Archibold Mills

My Family

Matters

Archibald John and ‘Nellie’ Mills

(1882 - 1963) (1889 - 1973)

Archibald John Mills, ‘Archie’, was born 2 November 1882. He was the third son of the Dockyard shipwright, James and Rose Mills. In 1891, the family was living at 7 Great Southsea Street, Portsmouth. Ten years later, Archie was a pupil teacher and the Mills household were living at 51 Lawrence Road, Southsea.

Archie was a teacher all his working life. He trained at Winchester Diocesan Training College and then, like his older brother, Charlie, he learned his profession at St. Lukes School, Southsea where he was an assistant master from 1903-05. He was appointed to the Beneficial School at Kent Street, Portsea 26 August 1907.

About the Beneficial School, Portsmouth

Eight men met in 1754 and formed the Beneficial Society which was a mutual aid organisation devoted to providing free education for the poor children of Portsea. The Beneficial School was built in 1784. It was a red brick building of two stories (see left). The ground floor was one large classroom and the upper storey was the headquarters and meeting room of the Society. The school is remembered affectionately as ‘Old Benny’

When the Great War broke out, Archie escaped military service because of his varicose veins. He was appointed Headmaster of the school on 8 March 1917. Two conditions of his appointment were that ‘he lived in the District of Portsea and consented to form an Evening Commercial and Dockyard Examination Class’. In view of his father’s shipwright trade, this was hardly an imposition.

Archie, seated far left, with a group of students

Archie’s wife and children

Archie married Annie Ellen Oates, ‘Nellie’ (left) in the late summer of 1919 at Edmonton, London. Nellie was born on 1 August 1889 at Yatton Keynell, which is near Chippenham in Wiltshire. Both of Nellie’s parents were schoolteachers.

Archie and Nellie had two children: Laurence John Mills (right) who was born in the winter of 1920. He became a coal mining engineer and was living at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Derbyshire in 1963. Laurence married Barbara Warner and they adopted two sons.

Archie and Nellie’s daughter, Sylvia Joy, was

born in the late autumn of 1925. She died aged fifteen months on 15 March 1927 and was buried at Highland Road Cemetery, Southsea. A pillar was erected in her memory inscribed, ‘Darling Joy’.

Their home - 64 Lawrence Road, Southsea

After Archie’s mother died, his father moved in from across the road from 51 to 64 Lawrence Road, Southsea.

I sometimes visited my great uncle on my own - but never early in the morning as they were notorious late risers. There was a bell-pull on the door jamb and, when yanked, a jangling bell could be heard deep inside the house.

I remember the house being dark with a peculiar smell. I discovered ‘bubble and squeak’ when lunching at Uncle Archie’s home. Red currant bushes grew in the back garden.

Nellie had lost an arm. She was a philatelist and designed a postage stamp series which was used by the GPO. She had a valuable stamp collection which included a ‘Penny Black’ and an even rarer, but less famous, ‘Tuppenny Blue’. I think Archie and Nellie made me welcome otherwise I wouldn’t have visited them alone - nor would I have such clear memories of them.

The Mills family

There were tensions in the family. Nellie and my grandmother, Eadie, ‘hated each other’. Archie and his nephew, Patrick Mills didn’t ‘get along’. Archie was a Freemason (which may have smoothed the way for his appointment as Headmaster) and was a grand-master of the Lodge. His brother, Charlie, had no time for the masons. Archie was tall, outgoing and made friends easily. He appears a little autocratic and domineering in photographs while my grandfather, Charlie seems more laid back. Patrick, Charlie’s son, recalls hearing them talking in another room and being unable to distinguish between their voices.

Aged 80, Archie died on 14 February 1963 at St Mary’s Hospital, Portsmouth leaving an estate of £3,879. Nellie (83) died on 1 February 1973. Both were buried at Highland Road Cemetery, Southsea.