The Pre-War Croquet Prize Lists

Last time, we took a look at sports in which the Mills siblings, George, Agnes, and Violet, were engaged prior to World War II, including the briefest of glimpses at croquet [featured in the advert, left, courtesy of an amusing friend who sent it along]. There actually are no records of George having participated in any, which, given his classification of "B III" in the First World War, is probably not surprising.

George's half-brother, Arthur, was a lifelong avid golfer, never living far from a golf course. George, it seems, was the late bloomer of the clan, at least athletically.

Thanks to the welcome assistance of Chris Williams of The Croquet Association, we have been able to track the croquet careers of the Mills. We've examined their post-war accomplishments, and today we'll travel a bit further back in time and look at the years between the World Wars.

Before we dive in, let's review a key Chris sent for reading the results:

Key:

OS = Open Singles
HS = Handicap Singles
HSC = Handicap Singles C Class
OSB = Open Singles B Class
HD = Handicap Doubles
L = Ladies

The number after the event means position, so 1 = winner, 2 = runner up,
3 = semi finalist. Number in [ ] is handicap


Here is an excerpt from Chris's e-mail dated Thursday, February 24, 2011 [my emphases]:


Agnes appears in the 1931 Prize list as having won the Handicap Doubles at Bournemouth with W Evans Linton. Her handicap was a starred 12 and was changed to 12D10 at the end of the event. 12D10 means that her handicap was 12 when she played singles, but 10 when playing doubles. A starred handicap means that it is a new one and had not yet been officially ratified.

The results show that Agnes lost in the first round of the handicap singles to Mrs AV Pawson (12) by 7.

The report of the event includes

The Doubles, as usual, supplied plenty of amusement and thrills as there were a great number of very close finishes. Two high-bisquers, Miss A.E. Mills and Mr Evans Linton, proved to be the fairly easy winners thanks to their superabundant bisques and the good play of Miss Mills, who seemed to be very generously handicapped.

1931
Agnes [*12] Bournemouth (Sept), HD, 1 [*12(D.10)]

A quick look at the late 1930s list shows that Agnes appeared to have played a lot pre war. I don't have much time in the evening to copy to many so it will take a week or so to do the rest.


Another player from the Bowdon photo [right] who gives hits in Google and who Agnes played is Basil (BVF) Brackenbury who appears to have been a headmaster in Ramsgate.

Another prominent player in that era was Handel Elvey or rather George Frederick Handel (GFH) Elvey. He was a vicar and produces loads of hits in Google. He does not appear to have played Agnes, but she played his wife, Nora.

Monty Spencer Ell is another famous player of the day who gives hits on Google. He lost both arms in the first World War but played croquet to quite a high standard. He also appears in Agnes's opponent list.

Regards,
Chris


Thanks, Chris— now I have a few more players to chase around on the worldwide web!

Regarding the year 1931, I had wondered if the father of Agnes and Violet Mills, the Rev. Barton R. V. Mills, disapproved of his daughters participating in competitive sports. For quite a while, I had no record of either of them playing golf, tennis, or croquet before his death in late 1932.

Of course, the patriarch may have approved of croquet, while frowning upon sports such as tennis and its ladies' whites, and golf, in which some ladies wore trousers [left, in 1936]! There is no record of either daughter participating in organized tennis or golf before his passing.

What a shame it would have been had he prevented Violet, for example, from sharpening her game and becoming competitive with the renowned women golfers of the era. While she legally could have done so without her father's consent, it is unlikely that considering that possibility would have been more than a defiant passing fancy.

Anyway, we can, indeed move forward in croquet, and we find Agnes involved and playing a great deal before the Second World War.

That information is culled from this e-mail dated Wednesday, March 02, 2011:

Sam,

Here are the final Prize Lists, ie the ones from 1931 to 1939. Many of the venues mentioned here did not survive the War as croquet clubs, namely Ranelagh, which is in London, Leamington, Bude, Fleet, Felixstowe.

Regards,
Chris


1931
Agnes [*12] Bournemouth (Sept), HD, 1 [*12(D.10)]

1932
Agnes [*12(D.10)]; [12D10]; Bath, OSD, 1, HD, 2 [10]

1933
Agnes [10] Fleet HSC, 3, HD, 1; [10(D.9)]; Leamington (Sept), HSEx, 3; Bath, HSA, 2; Middlesex Union, HS, 3

1934
Agnes [10] Fleet, HS, 3; Hunstanton (Aug), OSC, 2; Bude, HSB, 3, HD, 2

1935
Agnes [10] Bath, OSD, 2, HS (Luard Trophy), 3; Middlesex Union, HD (Captain's Prize), 2; Ranelagh (Oct). HS, 1

1936
Agnes [9] Ealing, OSC, 1; Bath, HSB, 3; Leamington (Sept), HSX, 1, HD, 3 [*7]

1937
None

1938
Agnes [8] Ranelagh, HS, 3 [7]; Leamington (July), HSB, 1 [6];
Hurlingham, OSC, 3, LHD, 3; Felixstowe (Sept 19th), HS, 1, HD, 2, HSX, 3 [5]; Ranelagh (Oct), HSB, 3

1939
Agnes [5] Brighton (May), HSB, 3, HD, 2; Lewes, HD, 1

--
Chris Williams


It's interesting to note that Agnes played Bude in 1934, the birthplace of George, Violet, and herself. We already know the siblings still had kin there among the Ramsay family, on their mother's side.

It's also possible she played there more often—these are just years in which one of the Mills family made the prize list. Croquet definitely seems to have taken the Misses Mills far afield. At this time, brother George was a married man and author, and we don't know how often, if ever, he may have accompanied his sisters. In fact, it is only speculation that Violet went along with Agnes on her croquet jaunts.

These lists take us through to the post-war era of croquet, in which we found Agnes playing upon moving to Budleigh Salterton in 1947, Violet appearing on a prize list in tournament play in 1948, and George joining them in 1957.

This may suggest that George wasn't fully a resident of their home, Grey Friars [left], until he was finished teaching school, circa 1957, and was ready to enjoy a retirement.

We know he was a schoolmaster in the summer term in 1956 at Ladycross in Seaford, and may have been teaching in England before that, following the war. Where that may have been is open to conjecture until some evidence comes to light.

Anyway, thanks once again to Chris Williams and everyone else in the CA who have been so kind and generous to me. I am extremely grateful.

Returning to Agnes, Violet, and Sporting Pursuits

Researching George Mills, his family, his acquaintances, his education, professions, his military experience, his neighbourhoods, his communities, and his pastimes can be, to swipe from Lennon & McCartney, a long and winding road. Sometimes it's simply too tempting not to drift away from a line of study—for example, when I received photographs of Joshua Goodland and Warren Hill School a couple of months ago.

Long overdue, it's time to return to some unfinished business!

Earlier this year, we looked at the years the Mills siblings—Agnes, George, and Violet—spent in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, and what immediately stood out was their dedication and apparent skill in the sport of croquet.

We examined their records, tournaments, and comrades from 1947, when the Misses Mills moved to Grey Friars in Budleigh, through to their passing in the early 1970s.

