MILLS, Henry McIntosh Hopping
| Service Number: | 554 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 10 October 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 9th Machine Gun Company |
| Born: | St Peters, New South Wales, Australia, January 1895 |
| Home Town: | Petersham, Marrickville, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Arncliffe Public School, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation: | Joiner |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 8 August 1918 |
| Cemetery: |
Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery Grave recently identified by Fallen Diggers (2020), Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 10 Oct 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 554, 9th Machine Gun Company | |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Feb 1917: | Involvement Private, 554, 9th Machine Gun Company, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '21' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: RMS Osterley embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: '' | |
| 14 Feb 1917: | Embarked Private, 554, 9th Machine Gun Company, RMS Osterley, Melbourne |
Help us honour Henry McIntosh Hopping Mills's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Evan Evans
AWM History / Summary
Born in Sydney, New South Wales in 1894, Henry McIntosh Hopping 'Tibby' Mills was employed as a carpenter and joiner when he enlisted in the AIF on 10 October 1916, using the name 'Henry Mills'. Posted as a private to the 8th Reinforcements to the 9th Machine Gun Company, service number 554, Mills trained in Seymour, Victoria before embarking for overseas service from Melbourne aboard RMS Osterley on 14 February 1917.
Mills arrived in England in April, where he undertook further training, finally joining his unit in France at the end of August. He took part in fighting at Zonnebeke and Passchendaele in Belgium, during the third battle of Ypres but was evacuated to hospital in England, suffering from trench fever, at the end of October. While recuperating there the machine gun companies were amalgamated into five battalions, one for each Australian Division. The 9th Company became part of the 3rd Machine Gun Battalion, and Mills returned to this unit in France in April 1918.
Mills was killed by two machine gun bullets to the head, near Accroche Wood outside Hamel, early in the morning of 8 August when the advance of the 9th Company was held up by two German machine gun nests. Although some witnesses to his death were sure that he had been buried and a cross erected over his grave, others stated that his body had been placed on top of a trench before following orders to advance without waiting with the wounded or dead. Mills' body was not recovered after the war and his name is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.
At the time of his death Mills would not yet have received the news that his father, his nominated next of kin, had died a month earlier. His mother, Jessie, received this commemorative plaque in her son's honour in December 1922.
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