George Ramsay Acland Mills (1 October 1896 – 8 December 1972) was a British preparatory schoolmaster and an author of children's adventure stories. His whimsical tales often revolve around boys' preparatory schools in Great Britain and often involve sports like cricket, pranks, and mysteries, as well as a beloved pet bulldog, Uggles. He was born in Bude, Cornwall and died in Devonshire.

George Mills
BornGeorge Ramsay Acland Mills
(1896-10-01)1 October 1896
Bude, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Died8 December 1972(1972-12-08) (aged 76)
Budleigh Salterton, Devon, United Kingdom
OccupationAuthor, Schoolmaster
NationalityBritish
GenreBritish children's and young adults' literature (1900–1949)
Notable worksMeredith and Co. (1930); King Willow (1938); Minor and Major (1939)
SpouseVera Louise Beauclerk Mills (1893-1942)
RelativesSir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet, great-grandfather
Arthur Mills (MP), grandfather
Sir George Dalhousie Ramsay, grandfather
Revd Barton R. V. Mills, father
Arthur F. H. Mills, novelist
Lady Dorothy Mills, novelist and travel writer
Signature
Website
www.whoisgeorgemills.com

Career as an author edit

Mills is listed in the British Library as a "Writer of Tales for Boys".

Books authored by Mills on the shelves of the British Library[1] include Meredith and Co.: The Story of a Modern Preparatory School [1933], King Willow [1938], Minor and Major [1939], and St. Thomas of Canterbury [1939]. Although Mills never published another book after 1939, he saw his work reprinted for another generation into the late 1950s.

Mills' most famous book, Meredith and Co., captured the idiom of pupils during the interwar period more accurately than any other novel. Five years later, Mills published a sequel, King Willow. The books followed the maturation and adventures of a cadre of fun-loving boys in fictional Leadham House Preparatory School. Leadham House was based on the teaching experiences of Mills while on the staff at Windlesham House School in Portslade and Warren Hill School in Meads, both in East Sussex, between 1925 and 1933.[2]

Education, teaching and military edit

Mills also taught at The Craig School in Windermere, the English Preparatory School in Glion, and Eaton Gate Preparatory School in London between 1926 and 1938, and at Ladycross School, a Catholic boys' preparatory school in Seaford, East Sussex in 1956 (pictured).

Mills had fought in World War I from 1916 to 1919, beginning as a Private in a Rifle Brigade, transferring to the Royal Army Service Corps, and being discharged as a Lance Corporal. At the outset of the World War II, Mills returned to military service on 11 October 1940 and was assigned the rank of Lieutenant as a paymaster in the Royal Army Pay Corps. He was promoted to Second Lieutenant on 11 April 1942, three months after the death of his wife, Vera. On 3 November 1943, Mills relinquished his commission due to ill health and was granted the honorary rank of Lieutenant.[3]

Mills attended Harrow School from 1910 to 1912, after receiving his early education at Parkfield in Haywards Heath. After the First World War, Mills took advantage of a 9 March 1920 decree of the University of Oxford, which stipulated that, until the end of Trinity Term 1923, any member of the University who had been engaged in military service for twelve months or more before his matriculation, was permitted to offer himself for examination in any Final Honours School, despite not having met the statutory conditions for admission to that School. He had entered Christ Church, Oxford in 1919, and then the University in May 1921.

There is no record of Mills having passed any examination in the Final Honours School, or having earned a degree at Oxford.[4]

Family edit

Mills married Vera Louise Beauclerk (1893–1942) on 24 April 1925. They had no children.

Mills was the great-grandson of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet of Killerton, Devon. He was the grandson of Arthur Mills (MP) representing Taunton and Exeter, and George Dalhousie Ramsay, K.C.B., who spent thirty years as the Director of Army Clothing at the Royal Army Clothing Depot in Pimlico (1863–1893), and the second son of Revd Barton R. V. Mills, a cleric and scholar who was an authority on the works of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Mills was the half-brother of crime and adventure novelist Arthur F. H. Mills, and brother-in-law of Lady Dorothy Mills, the renowned author, explorer, and adventurer.

Mills lived in semi-retirement at Grey Friars in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, with his spinster sisters Agnes Edith and Violet Eleanor Mills. He died in hospital on 8 December 1972.

Bibliography edit

Title Publisher Date
Meredith and Co. Oxford University Press: London 1933
King Willow G. G. Harrap & Co.: London 1938
Minor and Major G. G. Harrap & Co.: London 1939
St. Thomas of Canterbury Burns, Oates & Co.: London 1939
Meredith and Co. Oxford University Press: London 1950
King Willow Oxford University Press: London 1951
Meredith and Co. Andrew Dakers, Ltd.: London Undated
King Willow Spring Books: London Undated
Major and Minor Spring Books: London Undated

References edit

  1. ^ "British Library/Integrated Catalogue". British Library. Retrieved 14 March 2010.[dead link]
  2. ^ "Houston, We Have Lift Off". Who Is George Mills?. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  3. ^ "Lt. and Paymr. G. R. A. Mills (150796)". Who Is George Mills?. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  4. ^ "Until the peacock led him in..." Who Is George Mills?. Retrieved 17 April 2010.

External links edit