There is no athletic record of George Mills prior to his entrance into the croquet world, but his sisters are a different matter entirely!

To rewind a bit, Agnes Edith Mills was born in Cornwall on 11 June 1895 while her father, the Rev. Barton R. V. Mills, was vicar of Bude Haven. Her mother was Elizabeth Edith Ramsay, whom the widower had married on 11 January the year before. George Ramsay Acland Mills was born a year later on 1 October 1896. Violet Eleanor Mills came along on 17 November 1902, after Barton's father, Arthur Mills, M.P., had passed away and the family relocated to Kensington, London.

There is no record of where or when the girls went to school although they must have. One of the few things we know about them as young ladies is that they would have been well aware of the inception of Robert Baden-Powell's popular scouting movement in 1907, as well as when Agnes Baden-Powell [pictured above, right, with Robert] founded the Girl Guides in 1910. The Mills sisters were about 15 and 8 years of age at the time. They were "keen" on the Guides, presumably with Agnes taking Violet under her wing.

The Girl Guides embraced physical fitness, survival skills, camping, and citizenship—skills and traits that would serve British girls well during what we now know were two major global conflicts on the horizon.

Physical fitness must have been important to the girls. We already know they played competitive croquet into their seventies. Was it a late in life commitment to health, or something in which they had always been involved?

Dr. David Evans of Budleigh Salterton [left], who knew the siblings, recalls that Violet was a good golfer, and that "just after World War Two she was on a ship to South Africa and was invited to represent the national England golf team."

While Dr. Evans's estimate of the time fell on the wrong side of the war, we do know he was correct about the South African voyage. Violet, then 33, steamed into Southampton on 20 April 1936 from Durban, South Africa, via Natal and Madeira, aboard the Edinburgh Castle of the Union Castle Mail Steamship Co, Ltd., along with Gladys Emily Mills, 39, a nurse whose home was in Southern Rhodesia but who was bound for Wallasey, Cheshire, near Liverpool, who intended to make a "foreign country" her future permanent residence, and who was presumably a relative.

This is Violet's only recorded trip abroad and must have been the voyage during which she the golfers made overtures. At 33, she still of an age to play competitive age for golf. She would have been in her mid-40s following World War II, past her prime, and an unlikely candidate for such an invitation.

The search engine at The Times database is notoriously parsimonious about revealing all of its information about any one subject, but we do know that on 19 October 1937, Violet (34 handicap) played in the Ladies' Parliamentary G. A. at the Ranelagh Club in Barnes with a Lady Hampden (almost certainly a relative of her half-brother Arthur, the son of her father's first marriage to Lady Catherine Valentia Mary Hobart-Hampden; Violet was a 30 handicap), and finished third, just 2 feet from the cup on the 19th hole of the competition [right].

On 26 October 1938, Violet played the same tournament and again finished third, with her ball on the 19th fairway, in a competition that took place under adverse conditions in which visibility was only 50 yards.

Finally, at the Ladies' Parliamentary Tournament in Pulborough on 17 May 1939, a 36-year-old Violet was eliminated in the second round "by 6 and 5" at the hands of her opponent, Miss E. Bevin.

Assuming that Violet played in the first round of that tournament, we know there are likely up to 8 times as many results of golfing events that include Violet, but that weren't accessed by the paper's ridiculous search engine. (And, for this marginal access, they charge me a costly premium!)

Besides golf, however, we find that before 1936, Violet was a fairly accomplished lawn tennis player.

On 6 October 1933, she played in the Sidmouth Tournament, but was knocked out in the second round by Mrs. G. Lucas, 6-1, 6-0.

In 1934, she played the Bedford Tournament, beating Miss K. Silas in the first round, 6-3, 6-4, on 31 July, but falling to Miss MacTier in the second round, 6-1, 6-1, on 2 August.

Finally, on 7 October 1938, Violet and her Ladies' Doubles partner, Miss M. C. Hervey, were defeated by the Hon. Mrs. D. Rhys and Miss E. M. Dearman, 6-0, 6-3, in the semi-final round of the Felixstowe Tournament.

Again, unless she and her partner drew a bye directly into the semi-finals, or unless that tournament began in the semi-final round, there must be results which I cannot locate by searching. Given that, there must also be many other tournament results crouching within the Byzantine archives of The Times.

The database reveals only one athletic event for Miss Agnes Mills before 1950: She and her croquet partner, F. E. Green, were defeated by 12 in Handicap Doubles during the second round of the Ealing Tournament on 3 May 1934 [above, left].

While we may never know the extent of the participation of the Misses Mills in organized sports, it is clear that things must not have worked out with the "national" team which extended an invitation to Violet in 1936. Labouring under the assumption that a membership on the team would have included a place in that autumn's Curtis Cup match against the United States, Violet must not have earned that spot. A British Pathé newsreel, released on 5 November 1936, names each member of England's team, which does not include Violet Mills (Click HERE to view the newsreel; additional footage is HERE).

Still, even to be considered for that prestigious team is truly noteworthy in a nation as keen on golf as the founder of the sport, the U.K.

However, we do, in fact, know the extent to which Agnes and Violet were involved in croquet before the Second World War, thanks to the database at the Croquet Association.

We'll look at the involvement of the Misses Mills in pre-WWII croquet next time. Stay tuned!

GEORGE RAMSAY ACLAND MILLS (1896-1972)

My goodness! I've been fooling around with Joshua Goodland the Goodland family almost exclusively since 26 March. Other items have accumulated on the back burners and getting to them is long overdue.

Continuing my expression of gratitude to the Eastbourne Local History Society, I would like to offer special thank for a message I recently received, and reads:

Dear Sam/Harry,

Here, from the Eastbourne Local History Society with our compliments, is a biography of George Mills, researched for you by my friend Bill Bowden, genealogist extraordinaire!

You, I know, have some of this info already, but I do hope that it adds to your knowledge and will be of some help to you.

Do let me know.

Michael (Partridge)

For anyone who is just joining us here, this would probably be a great time to review what we know about George Mills—schoolmaster, author, paymaster, and gentleman.

Here is the document I received, along with the illustrations it included. I only took the liberty of editing a spelling mistake. Its research reflects a great deal of time and effort:


GEORGE RAMSAY ACLAND MILLS (1896-1972)



George Ramsay Acland Mills was born on 1st October 1896 in Bude Cornwall. He was the second son of the Reverend Barton R V Mills a holy cleric and scholar who was an authority on the works of Bernard of Clairvaux. His grandfather was Arthur Mills an MP representing Taunton and Exeter and his great grandfather was Sir Thomas Dyke Acland 10th Baronet of Killerton.

Mills had three siblings, a half brother Arthur F H Mills who was a crime and adventure novelist, and two full sisters Agnes Edith (born 11th June 1895) and Violet Eleanor (born17th November 1902). His brother in law (Arthur’s wife) was Lady Dorothy Mills the renowned author, explorer and adventuress.

