century, save the address used in Joshua's ship manifests, but she was clearly on her own. Had she inherited enough money from her late husband to allow her both to live in London and to fund her son Joshua's education and travel?

Perhaps. But Frances Goodland gave birth to at least six children who had survived infancy, listed giving their approximate ages in 1906: Gillmore, Jr. (34), Joshua (32), Grace L. (29), Ernest Talbot (27), Theodore Thomas (25), and Kenny Arnot (18).

We'll take a look at the fortunes of each of them, as the 19th century careened into the 20th, to see if any of them could have been the source of the money that was allowing Joshua to attend Cambridge and his mother to live in town by her own means. And what an interesting group these children are!

See you next time!

Sorry, George...

If you've arrived in search of George Mills today, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. To me, it's the equivalent of a national holiday, a festival, a day to be savored and enjoyed…

It's the Major League Baseball's Opening Day for my Philadelphia Phillies, who are going at it with the Houston Astros at this very moment. I had to miss the first few innings because of something that is constantly getting in the way of all of the things I need to do: My job.

The DVD recorder is humming along nicely, and I'm looking forward to settling back in my chair this evening after a long winter and watching this afternoon's tilt. I just hope no one mentions the outcome to me before I see it.

March 22 may be the first day of spring to most folks, but to me it's Opening Day: America's Rite of Spring. There'll be time for George Mills, Joshua Goodland, Warren Hill School, and everything else tomorrow!

(By the way, what horrible luck! Is the U.K. acquainted with the infamous Sports Illustrated cover jinx...?)

Warren Hill School: An Inside Look

Let's take a bit of a break from profiling Joshua Goodland, once head master of Warren Hill School [left] in Meads, and take a look at another interesting document I've just received from the Eastbourne Local History Society. This folded leaflet promoting the school won't allow us to stray far from our look at the life of Goodland, however.

Dating from around 1930, it describes the Warren Hill of J. Goodland in a way that the images we've seen simply could not. As an American, I'm somewhat familiar with what life in a preparatory school might have been like—after all, I've seen About a Boy and Dead Poet's Society—but this brochure certainly describes the campus, education, and recreation far more clearly than I could have imagined it. Can I assume Warren Hill was fairly typical of a southern prep school of the era between the World Wars?

I realize this pamphlet [right; click to enlarge] was intended for parents and does not discuss specific institutional policies, classroom procedures, rules of conduct, rewards, or punishments that may have been of far greater interest to the children.

We can, however, by reading the books of George Mills, surmise what a term would have been like at Warren Hill (or not-too-distant Windlesham House) from the boys' point of view. His keen "eye" and "ear" describes not only the appearance and jargon of the boys at what Mills felt was a "modern" preparatory school (very much in contrast, I suspect, with his own school days), but also the daily routine—and breaches of that routine—in an exceptional manner.

We can enter the headmaster's office for punishment and are privy to the reactions of boys who take it well and learn from it, as well as lads that the tennis shoe only embitters. We can prowl through empty classrooms after hours, practice our cricket and football, defend our classmates, pretend we're asleep after hours, deal with bullies and practical jokes, do homework, and even get a peek into the back room where a hot and thirsty schoolmaster could draw himself a pint of beer and catch a quick nap!

As we can see [left], Mills was no longer in the employ of Goodland and Warren Hill by 1930, probably when this document was printed, but he likely had been at least an instructor of Junior French, as well as possibly English. The "novice schoolmaster" character in his books, Mr. Mead (the name probably a tribute to his beloved Meads), taught French—although many of the children in his books liked Mr. Mead anyway—and Windlesham House School believes he taught "English and English subjects" in Brighton.

As a teacher, he was able to make keen observations. As a writer, he was able to weave them into insightful, humorous, and believable narrative.

This leaflet helps to flesh out our concept of Warren Hill, and I am indebted to the ELHS for all of their assistance. At first they provided photographs of the edifice itself, and recently populated the campus with images of people associated with the school—and even a dog, Tiny!

This current document serves to enhance further our knowledge of Warren Hill School as a modern institution with a variety of educational, social, and recreational curricula.


Upon sending it, ELHS member Michael Ockenden added: "The dancing teacher, the cricket coach, and the gymnastics and boxing instructor were not permanent staff. They were all residents of the town who worked at various schools. The same was probably true of the piano teacher although I don't see her name among the piano teachers in my 1940 trades directory. Mr Moss had a gymnasium in Meads (Derwent Road) which was used by many of the private schools in the area."

