Charles Mills (Uxbridge MP)

The Honourable Charles Thomas Mills (1887 – 1915) was Conservative Member of Parliament for Uxbridge, elected in January 1910 when he was the youngest MP. He was killed, serving as an officer with the Scots Guards on the Western Front.[1]

The Honourable

Charles Mills
Mills circa 1913
Member of the United Kingdom Parliament
for Uxbridge
In office
1910–1915
Preceded bySir Frederick Dixon-Hartland
Succeeded byArthur Mills
Personal details
Born
Charles Thomas Mills

(1887-03-13)13 March 1887
Died6 October 1915(1915-10-06) (aged 28)
Hulluch, France
Political partyConservative
FatherCharles William Mills, 2nd Baron Hillingdon
RelativesArthur Mills (brother)
Military service
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Branch/serviceBritish Army
Years of service1908-1915
RankLieutenant
Unit2nd Battalion, Scots Guards
Battles/warsBattle of Loos

Biography
Memorial to Charles Thomas Mills in St John the Baptist's Church, Hillingdon
Architectural plans for the Mills memorial by Ambrose Macdonald Poynter and George Wenyon from The Building News 26 July 1916

Born on 13 March 1887, he was the eldest son of Charles William Mills, 2nd Baron Hillingdon (1855–1919) who served as Conservative Member of Parliament for Sevenoaks from 1885 to 1892, and his wife Alice Marion Harbord, daughter of Charles Harbord, 5th Baron Suffield. He processed at the coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra in 1902 with Lord Suffield who was Master of the Robes.[2]

He joined the family bank Glyn, Mills, Currie & Co. in 1910. He and his father were meant to be on the maiden voyage of the Titanic but stayed home due to his father's ill health.

Mills was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for the Uxbridge Division of Middlesex at the January 1910 general election and re-elected in the December 1910 election. In his first parliament, he was the 'Baby of the House', the youngest MP.

He was first commissioned as an army officer in April 1908 in the West Kent (Queen's Own) Yeomanry[3] and promoted lieutenant in 1912.[4] He transferred from the Territorial Force to the Scots Guards in May 1915.[5] He was killed in action on 6 October 1915 at Hulluch during the Battle of Loos while a lieutenant[6] with 2nd Battalion, the Scots Guards.[7] He was unmarried.

As he has no known grave, Mills is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.[7] He is also commemorated on Panel 8 of the Parliamentary War Memorial in Westminster Hall, one of 22 MPs who died fighting in the First World War;[8] and by a plaque in Hillingdon's parish church.[9] Mills is one of 19 MPs who fell in the war commemorated by heraldic shields in the Commons Chamber.[10] A fifth commemoration is the production in 1932 of a manuscript-style illuminated book of remembrance for the House of Commons, which includes a short biographical account of his life and death.[11][12]

The inscription on the memorial erected to his memory by his family in St John the Baptist's Church, Hillingdon contains two quotes: "He greeted the unseen with a cheer." (recalling a line from Robert Browning's poem Epilogue); and "So he passed over and the trumpets sounded for him on the other side." (from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan).[13]

His brother Arthur Mills succeeded him, unopposed, as Member of Parliament for Uxbridge.

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References
  1. Baby of the House
  2. "No. 27489". The London Gazette. 28 October 1902. p. 6871.
  3. "No. 28163". The London Gazette. 31 July 1908. p. 5638.
  4. "No. 28593". The London Gazette. 26 March 1912. p. 2213.
  5. "No. 29171". The London Gazette. 25 May 1915. p. 5012.
  6. "No. 29364". The London Gazette. 12 November 1915. p. 11184.
  7. "Casualty Details: Mills, The Hon. Charles Thomas". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  8. "Recording Angel memorial Panel 8". Recording Angel memorial, Westminster Hall. UK Parliament (www.parliament.uk). Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  9. "List of names on the Recording Angel memorial, Westminster Hall" (pdf). Recording Angel memorial, Westminster Hall. UK Parliament (www.parliament.uk). Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  10. "Mills". Heraldic shields to MPs, First World War. UK Parliament (www.parliament.uk). Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  11. "House of Commons War Memorial: Final Volumes Unveiled by The Speaker". The Times (46050). London. 6 February 1932. p. 7.
  12. Moss-Blundell, Edward Whitaker, ed. (1931). The House of Commons Book of Remembrance 1914–1918. E. Mathews & Marrot.
  13. "2LT Hon C T Mills". War Memorials Register. Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir Frederick Dixon-Hartland		 Member of Parliament for Uxbridge
1910–1915		 Succeeded by
Arthur Mills
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