After attending Parkfield school in Haywards Heath Mills attended Harrow school from 1910 to 1912. He served in WW1 from 1916 to 1919 beginning as a private in the Rifle Brigade and then transferring to the Royal Army Service Corps. When he was discharged he had the rank of Lance Corporal.

After the war Mills took advantage of a decree from the University of Oxford that until the end of Trinity Term 1923 any member of the university who had been engaged in military service for 12 months or more before their matriculation was permitted to offer themself for examination in the Final Honours School, despite not having met the statutory conditions for admission. Consequently he entered Christ Church Oxford in 1919 and then the university in May 1921. However there are no records to show Mills having passed any examination in the Final Honours School or that he gained a degree at Oxford.

Mills married Vera Louise Beauclerk (1893-1942) on the 24th April 1925 at Holy Trinity church, Brompton. His father officiated at the service along with three other ordained priests. They held a reception at the Hans Crescent Hotel and honeymooned in Devon. Vera was a granddaughter of Sir Robert Hart and daughter of the Duke of St Albans.

In 1925 Mills was a junior teacher at Windlesham School then in Portslade near Brighton where he and his wife bought a house. By the end of 1926 Mills was no longer on the teaching roster of Windlesham school and he then had a number of positions at Warren Hill school Eastbourne, The Craig,Windermere, The English Preparatory School,Glion in Switzerland and then in 1938 at Eaton Gate Preparatory School in London. There is a suggestion that Mills might have been sympathetic to the demands of the strikers in the 1926 General Strike or that his lack of a degree, despite giving himself on his applications, caused him to move. If the former holds any truth his family, as well as his wife’s, may have disagreed with him. During this time his wife did not always go with Mills to his posts but stayed in London with her family. Whilst at Windlesham Mills taught English and was involved in extra-curricular activities such especially in the arts, music and drama.

Warren Hill School in Eastbourne was located in the Meads area of Eastbourne (Beachy Head Road) with a playing field in Carlisle Road.










The above pictures are of Warren Hill School.

During WW2 Mills returned to military service and was assigned the rank of Second Lieutenant as paymaster in the Royal Army Pay Corps. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 11th April 1942 three months after his wife Vera died on 5th January 1942 after only 17 years of marriage. On 3rd November 1943 Mills relinquished his commission due to ill health and was granted the honorary rank of Lieutenant.

Mills and his wife did not have any children and Mills did not marry again. He moved to Budleigh Salterton and with his sisters Agnes and Violet became very proficient at croquet, playing at Grey Friars very near to their home. Agnes was a very good player and won the Luard Cup in 1953 at Roehampton. The family played up to the early 1970s.and used to travel to competitions at Roehampton, Eastbourne, Hurlingham and Cheltenham.

In the summer term of 1956 Mills was teaching at Ladycross Catholic Boy’s Preparatory school in Seaford but there is no other evidence to show if he taught anywhere else in the 1950s.

Mills was a writer of tales often revolving around boy’s preparatory schools and involving sports such as cricket, pranks and mysteries, as well as a beloved pet Bulldog named Uggles. His most famous book, Meredith and Co.,published in 1933 captured the idiom of pupils during the interwar years more accurately than other similar novels. 5 years later he published a sequel King Willow. The books followed the maturation and adventures of a group of boys at the fictional Leadham House Preparatory School and were based on Mills experience as a teacher. The third book in the series was Minor and Major published in 1939. Also in 1939 Mills had St Thomas of Canterbury published.

Mills died peacefully in hospital on 8th December 1972.


Thank you so much to Michael, Bill, and everyone else at the ELHS for all they have done.

And I invite readers from England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or anywhere else to add to what we know about Mills, his family, his careers, his acquaintances, the communities in which he lived, and his era in general.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Goodland, Golf, Rome, and an Apology

Mea culpa!

Just as I was sitting back and basking in what I thought was a complete examination of Joshua Goodland, "sometime Head Master of Warren Hill," and his family of origin, something was nagging at me still.

While spelunking in the "Mills" mail folder in my Outlook Express, I found what was bothering me: Over a year ago, in trying to determine the identity of the "J. Goodland" mentioned in the dedication of Meredith and Co. by George Mills, the Eastbourne Local History Society had done some research and even made a contact regarding Goodland's identity. They were simply waiting to hear back from someone, it seemed to me in hindsight, from Rome, Italy.

Looking back at the exchange of messages, and here's what I found…

This e-mail is dated 5 April 2010:


Subject: The three Joshua Goodlands ...

Hello Sam:

First of all very many congratulations on the research that you're doing ... it's amazing what you have put together on your website.

Your enthusiasm is rubbing off and I've resolved to find out more about Warren Hill School ...

You will see below that the Times indicates that there may have been three men by the name of Joshua Goodland. In addition to our headmaster, there was a barrister who was a keen competitive golfer; also a vicar who became the incumbent of the Anglican Church in Rome [pictured above, left]. I am pretty sure that the barrister is not our man ... but is there just a chance that JG had studied for holy orders while at Trinity College Cambridge? (See the reference below to Friday, Jan 18, 1907.) Could he have gone to Rome after leaving Warren Hill? In any event, I have written to the church in Rome and will send you a Bcc copy. We'll see what they say.

Perhaps you could hold off for a while before putting the above on your site ... it would be good to wait for a reply from Rome. It may all be a total red herring.

However, you mention [Oscar] Wilde ... I wonder if the dates and name of the college tally with the Times report for Friday, Jan 18, 1907.

What do you think?


"Hold off" is exactly what I did, and for so long that I almost completely forgot about this message! And, yes, the dates do coincide, as we know, with Vyvyan Holland's attendance at Trinity Hall.

Along with the information above, the following data was included. I have added annotations in blue:

More information from the Times

The Times, Thursday, May 12, 1910; (Births)
Goodland - On 9 May at Westover, Stevenage, Herts, to Mr and Mrs Joshua Goodland - a daughter.

[We know this to be Josephine Mary Goodland, whose birth is not among those recorded in England at ancestry.com.]


The Times, Thursday, Oct 19, 1916;
A Large Contract For Reservoirs. Metropolitan Water Board V. Dick Kerr And Co. (Law)
Mr Joshua Goodland appeared for the plaintiffs

The Times, Tuesday, Nov 27, 1917;
Mr Joshua Goodland appeared in a court case at the Court of Appeal in London; House Of Lords. Large Contract Terminated By The Minister Of Munitions., Metropolitan Water Board v. Dick. Kerr, And Co. (Limited).

[We've read of Goodland's participation in this case on behalf of the Ministry of Munitions.]

The Times, Tuesday, Oct 16, 1934
Rev Joshua Goodland appointed incumbent of the Anglican Church of All Saints in Rome

[This clearly explains why Goodland's name disappears from British telephone directories after 1934 and before 1937 when he became the Vicar at Compton Dundon.]