Thank you so much, Michael!

At one time, at least for me, "Warren Hill School" was simply a short sequence of relatively meaningless words in the dedication to largely forgotten children's book, Meredith and Co., a text inspired by the adventures (and one supposes misadventures) of George Mills while teaching at Warren Hill School, with illustrations of the setting and characters [right] conceptualized and rendered by the legendary C. E. Brock.

Many thanks once again to everyone who has made it all become real for me, and who has helped me to so often visit Eastbourne vicariously and begin to know this school far better than I ever thought I would!

Looking at the Life of J. Goodland, Part 2

Last time we took a look at the early life of Joshua Goodland, but since we left him at 9 King's Bench Walk in the Temple district [left], I've discovered a few more documents that provide additional insight into those years.

On a 1907 ship's manifest, there is a record, very difficult to discover, that clearly shows school mates Goodland, Vyvyan Holland, and Peter Wallace all entering Canada bound for Quebec. Undoubtedly, this is the trip that Holland referred to in his autobiography in our last posting. The trio of friends departed Liverpool on 22 November 1907 sailing on The Victorian and arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 29 November 1907 for immigration purposes before traveling on to St. John's, New Brunswick.

Each listed his final destination as Montreal. Little else is recorded on this document save the fact that two "saloon" passengers who traveled with the three were deported. The documentation of the occupants of steerage, however, is rife with information about each individual. It's apparent a sort of class system was functioning that day as The Victorian put into port at 4:45 p.m.

In addition, a record in the book of Cambridge University Alumni, 1261 – 1900, provides the following information: "Adm. at TRINITY HALL, 1900. S. of Gillmore, deceased, of Exmouth, Devon. [B. July 17, 1873.] School, Combe Down, Bath. Matric. Michs. 1900; B.A. and LL.B. 1904; M.A. 1907. Called to the Bar, Inner Temple, June 12, 1907. On the North Eastern Circuit. A law ‘coach’ in London. F.R.G.S. During the Great War, 1914-19, legal adviser to the Priority Dept., Ministry of Munitions; M.B.E."

That was found under the entry "Joshua Goodland," and further categorized by "College: Trinity Hall," and "Entered: Michs 1900." It further provides his date of death at this point, but that would be getting ahead of our story!

Examining the rest of the entry above, it provides some information we already know: Joshua was the son of Gillmore Goodland of Exmouth, Devon. We do learn, however, the exact date of his birth: The 17th of July 1873.

Goodland seems to have attended school in Combe Down, Bath, Somersetshire. Presumably this school is still there, now known as the Combe Down Junior School [right], which was constructed the Gothic style in 1840 and enlarged in both 1887 and around 1900. With Goodland having been born in 1873, the first enlargement would have been started when he was 15—a time when he, indeed, could have been attending.

We know Goodland, 7 years old, was at home in 1881 and is listed on that year's 3 April census as a "scholar." It isn't unreasonable to think that young Joshua was first a student in his father's own school; the senior Gillmore, as we know from the same document, was a "Certificated Teacher [at an] Elementary School."

Goodland's next level of education likely came relatively soon after. The 1891 census, taken on 5 April, describes Goodland as a "school teacher's assistant," although he was at home with his mother when the census taker arrived.

After having thought that Joshua's father might have been at school that day, it turns out that Gillmore, Sr., was in the Rose Hill section of Worcestershire at 3 St. Mary's Terrace visiting 77-year-old widow Esther Willets and her companion, Jane C. Scarfe, 42. Next to "companion," however, someone else has clarified the entry by writing, "Dom." Presumably that means "domestic," as it is also written next to the occupation of "nurse," which described 50-year-old "servant" Lucian Dowell. There were two other servants in the home at the time, a cook and a housemaid.

Willets was described as "living on her own means." Goodland, 49 at the time, is described as a "1st class certificated teacher," next to which a different hand had boldly written, "School."

The senior Goodland would pass away in 1893.

What occupied Joshua between 1891 (and especially following the time of his father's death in 1893) and entering Trinity Hall [left], Cambridge, at Michaelmas in September 1900, was at first unknown. We did have a clue, though. In the 1901 census, taken that year on 31 March, just 5 months after beginning at Cambridge, you will recall Goodland, then aged 24 years, was visiting a building contractor in Bristol, and Joshua's occupation is listed as "architect."

