Profile

MILLS, William Henry
(Service number 21855)

William Henry MILLS — (Courtesy of C Mills. South Canterbury Museum L2015/020)

William Henry Mills and family — Probably taken around Christmas 1913 (Courtesy of C Mills. South Canterbury Museum L2015/020)

Hut 66, G Coy, 16ths P.M.O. Cup Winners — Pictured is William Henry Mills, seated third from right (Courtesy of C Mills. South Canterbury Museum L2015/020)

Barracks portrait? — William Henry Mills is seated (on chair), second from left (Courtesy of C Mills. South Canterbury L2015/020)

Hospital ward, Christmas 1917 — On the reverse of this picture postcard, addressed to "Annie with love", William H Mills wrote:
"This is the photo of the hospital ward I was in at Christmastime - some of the Xmas decorations - Two Doctors, two nurses and orderly and some of the 34 patients. Have marked myself. From Will."

The mark William made appears to have faded, but seems to indicate he was the sixth patient in the neds from the right side (in the background). (Courtesy of M Johnson )

Ward 17 (Hospital unknown) — William Henry Mills appears to be identified by a cross, second from right. (Courtesy of M Johnson )

Headstone, William Henry Mills, Waimate Cemetery — (Courtesy of M Johnson )

Aliases
First Rank	Rifleman	Last Rank	Lance Corporal

Birth

Date	10/03/1887	Place of Birth	Riversdale, Southland

Enlistment Information

Date		Age
Address at Enlistment
Occupation	Farmer
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status
Next of Kin	Mrs A.E. Mills (wife), Studholme Junction, South Canterbury
Religion	Wesleyan
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Rifle Brigade
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	7th Reinforcements 3rd Battalion, G Company
Date	21 August 1916
Transport
Embarked From		Destination

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals	British War Medal, Victory Medal
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date	6 September 1918	Reason	No longer physically fit for war service on account of illness contracted on active service (chronic nephits)

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

6 December 1917, sick with severe nephitis

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	10 May 1972	Age
Place of Death
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Waimate Cemetery
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Mills was farming in Studholme with his wife and children prior to World War I. He was 29 years old when he volunteered for Army and had one son and three daughters. He was 5 foot 6 inches tall and had fair hair with grey eyes. Mills enrolled in the beginning of May 1916 and spent the next three and a half months training in New Zealand before he sailed from Dunedin bound for the Western Front.

Mills served as a rifleman in the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. He fought at Messines and then took part in the disastrous attack at Passchendaele on 12 October 1917. Along with other soldiers in the Rifle Brigade he pushed forward through the mud against murderous fire until the German defences proved too strong. Losing mates all around him and pinned down by machine gun fire Mills waited until dark before he could safely escape No Man’s Land. Later he went back and slogged through the mud to help rescue the wounded.

Mills survived the terrible fighting at Passchendaele but soon after was stricken by severe inflammation of the kidneys. He was admitted to hospital in December 1917 and after treatment at the 1st New Zealand General Hospital in England was sent home in June 1918. After the war he recovered and returned to farming near Waimate. He became heavily involved in charity organisations, including Toc H which was a Christian movement that had its origins in World War I. He also helped war refugees in World War II, was a Leper Trust Board representative and helped patients at Waimate Hospital. Mills died in Waimate in 1972.

Sources

Auckland Museum Cenotaph database (July 2015); William H Mills letters, 25-27 October 1917, courtesy of E Sauer

External Links

Military personnel file

Researched and Written by

Tony Rippin (South Canterbury Museum)

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

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