The Times, Saturday, Oct 27, 1934
Rev Joshua Goodland (who had come from Rome) officiated at the funeral of 2 New Zealand airmen who were killed when their aircraft crashed near Naples

The Times, Tuesday, May 07, 1935;
Thanksgiving Services In Italy Cardinal Pacelli At English College (It seems that JG was the chaplain to the British embassy in Rome)

[Here we learn that Goodland also served as chaplain to the British Embassy in Rome [seen left, in 1946]; Goodland's experience as a cleric is eerily similar to that of George's father, Rev. Barton R. V. Mills, who changed jobs quite a bit, among them serving as chaplain of the Anglican church at San Remo, Italy, and at the Chapel Royal at the Savoy.]

----------------

A search for J Goodland brought:-

The Times, Friday, Jan 18, 1907
MA degree conferred on J Goodland (Trinity College)

[We know this much about his degrees: "B.A. and LL.B. 1904; M.A. 1907." In what subject the B.A. and M.A. were earned, we do not know—yet!]

The Times, Saturday, May 03, 1913;
Mr J Goodland played golf for 'The Bar'

The Times, Thursday, May 28, 1914
Golf as above

The Times, Friday, May 21, 1920;
Golf as above

The Times, Friday, May 20, 1921
Golf as above

The Times, Thursday, May 24, 1923
Golf as above

The Times, Thursday, May 31, 1928
Golf as above

The Times, Friday, Jun 13, 1930
Golf as above

The Times, Saturday, Aug 08, 1931
Dissolution of partnership (as previously noted)

The Times, Friday, May 25, 1934
Golf as above

[These entries add to our assumption that Goodland was a truly avid sportsman; if seeking croquet entries in the database of The Times is any indication, there are probably 8 times as many actual golf entries for Goodland than their search engine would actually provide.]


A message was sent from the ELHS to the Anglican Church of All Saints in Rome that same day. As far as I know, no reply was ever received.

Rev. Goodland apparently left Twickenham to become the incumbent at All Saints in Rome, as noted above, in mid-October 1934. He was also the chaplain at the British Embassy in Rome.

Goodland became Vicar of Compton Dundon, Somerset, in August 1937, and that date is etched in stone—literally.

What caused the move back to England is unknown. We also don't know when Goodland left Rome. Still, this information does a great deal to fill in the time line of Goodland's life.

What's particularly interesting about Joshua Goodland is that, even in today's prevailing climate of education, relocation, re-education, and career change among workers of all kinds, Goodland's labyrinthine career still strikes us as unusual. I suppose that's why it seemed so difficult to nail down Joshua Goodland from among the barrister, the cleric, and the Head Master: He was, indeed, all three Joshua Goodlands rolled into one.

And that doesn't even take into consideration years he spent as a young man as an assistant elementary school teacher and an architect!

Anyway, I thought I had closed the book on Goodland, but a pair of year-old questions remains unanswered. Had Goodland studied and earned degrees for holy orders at Cambridge at the turn of the 20th century? And what are the particulars of his time spent as a cleric in Rome?

I was remiss in 'holding off' on this information foor so long that it was not included in my lengthy study of the life of Joshua Goodland. I appreciate the yeoman work of the ELHS in helping me research Goodland, and would like to extend my apologies for setting aside their initial body of research for so very long!

Messages have been sent to Cambridge and once again to All Saints in Rome to see if we can answer those final questions. Stay tuned…

Closing the Book on Joshua Goodland

On more occasions than I care to recall, I've absolutely wasted a dollar. But sometimes $1.00 is brilliantly spent, as in the case of my on-line purchase (+ $3.99 shipping!) of the useful book we'll examine today.

Vyvyan Holland's 1954 autobiography, Son of Oscar Wilde, begins: "I was born in my parents' house in Tite Street in November 1886… My arrival was somewhat of a disappointment to my father, who wanted a daughter to remind him of his sister, Isola…

In my birth certificate, my father's profession is given as 'author'. The declaration was made by my mother; my birth was not registered for some weeks after I was born, as my father and mother each thought the other had seen to the matter. When the time came, no one could remember the exact date on which I had been born… though everyone was sure it was during the first five days of November."

These paragraphs reside on the first page of Chapter One, ironically entitled "The Happy Years." Holland's life among guardians who sought to keep his identity a secret, and in a world that misunderstood or even reviled his father, seems to have been anything but idyllic.

His birth in 1886 made Holland ten years older than George Mills, and, although ten years is no blink of the proverbial eye, some of his life is instructive in understanding the world in which Mills was raised, especially regarding higher education in England.

What's most useful to us here, however, is that Holland records some details of his friendship with Joshua Goodland, a man who was also a major influence on the life of George.

We first meet Goodland in this text as Holland arrives at Trinity Hall [right], sent by his guardian family (which loves him none too well) to study Law after he is told matriculation to Oxford (his father's alma mater) is out of the question: "Before starting serious reading at either University one had to pass one's Preliminary Examination at Cambridge (or Responsions at Oxford), or be excused from it. If my Higher Certificate had included Greek, I would have been excused from this Preliminary Examination (known as the Little-Go). As it was, I had to take the whole examination and learn Greek in the bargain."

Just an aside: We know, for example, that when George Mills returned from the First World War, he was excused from taking Responsions at Oxford. We don't know for sure, but I would guess skipping Responsions was a boon to Mills because my hunch is that he, too, had neglected to study Greek in depth.

Holland continues: "Luckily the summer term at Cambridge had not yet begun, and, as I would naturally not be going up until after Long Vacation, this gave me the whole summer in which to prepare for my Little-Go in June. So I was sent up to Cambridge to prepare for the examination in charge of Joshua Goodland, with whom I lived in rooms at Trinity Street. I resented this very much, as I considered I was once more being thrown to the lions."

The year was 1904, and Holland is being raised by guardians who, frankly, don't seem to care very much for him personally, or for the memory of his father, Oscar Wilde.

"Goodland was about twelve years older than myself. He was a very sympathetic man, who afterwards became one of my greatest friends, but at the time I resisted all his attempts at friendship. I was not yet a member of the university and knew no one there, whereas he had taken his degree in Law the previous year and knew a great number of people. I felt that I was in the way in his sitting-room and tried to keep out of it as much as possible. I worked hard and neither drank nor smoked. Neither did I talk much. I spent most of my time, when not attending lectures or being coached in Greek and Paley's Evidences of Christianity, reading in my bedroom."

According to Holland, we know Goodland had earned his undergraduate degree in Law by the spring of 1904, and in 1903 if Holland is being literal. We can also begin to see Goodland as the kind of sympathetic man who could nurture a bright but wounded adolescent like Vyvyan Holland, as well as a bright young man in pain like George Mills.

"One day, when this had been going on a fortnight, Goodland tackled me on the subject after dinner. And I told him frankly that I knew I was redundant in his scheme of things and I thought it was more tactful to efface myself as much as possible. He then said: 'Look here, there must be some mistake somewhere. When I first saw your guardian, he told me you were a most difficult case, that you were idle, drank to excess, and frequented bad company. Yet you work very hard, refuse to drink even a glass of beer, and so far from frequenting bad company, never seem to speak to anyone at all.' That was typical of the 'family,' who delighted in being able to find fault with me and to prove to themselves that I was thoroughly bad."