In fact, Goodland is mentioned in a 2001 text, Directory of British Architects 1834 – 1914, Volume 1: A – K, by Antonia Brodie (Royal Institute of British Architects, 2001) . Architect Edgar John Pullar (1876 – 1929) is listed as having been Goodland's assistant in 1899. There is no listing for a Joshua Goodland in the book's first volume, though, perhaps simply meaning that Goodland never had become a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

It is unclear exactly what sort of qualifications might have been required. Pullar, according his listing, had "attended King's College, London 1892." Seemingly more important is the next line: "Articled to Charles James Chirney Pawley (b. 1854) 1893 for 5 years." Pullar then served as "Assistant to Arthur Green (d. 1904) 1898-99, and to J. Goodland 1899." Finally, "Passed qualifying exam 1901."

Would I be wrong in assuming that Goodland had been "articled" to someone himself, perhaps for 5 years during the time between the 1891 census and entering Trinity Hall in 1900?

In an 1897 item entitled "The Intermediate: Newly registered students," the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, volume 4, listed the results of the Intermediate Examination held in London, Manchester, and Bristol on 15th, 16th, and 17th for probationers "ult." March in 1897. Below, the article states: "The following candidates passed and are registered as students:… GOODLAND: Joshua [Probationer 1893]; 1, The Parade, Roath, Cardiff [Master: Mr. G. E. Halliday*]." (The asterisk indicates that Halliday was a member of the Institute.)

Goodland apparently served with George Eley Halliday (1858 – 1922), an architect whose office was at 19 Duke Street in Cardiff until 1897, and 14 High Street in Cardiff, Wales, in 1897. Halliday is also listed as having "The Hermitage, Llandaff, South Glamorgan, Wales," as his address in 1897. Halliday, just months after Goodland's examinations, became a member of the FRIBA on 14 June 1897 and later was listed in Who's Who in Architecture in 1914.

Goodland had taken "The Intermediate" in March of 1897, implying that there must have been a final examination to come. In its "Register of Students," the 1903 Kalendar of the R.I.B.A. simply lists "GOODLAND: JOSHUA, 1 The Parade, Roath, Cardiff" as having been a student between the years 1893 and 1897.

No mention is made of a final examination—taken by anyone. Pullar's entry above does mention a "qualifying examination," and could that have been "The Intermediate" that Goodland had already taken? I can find no documentation that Goodland passed a final examination after Marh 1897, although one must assume that Pullar, above, could not have been Goodland's assistant if they were both students—or could he have?

My assumption would be that, for Pullar to have assisted Goodman, the later must have been actively involved in the designing and/or production of architecture. If not, with what, exactly, would Pullar have assisted Goodman?

Nevertheless, their union in 1899 took each man in a different direction: Pullar to a career in architecture, primarily in Asia, and Goodland, within a year, to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, as a 27-year-old student.

Goodland's life's work, even at the relatively tender age of 27 had already gone in two different directions. First, we know he assisted his father at an elementary school in Devon. Upon his father's passing in 1893, Goodland became an assistant to George E. Halliday, a Welsh architect in Cardiff, and seemingly had begun that career. Suddenly, at the turn of the century, Joshua was then off to university.

What did Goodland study there? We don't exactly know—he was calling himself an architect, not a student, during the 1901 census, as well as visiting a contractor at the time—but perhaps he simply was picking up some extra cash doing plans for a builder in Bristol while he studied law. Perhaps, however, he originally intended to and at first was studying architecture at Trinity Hall.

Either way, Goodland wouldn't stay with architecture. He earned Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws Degrees from Cambridge in 1904, and added a Master's Degree in 1907. During that time, we know Goodland also had traveled to "Russia and Sweden" with Wallace and Holland. He was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, on 12 June 1907. Having spent 7 years at Cambridge among dear friends, the almost 34-year-old Goodland moved into yet another vocation: Barrister at Law.

The Cambridge University Alumni text mentions that after taking his M.A., Goodland served "On the North Eastern Circuit." Assuming the text is in chronological order, this must have been when Joshua was a young barrister. Does it also imply that he moved around during that assignment? Joshua having become a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (F.R.G.S.) in 1906 [Its interior is shown, left, in 1912] would seem to confirm the implication that traveling didn't bother him much.

