Full name of worker at H.M. Factory Gretna (and any other names they are known by): Harry Mills

Gender: Male

Date and Place of Birth: 22 May 1895, Stoke on Trent.

Date and Place of Death: 31 October 1975, Stoke on Trent.

Nationality: English

 

Biography

Childhood: Brought up at 68 Priory Road, Normacot, Staffordshire. 

 

Parents: William Mills, Frances Mills.

 

Parent’s occupations: Potter.

 

Schools / universities attended and years of attendance: No record of school or college attendance.

 

Occupation: Potter. 

 

Place of residence at Gretna: Unknown

Job title at Gretna: General Labourer. 

Marital status: Married

Children: Joyce Margaret Mills (1920-22), Ronald Harry Mills (1921-23) Private (1925-?)

 

Travels: Carlisle, Gretna.

Awards/recognitions: 

Trivia / any other information: 

Harry Mills was brought up in Normacot, Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. At 15 he was an errand boy for a local grocer, he later followed his father William Mills into the ceramics and worked as a Potter/ceramist. On the outbreak of war Harry Mills attempted to join up but his application was rejected registered as B2 due to his defective eyesight. He was sent to Gretna in 1916 to work as a general labourer. His supervisor at Gretna was Jane Anderson, born in Carlisle and had worked as a farm servant before the war. A relationship developed and the couple married in Carlisle in 1917. And after the war they moved to Harry Mills’ family home at Rothesay Road, Normacot, Stoke-on-Trent. On 14 April 1920, they gave birth to their first child Joyce Margaret Mills. On 8 August 1921 second child Ronald Harry Mills was born, neither child made adulthood however. A third child was born later in the decade but the entry is marked ‘private’ on Ancestry family tree listing. The couple were listed in the 1939 Register as living at 70 Rothesay Road, Normacot, with Jane as a Corsetiere while Harry returned to Pottery working as a Kiln man. They continued to live in Stoke-on Trent until the 1970s. Jane Mills died on 11 May 1974 at Bucknall Hospital Staffordshire. Harry Mills a year later on 30 October 1975 at 70 Rothesay Road. 

 

Bibliography

None

References 

England & Wales, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, (1892), digital image, s.v. “Harry Mills”, Ancestry.com. 

1901 England & Wales Census, Longton, Staffordshire, digital image, s.v. “Harry Mills”, Ancestry.com.

1911 England & Wales Census, Longton, Staffordshire, digital image, s.v. “Harry Mills”, Ancestry.com.

England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005, (1917), digital image, s.v. “Harry Mills”, Ancestry.com. 

1939 England & Wales Census, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, digital image, s.v. “Harry Mills”, Ancestry.com.

England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007, (1974) digital image, s.v. “Harry Mills”, Ancestry.com.

 

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