Holland continues: "When Long vacation came, the problem with my disposal once more became acute. Goodland was going to Scandinavia with his good friend Peter Wallace, who had been at Trinity Hall with him. He offered to take me with them and my guardian accepted the proposition and obtained permission of the Chancery Court for me to leave England and go to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

In point of fact, we altered our minds at the last minute and went to Riga instead, by a Russian freighter through the Kiel Canal. From Riga we went back to St Petersburg, Moscow, and Nijni-Novgorod and back to St Petersburg, where we took a coasting steamer to Stockholm. We eventually ended up in a little village called Bydalen, about three hundred miles northwest of Stockholm, where we remained about a month before returning to England. I had to keep very quiet about having been to Russia, as the country was in a very unsettled state after massacres in front of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg [Bloody Sunday, depicted at right], and the Chancery Court would never have given me permission to go there."

Holland then writes a paragraph much of which can be found on-line: "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."

By 1907, however, Holland began to realize that studying Law was not for him. He relates: "So after another May Week I said goodbye to Trinity Hall and my friends there. It seems strange to me now that all the time I was at Stonyhurst and Cambridge my most intimate friends, such as Joshua Goodland, Gerald Seligman and Ronald Firbank, were quite unaware of my identity [as the son of Oscar Wilde]. But before I went down I told one or two of them. When I told my great friend Joshua Goodland, he said: 'I always thought there was something mysterious about you. And now I know why. But what does it really matter? Your father was a great writer.' And that cheered me as nothing else could have done."

Once again, we see that Goodland has the ability to assuage someone's pain with acceptance and reassurance—things for which George Mills must have hungered as well.

The final selection regarding Goodland proceeds some months after Holland has departed Cambridge: "Then one day Joshua Goodland came to see me and told me that he and Peter Wallace, with whom I had travelled to Russia and Sweden, were going to Canada on a shooting expedition in the north of Quebec, and I asked whether I could come too. As they were off in a week, this did not give me much time for preparation. But the world was free then. No passports were required for the American continent; there were no currency restrictions and passages were easy to obtain."

Later, he describes the trip itself: "And on 22 November 1907, I sailed from Liverpool on the R.M.S. Victorian, of the Allan Line, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia.

This American trip lasted altogether five months, during which I spent a great deal of money I could ill afford. Goodland and Wallace were growing restless and decided to move on to Japan. But I began to take stock and had a feeling of lusisti satis and decided to return to England alone. So I left them at Monterey and took the train from San Francisco to New York. I began to have a guilty feeling of 'Life is real, life is earnest' and that I must buckle on my armour."

Now, Holland was under the guardianship of a family named Scoonce, and one must assume that they were responsible for him. He needed their permission to make this trip, so one might assume that they were making sure he had an allowance that provided a roof over his head and food on his table, even when he was attending Cambridge.

And am I correct in assuming that one must have paid some sort of tuition to an institution like Cambridge at the time, and that the Crown did not cover all costs for scholars who could pass the Little-Go?

Goodland was a Law coach while at Cambridge, and may have even done some work as an architect, but if the latter were true, Holland doesn't seem to have been aware of it. Joshua also took a great deal of time off from both his studies and his coaching, and when he travelled, the record shows it was first class, and the stays away from home were lengthy (as we can see from the fact that they stayed in America for five months before Goodland departed San Francisco for Japan).

Could Goodland have supported himself, gone to school, and supported a relatively expensive and time-consuming travel habit without some outside aid as well? No, and that's why we suspect that his brother, Gillmore Goodland, must have been the financier behind Joshua's education in the discipline of Law at Cambridge.

Just what were the travel costs then, even for a student who had a benefactor like Holland? After riding the train through Chicago (and visiting a doctor there for a case of bronchitis), he relates: "I was now getting near the end of my funds, and when I had booked a second-class passage to England on an American Line boat for £15, I had to watch every cent. So, on this my only visit to New York, I spent time walking about the streets, admiring the sky-scrapers and going to museums and art galleries during the three days I had to wait before my boat sailed. I dare say that I saw more of the surface of New York in those three days than most visitors see in a month.

The voyage on the ship was uneventful. I played bridge most of the time at ten cents a hundred and made about twenty dollars, which enabled me to remunerate the stewards adequately; when I arrived in London I had about thirty-three shillings left, which was cutting it a little fine in a journey all the way from San Francisco."

Imagine what gratuities must have been expected from first-class passengers in 1907! Travel, although the merest fraction of what the same trip would cost today, seems to have been relatively expensive. Twenty five years later, my own father would work summer vacations from high school cutting granite for street curbing in the hot sun in Philadelphia for $10 a week. One wonders exactly what $20 was worth in 1908!

Anyway, the fact that Goodland moved on to Japan [below, right, in 1908] and points in the Far East and South Seas, continuing to sail first-class and presumably providing appropriate remuneration for his stewards, indicates he had far more disposable income than a student typically might have, unless coaching Law was a veritable "cash cow" at the time.

Holland eventually returned to Cambridge to finish his degree and take examinations after a period of relative freedom, living in Kensington. He remarks: "It was strange to be back under the comparatively strict college discipline."

George Mills would have been 13 years old at the time, living in Kensington with his parents and younger sisters—at least when he wasn't in school at Parkfield in Haywards Heath. It's even possible the paths of the two crossed. Relative freedom would have been what George enjoyed as a young man, living at home in that part of London, and it seems certain that when George arrived at Christ Church at Oxford in October 1919, adjusting to that "comparatively strict college discipline" may have presented a problem similar to his handling of the discipline under which he'd wilted while in the military during the preceding three years.

In addition, Holland describes some of what University life would have been like in England during the early 20th century: "Not only had I to start an entirely new train of thought in studying Law, but I also took up rowing. Trinity Hall was a famous rowing college, and the sport was almost compulsory if you were there as an undergraduate. It almost amounted to treason to prefer another form of athletics, and although we had cricket and football blues in the college, they were looked upon with disfavor and even grave suspicion."

Interestingly, Oxford's own website reminds us today: "The University’s top athletes gain the status of ‘Blue’ – an accolade that stems from the first boat race in 1829, when Cambridge tied light blue ribbons to their boat and Oxford adopted Christ Church’s dark blue."

Christ Church was the college George Mills attended at Oxford, and likely a hotbed of rowing as well. One wonders if the long, lean, but very slightly built Mills, sporting a below average chest and girth and some nasty varicose veins, had much success.

Holland continues, writing of a student 'going down,' or entering the working world after graduation: "It is the same with his games. He plays cricket and football or rows [a Cambridge team is seen, left, in 1907] at his schools, and does the same thing when he reaches university. His great shock comes when he goes down."

Mills, like Goodland and Holland, was a lover of sport and games. It's easy to understand why teaching school might have appealed to George, resigning himself to that off-to-work-every-day, no-fun-and-games life after Oxford. The option being able to assist in the coaching of sports at a preop school would have had great appeal.