And, as we know, moving around was something Joshua would continue to do. After sailing out of Liverpool on 22 November, he did not return until arriving at Liverpool on 11 August 1908. In between, Goodland had circled the globe while using both his mother's home at Gresham House in London and Inshaw House, London, as his addresses.

The "North Eastern Circuit" must have followed, and then a stint as a "a 'law' coach in London." One thing notable about Goodland is that, in both architecture and law, he quickly went from student himself to guiding others new to the field.

An easy inference is that Goodland was a natural teacher, an area in which he would have been immersed as the son of and assistant to a schoolmaster.

We know that Goodland married on 19 June 1909 in Middlesex. The fact that Goodland had become a husband in London may imply that he was then—in mid-1909—already serving there as a "law" coach, his time on the circuit having been brief.

A 1946 issue of The Law Journal (Volume 96) explains: "It will be observed that there is nothing to prevent a student who wishes to do so from attending a law coach either before or after taking an Intermediate or Final course if he feels that additional preparation for his [examinations]," and in the early 1920's, there was an actual journal entitled Law Coach, although I can find no record of its existence before 1920 or after the publication of its third volume in 1922 [right, the best I could get].

Goodman appears to have once again begun a trip to the far reaches of the empire, if not around the world, in 1909. He steamed into Brisbane, Australia, from Colombo, Brazil, on the Oroya on 27 October 1909, presumably on his honeymoon. The actual ship's manifest, however, is not visible at ancestry.com, and there is an almost exact record, save for the date, for the same ship, the Oroya, supposedly bearing Goodland, and sailing into Brisbane from Colombo on 3 February 1909.

Was Goodland aboard both voyages? Perhaps he was so enamored of his February 1909 trip to Brisbane that he chose exactly the same shipping line and travel itinerary for a honeymoon later in the year. Perhaps an error in the transcription of the date caused the same arrival to be recorded on two separate dates—and we are not privy to which would be correct since images of the actual manifest have not been provided.

Finally, perhaps it isn't "our" Joshua Goodland at all. Without seeing the manifest, we don't know what other identifying information may have been recorded. However, there simply aren't any records of other contemporary British "Joshua Goodlands" having been born around 1873. Let's leave it at this: He probably sailed to Australia sometime in 1909.

We've seen some of the litigation in which Goodland was involved in 1912 or so, and we know his London address at the time via telephone records.

The last line of the Cambridge directory we will look at today is this one: "During the Great War, 1914-19, legal adviser to the Priority Dept., Ministry of Munitions; M.B.E."

The appeals case in the House of Lords between the Water Board, appellants, and Dick, Kerr, & Co., respondents, mentioned in our last post, did, indeed, involve the Ministry of Munitions. Goodland must have been representing them in the capacity of "legal adviser," as well as junior counsel.

On 7 January 1918, the London Gazette ran a lengthy list of those "to be members" of the "Most Excellent Order." Among the honorees: "Joshua Goodland, Esq., Classification Section, Priority Department, Ministry of Munitions." [A composite image of the entry is seen, left] In 1917, the M.B.E. had been instituted to be awarded for meritorious service by either military or civilian personnel.

With an upscale address, an MBE to is credit, and an association with high profile London lawyer Mr. Wm. Danckwerts, KC, on his resume, it's easy to see that Goodland would soon be going places in the legal profession.

We still haven't brought Joshua Goodland to Warren Hill School in Meads, however, nor have we associated him with the subject of our interest, George Mills. Such is the complexity of Mr. Joshua Goodland, Esq., MBE, who was 46 years old in 1919. That year, at the conclusion of the Great War, Goodland left the Ministry of Munitions—and we still are only three vocations deep into his life at this point, with two more professions yet to go!

We'll learn more about the labyrinthine career path of late bloomer Joshua Goodland very soon. Stay tuned…

Looking at the Life of J. Goodland, Part 1

We know from our examination of the post-WWII croquet playing of the Mills siblings—George, Agnes, and Violet—that studying the Mills often introduces us to interesting characters who help us better understand George and Co.

One such person we've discussed recently and wondered about often is "J. Goodland," to whom George's 1933 Meredith and Co.: The Story of a Modern Preparatory School is dedicated.

Joshua Goodland [left] was "a some time Head Master" of Warren Hill School on Beachy Head Road in Meads, and we were recently introduced to photographs of Goodland, one-time business partner F.R. Ebden, and some others.

Goodland obviously was admired by Mills, but further research shows the Head Master to have been the sort of man Mills couldn't have helped but to respond to and admire.

Goodland was born sometime in July 1873 in Exeter, Devon, to Gillmore Goodland, a "certificated" elementary school teacher at a school in Exeter. The elder Goodland hailed from Bristol, Gloucestershire, and lived with his wife Frances at 39 Exeter Road at the taking of the 1881 census.

Joshua, seven years of age, was the second of four Goodland sons at the time, with a daughter, Grace, having been born in the middle of them. The family lived with two boarders, one of whom was a teacher at Gillmore's school, and the census counted a domestic servant and a nurse—Joshua's as yet unnamed youngest brother apparently had just been born!

As we reach the time for the 1891 census, we then find the Goodlands living in Exmouth at 5 Parade in Withycombe Raleigh. Joshua, then 17, is listed as a "school teacher's assistant."

Goodland drops from the grid until 1901 when he is recorded as a Trinity Hall student at Cambridge who was "Throwing the Polo Ball" at an athletic event (Joshua finished third) in Volume 23 of the Cambridge Review, and also as the visitor to the home of a building contractor who lived at 24 Hawthordew in Bristol. Goodland's occupation is recorded as "architect." He was 24 at the time.

Five years later, the record shows that Goodland had become a Fellow of the Royal Geograhic Society on 7 May 1906 meeting of the Royal Geographical Society at which he heard delivered a paper, From Victoria Nyanza to Kilimanjaro, by Captain G.E. Smith of the Royal Engineers. This snippet from volume 27 of The Geographical Journal [left] attests to Goodland's interest in travel.

In 1908, we find Goodland doing something about that interest. On 1 January 1908, Joshua crossed from St. John's, New Brunswick, Canada into the United States at St. Albans, Vermont, having sailed in on a ship of the Allan Line. He lists his address as "Mrs. Gillmore Goodland, Gresham House, London, England," and claimed to be a "tourist" with a destination of San Francisco, California. Using his mother's address at 24 Holborn Viaduct, near Blackfriars Bridge, would seem to indicate that, despite his age (35-ish), Joshua had yet to put down any roots.

Goodland was travelling with his friend Peter Wallace, an Australian attending Cambridge, as well as a university mate we've met before, Vyvyan Holland, the son of playwright Oscar Wilde. Holland later wrote a line in his 1954 autobiography, Son of Oscar Wilde, "Another month passed, and then one day Joshua Goodland came to see me and told me that he and Peter Wallace, with whom I had traveled to Russia and Sweden, were going to Canada on a shooting expedition in the north of Quebec." Presumably, the trip to Canada documented in the paragraph above was to Quebec. We also know that Goodland already had made a trip through northern and eastern Europe.

Then, on 13 May 1908, Joshua sailed into Seattle, Washington on the S.S. Minnesota, having traveled from Yokohama, Japan on 1 May. He then listed his home as "Inshaw House, London" (now apparently an artists' studio), and his occupation as "lawyer," not architect. He was 5' 9" tall, with a ruddy complexion, in good health, and was "passing through."

The record at this point is unclear how he came to arrive in Japan, but we know where he was bound from Seattle.

At the age of 34 and still travelling with Wallace, Goodland sailed out of New York City on the famed Lusitania [above, right] and into Liverpool, England, arriving on 11 August 1908.

Having left England sometime in 1907, Goodland and Wallace (with Holland along for some of the trip) had taken what amounted to a whirlwind trip around the world. When a 34-year-old bachelor takes the trip of a lifetime with his university pals, something big must have been in the wind.

On 19 June 1909, Goodland, aged 35, married Florence Annie Holdsworth in Middlesex. He is described as a bachelor "Barrister-at-Law," and she as the 24-year-old spinster daughter of the late William Holdsworth, Doctor of Medicine. It is likely that the younger woman that we see in the recent photographs from Warren Hill School were images of Florence Goodland.

The next documented event in the life of Joshua Goodland is a manifest showing Goodland arriving in Brisbane, Australia, on 27 October 1909—just in time for Spring!—after sailing out of Colombo, Brazil, on a ship called the Oroya. The young couple's honeymoon? Probably, although I can find no record of Florence being aboard any ship until 1938!