This final insight from Holland [below, right] regards University life of the era in general: "We all had an exaggerated idea of our own importance. We interpreted the word 'university' as being the center of the universe, round which everything else revolved. The prominence given in the press to events like the Oxford and Cambridge Boat race fostered this illusion… We sincerely thought that for all practical purposes a man's life was over when he went down and started a weary round of grinding work to keep body and soul together. And we thought that at the age of forty a man might as well be dead…

It was, I suppose, part of the general intolerance of youth and a sign of healthy enthusiasm. Sometimes we wondered how on earth people amused themselves in the outside world while we, the real lords of creation, were up at universities during term time."

There must have been aspects of university life that George Mills loved—or at least loved vicariously. At 25, upon leaving Oxon, Mills was ill-prepared, and still certainly not of a mind to grow up.

Though an intelligent fellow, George clearly seems to have chafed under the burden of academia. A lover of sport, fate failed to provide him a body that would have been hearty enough to compete, allowing him no respite while at Oxford in sculling or other physical recreations (his father, while there, had played competitive Chess). And being a child in a well-to-do family of many accomplishments, he seems to have been bereft of much self-discipline or ambition.

Still, I imagine Mills, upon his departure from Oxford, very much feared the lifelong death sentence that Holland describes above: Going down without any visible means of support, without a degree, and without a father who was likely to sympathize much with his son's shortcomings.

One thing that his attendance at Christ Church would have provided Mills was a sense of somewhat equal footing when he became acquainted with the robust Joshua Goodland. Although Goodland was sensitive and empathetic toward others who were struggling, be it academically or socially, it is unlikely much could have come of their meeting if Mills hadn't attained a level of confidence—perhaps even a level of comfort—with himself, making him receptive to Goodland's friendship and advice.

Something changed in George Mills between leaving the army with what must have been a certain sense of failure and his brief career as a schoolmaster that almost immediately led to him becoming a published author of multiple texts.

Oxford and the people he met there, to some degree, played an important role.

So did Joshua Goodland.

Considering the Relationship Between Joshua Goodland and George Mills

George Mills taught at Warren Hill School sometime in the late 1920s. Historians at Windlesham House School [left, now in Brighton, but then in Portslade] believe that Mills was in his first job as a schoolmaster when he spent over a year there, from Lent, 1925, through the end of the summer term in 1926.

Mills published his first novel, Meredith and Co.: The Story of a Modern Preparatory School, in 1933, and since we know from a promotional leaflet he was not on the staff at Warren Hill around 1930-1931, it's likely he would have been employed in Eastbourne sometime between 1926 and 1929. Mills also found himself teaching at The Craig School in Windermere and the English Preparatory School in Glion, Switzerland during those years, but it makes sense to surmise that he made a smaller move from Portslade to nearby Eastbourne before exploring career opportunities farther afield

George's Uncle Dudley Mills had been an officer in the Royal Engineers during George's childhood, and he had been quite a raconteur and world traveler. It's easy to imagine George and his siblings gathered around Uncle Dudley during one of his returns to England, listening intently to stories of faraway lands. For example, Dudley once apparently traveled around China dressed as in Chinese garb, speaking the language, and eating local delicacies.

It's also easy to imagine George sitting in the lounge at Warren Hill or having a pint in Meads at The Ship Inn, listening to Joshua Goodland's tales of travelling around the entire world, and his experiences as he had studied education, architecture, and law to that point in his life. Goodland was the holder of an M.B.E., had designed buildings, taught elementary school, tried important cases, hunted big game in Canada, hiked near the Arctic Circle in Sweden, golfed in Sussex, coached law at Cambridge, sailed around the world, saw San Francisco recovering from the 1906 earthquake, visited modernizing Japan and Czarist Russia before the revolution—well, it probably seemed to George that Goodland had done just about everything!

George's own schooling had taken him south to Haywards Heath and his military experience had led him to exotic Dover and Shropshire [below, left].

In Goodland, George may have seen some possibilities for himself and his future that were not apparent within his family of origin. George's father, Rev. Barton R. V. Mills, had been ticketed for university, and eventually a life as a cleric and scholar, while his brother, Dudley, went to military school. My supposition would be that many parents with a pair of sons at the time may have made similar decisions: An education for one, the military for the other.

During the early 20th century, George's father did indeed make a similar decision regarding his own two sons. Barton's elder boy, Arthur Frederick Hobart Mills, went from Wellington, to Sandhurst, to the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry as an officer. Young George was ticketed for Harrow, where his learned and degreed father and grandfather both had been schooled. It's even possible George ended up in an apprenticeship after he left Harrow in 1912.

We know from his records that the military simply didn't work out for George during World War I. After an initial and quite unofficial stint as a lance corporal, he was kept at the level of "fatigue man" for the duration of the war without any hope of promotion. George enjoyed none of the military success that his brother—who was decorated for heroism under fire—had found in the Great War. The younger Mills had washed out as a clerk. Perhaps he simply was not cut out for the military.

It's difficult to say how well George Mills did when he attended Oxford following his hitch in the military. We know he was there from 1919 through some time in 1922 at the very latest, but there are no records of what he might have studied and no record of him having taken any examinations.

Perhaps George simply was not cut out for academia, either. In a family that seems to have valued the dual career choices mentioned above, things must have looked grim for George Mills in regard to gaining and retaining the genuine respect of his family.

Both the military and institutes of higher learning would seem to organizations which have a great many rules to be followed, expectations to be met, and a fundamental duty to reshape their clients into something different—something better—than they had been upon entering. Routines, procedures, systematic progression, and an institutional socialization would have been de rigueur, and perhaps that aspect of military and academic life was what Mills had the most difficulty with in both.

George Mills was probably not considered an extremely able student when he left Harrow [right] after two years. He was tall, slightly built, and beset with both varicose veins on his lips and a speech impediment. His interaction with strangers—and upon entering Harrow, everyone there must have been a stranger—may have been difficult and painfully protracted by his impediment.

Under the pressure of other boys teasing him or stern schoolmasters demanding answers, he may have continually wilted, unable to effectively communicate, eventually becoming reticent even to try.

Humor would have been a marvelous coping mechanism for George as he grew to know some of the other boys and his masters, but one wonders if he could have made enough people laugh to have deflected what must have been a great deal of cruel teasing, and to achieve academically all he might have at Harrow. He may simply have been in survival mode most of the time (and actually may have spent time after his time at Harrow involved in the harrowing speech therapy and familial support of the day, as depicted at the beginning of The King's Speech [left]).

Things must not have gone much better for him in khaki, with orders being barked, snappy replies requested, and impatient superiors continually crying, "Spit it out, soldier!" Increased anxiety under pressure, and an inability to communicate clearly and efficiently in the midst of the most brutal conflict that had engulfed the entire planet, could not have been looked upon very favorably by anyone.

Ironically, however, Mills had a keen ear for language and an exceptional facility with its use in manuscript, despite his speech. The characters in his books are realistically articulate in both the King's English and the unique adolescent slang of the era.

Far from being perfect, the student characters in George's stories possess foibles and traits that often lead to trouble—sometimes a less-than-pleasant bout with the Head Master's tennis shoe or being ostracized by one's peers. Mills has insight into the mistakes boys make, but more so, he has insight into how adults could—and in his mind—should handle them.