Actually, there are no records showing the couple traveling to South America, or anywhere else, by ship, or returning home—at least not until 1938. But, they must have returned.

It was apparently time for Goodland and wife to settle down and leave his life as a student at Cambridge behind, and in 1912 what could have proved that better than being tagged by the telephone company. Joshua was listed as having a number in the Holborn exchange, 4571, with an address at 9 King's Bench Walk, Temple, just off the Thames (near his mother's address, also close to Blackfriars Bridge), east-southeast of the Royal Courts of Justice and the Chancery. Interestingly, the listing above Joshua's was for his older brother, Gillmore Goodland, then a Consulting Engineer at 17 Gracechurch Street, about a mile to the east of Joshua. As you can see [right], you could ring Gillmore at London Wall 1969.

We find Goodland, according to the Law Reports, Chancery Division, volume 2, 1912, working in the court in the Court of Appeal and serving as junior counsel in a case (behind Cambridge's Mr. William Otto Adolph Julius Danckwerts, KC, highly-paid counsel (left) to Commissioners of Works and Public Buildings, and whose office was at 11 King's Bench Walk, Temple) involving the Metropolitan Water Board.

According to volume 29 of Reports of Patent, Design, Trade Mark, and Other Cases (Patent Office, 1912), he also summed up the plaintiff's argument in a copyright infringement case that year.

We lose track of Goodland and his career until he crops up in 1915 as a minor shareholder in the Standard Woodwork Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (The Electrical Review, vol. 76, 1915).

Then in 1918, he worked on an appeal in the House of Lords between the Water Board, appellants, and Dick, Kerr, & Co., respondents, regarding the construction of a £670,000 waterworks reservoir.

This case was lead by learned counsel P.O. Lawrence, KC, and assisted by junior counsel Goodland and Gregory Holman, KC (according to British Ruling Cases from the Courts of Great Britain, Canada, Ireland, &c., volume 8, 1919).

These seem to be very high profile cases, involving some heavyweights of litigation. Finding Goodland's address next to the prolific Danckwerts, who was rumoured to have earned in excess of £20,000 per annum at the time, speaks volumes about how quickly this long-time world traveler and some time architect became fairly prominent in the legal profession in London.

Next time we'll come back and find Goodland at new address, and, before long, in a new profession. See you then…

"One hates an author that's all author" -- George Gordon, Lord Byron

Now, I am not British, although many of my ancestors were probably thrown headlong out of England and Wales some time ago. Being an elementary school teacher by vocation, however, I am acquainted with the Olympians of children's literature.

Children's Literature, however, can be a bit difficult to define. Is it limited to books about children (or personified animals masquerading as children or child-like adults)? Is it exclusive to books written for children? Does it imply that children themselves must love these books?

While some of that is debatable, it's not too difficult to determine the occupants of my pantheon of great British authors whose output included works for children.

For our purposes, the criteria used in assembling the roster here was simple: The author must have been somewhat contemporary to George Mills. By that, I mean that a significant amount of that author's career must have overlapped the life of Mills (1896 – 1972.)

That makes near-misses out of three absolute giants:

Robert Louis Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894), and Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, don't make the list. Stevenson, author of such timeless texts as A Child's Garden of Verses and Treasure Island, died two years before Mills was born. Carroll, creator of Alice, the Snark, and Jabberwocky, passed away when Mills was just a year old.

Finally, the life Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849 – 1924) overlapped that of Mills by 28 years, but she published The Secret Garden while George was still at school at Harrow, and only three books after that. Burnett published her thirteenth title (of 22, not all of which were children's books) in the year of George's birth, 1896. These titans would have been read by and likely influenced Mills, I'm sure, but they were not truly his contemporaries.

So, here, in no particular order, are the heaviest of heavy hitters Mills found writing for children during his "era," and it's a powerful line-up:


• Helen Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 22 December 1943)

• Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)

• Pamela Lyndon Travers OBE (9 August 1899 – 23 April 1996), Australian-born Helen Lyndon Goff, commonly referred to as P. L. Travers

• Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM (9 May 1860 – 19 June 1937), commonly referred to as J. M. Barrie

• Hugh Lofting (January 14, 1886 – September 26, 1947)

• Kenneth Grahame (8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932)

• Alan Alexander Milne (18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956), commonly referred to as A. A. Milne

• Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis


Why would these authors populate this particular blog post while not being listed among the lesser literati we discussed yesterday?