It is no accident that his first novel bore the subtitle "The Story of a Modern Preparatory School [my emphasis]. "

George, in becoming an educator in the late 1920s, had for all intents and purposes returned to the scene of the metaphorical crime, or at least the very real schoolboy "crimes" that he felt had been perpetrated upon him. George, clearly a part of a new, humanistic, "modern" world of education, would right many of the wrongs that he'd experienced at his own schools decades before. And there is a good reason to believe that Joshua Goodland acted as the lynchpin in developing that goal and career choice.

Goodland was living at 144 Ashley Gardens in 1925, although it's difficult to tell exactly when he and his family vacated that address. Ashley Gardens is less than a mile from George's family's residence in Kensington at the time [24 Hans Road], and even closer to where his George's step-brother, author (and veteran of campiagns in France, China, and Palestine) Arthur F. H. Mills, was living with his wife, Lady Dorothy Mills, on nearby Ebury Street.

Given Goodland's proclivity to travel, and being a member of the Royal Geographical Society (also conveniently situated in Kensington), it's quite possible that Joshua was acquainted with George's globetrotting Uncle Dudley or Lady Dorothy. Lady D. already had begun traveling the world in the early 1920s, an activity that led her to become the era's foremost female travel writer/explorer. She published multiple monographs as a Fellow in the society (as well as a books and articles for mainstream periodicals) and was renowned throughout the United Kingdom and much of the world.

Lady Dorothy was the sister-in-law of George Mills, and a great deal of interesting activity—Lady Dorothy's travels, Goodland's own interest in travel, George's return home from Oxford and engagement to be married in 1925, and Goodland's waning interest in practicing law—were centered in less than a square mile of acreage in Kensington. George's fiancée and soon to be wife, Vera Beauclerk, was a granddaughter of legendary Sir Robert Hart and had herself been born on China! It's easy to surmise that the paths of George Mills and traveler Joshua Goodland must have crossed at some point.

George may have decided to try his hand at teaching just after Goodland had become a partner of F. R. Ebden [left] at Warren Hill, and Joshua actually may have been soliciting additional staff for the preparatory school in Eastbourne. At that time George, who was successfully engaged as in a junior appointment at nearby Windlesham, may immediately have sprung to mind. It's easy to imagine that George—then thirty years of age and gaining confidence as he taught—may have become more comfortable in his skin, and with his speech.

The Summer Term at Windlesham House this year (2011) runs from 1 May through 9 July. Assuming it was similar at the time, Mills would have been teaching at Windlesham through the Summer Term, July 1926. If Goodland had connected with Mills earlier in Kensington, it's possible that they became reacquainted during early 1926, possibly during cricket or football matches involving the boys at Windlesham and Warren Hill.

We have always assumed Mills left Windlesham against his will: Perhaps because of the General Strike, perhaps because he was found inadequate, or perhaps because it was discovered he had lied about his Oxon credentials.

Is it possible Mills left of his own accord, eschewing a newly purchased house in Portslade near Windlesham for the chance to work with Goodland in Meads? Mills might even have been lured by a bit more salary or the offer of a free residence, allowing Vera and him to sell their new home in Portslade.

George always had struggled in determining 'what he wanted to be when he grew up.' In Joshua Goodland, he'd have found a somewhat kindred spirit, a man who was had always been wanderer along a circuitous career path that included elementary school assistant, architect, law coach, barrister, schoolmaster, entrepreneur, and eventually, as we know, "sometime Head Master of Warren Hill School," all within a four decade span from 1891 to 1931.

Mills thought enough of Goodland [right] to make the "sometime Head Master" the only person singled out by name in the dedication of his first novel. It's likely the feeling was mutual. It is possible that Goodland saw something in Mills that might never have been noticed before. It is also possible that, even if George's potential had been recognized in the past, Goodland was the first to help him begin to realize it.

George never made it through Oxford, earning a degree, although that fact didn't stop him from telling potential employers that he had. It may be that he even told Goodland he was degreed. No matter, George suddenly saw possibilities—even the possibility of future success—despite having a made few career changes, and even if he had already turned thirty.

Joshua Goodland was short, gregarious, intelligent, and probably an energetic man with a wealth of talent, but it does seem he his ambition was accompanied by a lack of clear focus.

George Mills had his own set of talents, and a certain charm, wit, intelligence, and affability that eventually drew people to him. Both men were essentially social beings who obviously enjoyed teaching, and they were keen observers of people.

Mills, it seems, also shared Joshua's lack of focus.

The eminently successful Goodland must have been a larger-than-life image and role model to Mills, and it is no wonder George found himself gravitating to the man.

Why Mills soon departed Meads and ended up teaching in isolated and far flung locales like Windermere and Glion is unknown. For whatever reason, however, Goodland was still the only person mentioned by name in the dedication of George's first novel in 1933. It is difficult to believe the two men parted acrimoniously.

We don't know if Mills and Goodland remained close, but we do know that after Joshua's passing in 1939, Mills [left] never published another book despite living until 1972.

If Goodland had truly been an inspiration, and if subsequent texts continued to win Joshua's approval for George, Goodland's death may have been a real hurdle that Mills found it difficult to clear.

Mills had lost his own father in 1932, and it is possible that George—failed apprentice, failed soldier, failed academician, and a schoolmaster unable to hold the same teaching position for longer than a year or two—knew he had been a disappointment to his father. Goodland was 23 years older than Mills, and may have become an understanding and sympathetic father figure to George at a time when Mills realized he'd never lived up to his late father's expectations.

It may be a coincidence that George's most noteworthy success—1933's Meredith and Co.—was published on the heels of his father's passing in late 1932, the same year Joshua had lost his brother, Theodore. It may also be a mere coincidence that the book's dedication singled out the older Goodland for his influence on George at that critical point in his life. And it may be that the eventual demise of Joshua Goodland only coincidentally occurred in the very same year that saw the demise of George's career as an author.

But that would be too many coincidences for me to dismiss out of hand.

Mills closed the book (no pun intended at first) on his life as an author in 1939. War was imminent for Great Britain, with a resurgent emphasis on the realm's military. Having recently come to grips with finding a literary success that would have pleased his father—a scholar who had authored and edited texts of his own—Mills still had some unfinished business owing to his failings in the military..

After spending more than a decade as an schoolmaster and author, it was time for George to return to the scene of yet another crime against him: The Royal Army Pay Corps.

But that's a story we already know much of, at least pending access to his Second World War military files.

I'll have just a bit more on Joshua Goodland—a man I believe had as powerful an influence on George Mills as anyone—next time. Then, on to other topics!

Looking at the Life of J. Goodland: Part 4

There is a 1600-year-old yew in the Old Churchyard in Compton Dundon.

I was born just outside of Philadelphia in Haverford Hospital and grew up in the next community over, Broomall. I'm not sure of the age of Haverford Township, but Broomall was founded in 1682.

I now live in Florida, just a 90 minute drive to St. Augustine, founded by the Spaniards and the oldest continually inhabited city in North America. It was established in 1565. Walking through the main gate into the old city always seems a trip back in time.