It's simple: These authors would be prominently featured in the syllabus of a Children's Literature class at any university, even those outside of the U.K., Canada, or Australia/New Zealand.

Obviously Lewis is popular with new generations of children and well-known throughout the world because of 21st century blockbuster films of his works. The Narnia movie "franchise" helps book his sales and continuing popularity.

Robin Williams fairly recently has played Peter Pan and Eddie Murphy has portrayed Dr. Doolittle, even if their cinematic vehicles didn't much resemble the work of Barrie and Lofting respectively.

Disney has also branded Peter Pan, as well as Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, and the Jungle Book (the latter in animation and live-action), making them all worldwide phenomena.

Beatrix Potter's books are still nursery staples here in the United States, overshadowing even Mother Goose, and have been translated into a multitude of languages.

Finally, my favorite, The Wind in the Willows remains popular here in the United States, although I'm really at a loss to explain why. My hunch is that it is American geezers like me who keep prattling on about how wonderful it is and reading it to kids. (I wish I had the cash to bankroll a major, 3-D, CGI animated blockbuster featuring Mr. Toad, Mole, et al! Are there any other would-be Hollywood moguls out there, ones with a hundred million in disposable income, who'd like to join me?)

What I found interesting in studying the bibliographies of these legends is that they often did not write as many children's books as one might have thought.

Beatrix Potter did publish 29 books from 1902 to 1943(and 3 posthumously), but was also a mycologist and conservationist.

Except for an epic poem, Victory for the Slain, in 1942, Hugh Lofting wrote exclusively for children. However, he had served for years as a civil engineer and was severely wounded during WWI. He published 16 books between 1920 and 1936 (and 3 posthumously).

Kipling spent his life traveling and publishing books, short stories, and poems, but his work for children was quite limited. Barrie authored dozens of texts and drama, but again, his work for children was just a fraction of his output.

Grahame published four books between 1893 and 1898 before writing his last, The Wind in the Willows, which was published in 1908. He also wrote stories for periodicals.

While Milne wrote seven novels and four non-fiction texts for adults, he was primarily a playwright, penning over 30 plays and writing the scripts for four films. He published books of poetry for adults and children and wrote articles for Punch. His works for children are also just a small part of his overall body of work.

Finally, C.S. Lewis is described by Wikipedia as a "novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist." His non-fiction works number 38 texts. Lewis also published four books of poetry along with the 18 fiction titles he wrote, which included satire, fantasy, science fiction, and the Narnia series.

I think what startled me was that, not only are these the titans of children's literature, they are people who also had amazingly diverse interests. Whether those interests tended towards writing in different genres or involvement in other fields of endeavour entirely, these brilliant minds simply did not define themselves by how many books they published or for whom. Children's literature was just one aspect of their multi-faceted careers, and themselves.

George Mills obviously also had other things to do besides writing. He taught, he was an Royal Army paymaster, and he was a children's book author. Still, that seems to have filled so little of his life as we know it. There are many questions about how he used his time in the last 30 years of his life besides playing croquet.

This much is clear: Although he lived until 1972, he did not author any books after 1939.

Perhaps he had other windmills at which he needed to tilt, longstanding wrongs to be righted, other dragons to be slain, personal demons he had to wrestle… or perhaps he just didn't feel like writing anymore. That last has certainly been suggested.

Mills was not a giant in the field of children's literature. He wasn't even an author noted for being prolific, let alone brilliant. His greatest asset was being a keen observer of prep school boys with a real "ear" for capturing their jargon and banter. He was also able to package the fruits of those unique skills into a humorous, user-friendly style of prose that was, and remains, quite appealing.

The great evolutionary biologist, paleontologist, and raconteur, Stephen Jay Gould, wrote in his final book, The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox: "We have more to learn from the neglected than from the overly eulogized." He was writing about little known and often forgotten Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution scientists, but his words struck a chord in me regarding George Mills.

I certainly am learning a great deal from researching and studying George Mills—collecting data, analyzing information, and synthesizing it all into this website—than I could from reading a biography of, say, Lewis or Milne, no matter how enlightening.

And the more I learn, the more I find I want to learn.