However, if the yew were to be exactly 1600 years old, that meant that the seed split open and the moist green tendril would have taken root and begun its life in the year 411. 411!

That's staggering for an American—relatively speaking we're barely out of nappies— to wrap his or her mind around fully because, as opposed to something like Stonehenge, a Roman aqueduct, or a Saxon sundial, the yew is living, breathing, and still shading the ancient churchyard. And there's little here that's nearly as old—living or dead.

At right, you see a diagram of the Old Churchyard indicating the locations of the memorials to those buried there.

At Number 73 the headstone reads:

"Of your charity/
pray for the soul of/
Joshua GOODLAND/
born July 17, 1873, he/
was Vicar of this/
Parish, from August/
1937 & died Jan: 22, 1939/
Also in loving memory of/
his wife, Florence Annie/
born April 17, 1885/
died August 8, 1954"

Josua Goodland was no longer a "priest in charge." He had become vicar in the charming village of Compton Dundon in Somerset.

When last we met, Goodland had sold Warren Hill Preparatory School in Sussex to Bertram de Glanville in the depths of the worldwide depression. The year was probably 1933 based on a change in telephone directories. His name was removed from the school's listing in Eastbourne, and the name Joshua Goodland cropped up at the River House on St. Peters Road, Twickenham, near Hounslow in Greater London.

The impetus for selling Warren Hill, however, may not simply have been the Great Depression (although it would be foolish to think it did not play some role). Rather, the record shows that in 1932 a woman named Josephine M. Goodland married a gentleman named Bernard M. Lowe in Marylebone. Josephine was Joshua and Florence Goodland's daughter, and there is a real possibility that she is the younger woman in the archival photographs from Warren Hill, circa 1930, just before her marriage.

Based on telephone directories, Bernard was an estate agent on High Street in Heathfield, about 20 miles due north of Eastbourne.

Her death record indicates that Josephine Mary Goodland was born on 23 May 1910, probably while Joshua was on the "North Eastern Circuit," but there is no available record recording her birth. She appears on the 1911 census [left] as a 10 ½-month-old infant living with her mother in Hertfordshire. There was a servant at home at the time, Mary Kate Grey, a 26-year-old listed as "Dom: Servant Nurse Housemaid." There was also a "visitor" in the home that day, 2 April. He was a 25-year-old, single "student-at-law" named W. A. Bainbridge.

A couple of oddities jump out. Joshua, 37 years of age, was not at home at the time. He was almost 200 miles away, visiting the family home of a retired tar distiller, John George Lyon, in Pontefract, Yorkshire, which was presumably on his circuit. Part of me wonders why a 25-year-old law student was visiting his 25-year-old wife while Goodland was so far afield. Perhaps Bainbridge was sweet on Miss Grey, who was also single.

The form clearly indicates he either "arrived on the morning of Monday, April 3rd," or "passed the night of Sunday, April 2nd, in this dwelling and was alive at midnight."

Another thing I find odd is that next to the entry for Florence Annie Goodland, she was originally recorded in black ink as "Wife." That entry is amended later in blue ink to read "Head." The numeral "1," written in black ink, is used to record the number of years she has been married, the number of children she had borne alive, and the number of "Children still living." Then a red line is drawn through them all, striking out every numeral.

Finally, Florence's "Personal Occupation" is recorded in crisp black ink as "Married Woman." Subsequently, that information is crossed out several times in blue ink. Still, Joshua and Florence were married in the parish of St. Mary, Finchley, in London on 19 June 1909.

I have no real understanding of any 'colour coding' that may have been used in compiling data for the 1911 census, but something tells me that Florence Annie, far from being a subservient housewife to Joshua, at least may have been resentful of being left alone in Hertfordshire by the father of her new baby. In fact, it is not difficult to surmise that she wasn't enamored of being saddled not only with the baby, but with Joshua as well. Perhaps, if she had been born before the wedding, that may be why there is no real record of Josephine's birth.

Other than some few details of her own marriage in 1932, we know little about Josephine Goodland save that she passed away in December of 1988 in Liverpool, Lancashire. Turning over care of his daughter to Bernard Lowe [his 1934 telephone listing is seen, right], however, could have eased Joshua's mind about his responsibility to her and allowed him to consider his final career change that he was at the very least toying with: Becoming a vicar.

In 1934, the name on Goodland's Twickenham listing changes slightly, giving us evidence of the direction in which he was heading. In 1933, it read: "Goodland Joshua." In 1934, it changes to "Goodland Rev Joshua."

Now, I'm quite uncertain how, in the Anglican Church, one would become a vicar. We've read of the circuitous route that George Mills's father, Rev. Barton R. V. Mills, took from Battersea to the Chapel Royal after he gained a Master's Degree in History from Oxford. Would Twickenham have been a similar stop for Goodland on his way to his own vicarage? And was any sort of education in divinity necessary at the time, or would a law degree from Cambridge have sufficed?

Anyway, the stop at River House [left] in Twickenham was apparently brief: Goodland does not appear in any of the 1935 or 1936 directories, which covered all of Greater London. 1935, Goodland had clearly left town.

How and where Joshua and Florence Goodland spent those two years is open to conjecture at this point. A listing for a "Goodland J" reappears in the London telephone directory, residing at "34 Bloomfield rd E.3," but that listing remains in place in the February 1938 directory—and we know from Goodland's headstone that he began his living in Compton Dundon in August 1937.

Perhaps he spent time with Josephine and Bernard in Heathfield as he sought a living. Perhaps he was tucked away in another parish elsewhere, using a phone listed under another name

Nevertheless, he took up residence at The Vicarage of St. Andrew's Church [below, right] in Compton Dundon at summer's end in 1937.

There isn't much known about his time there, but we know that his long-dormant lust for travel may have been unquenched.

On 16 June 1938, Joshua and Florence Goodland steamed into Avonmouth at Bristol aboard the S.S. Bayano out of Port Antonio, Jamaica. The couple, a 63-year-old "priest" and 53-year-old "housewife" respectively, gave their address as "Compton Dundon Vicg, Somerton, Somerset."

It had been 30 some years since Goodland had been able to travel abroad. We don't know how long Goodland spent in Jamaica, or if this was a vacation or a recuperative trip for the benefit of his health.

What we do know is that Joshua Goodland passed away just months later on 22 January 1939.

The National Probate Calendar for 1939 reads:

GOODLAND the reverend Joshua of Compton Dundon Vicarage Somerton Somersetshire clerk died 22 January 1939 Probate London 26 May to Florence Annie Goodland widow. Effects £4241 0s. 7d."

Britain was on the eve of conflict with Germany, and the entire world braced for war. It was a trying and anxious time for many in England.

1939 was a banner year for our George Mills, though. After publishing a novel, King Willow, in 1938, he published a pair in 1939—Minor and Major and Saint Thomas of Canterbury.

However, Mills—who had dedicated his only other book, Meredith and Co., to Joshua Goodland in 1933—would never publish anything more than a letter to The Times.

Coincidence?

Next time we'll take a look at both Mills and Goodland, how their paths must have crossed, and what influence Joshua must have had on George.