Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 21/12/1914
- Place of Enlistment
- Liverpool NSW
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Date of Birth
- 14/11/1895
- Place of Birth
- Petersham NSW
- Address (at enlistment)
- Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
- School(s) Attended
- Waverley Public School, Drummoyne Technical High School
- Next of Kin
- Son of Emily Mills, Five Dock NSW
- Burial Place
No known burial place.
Unit and Rank Details
- Service Number
- 1995
- Final Rank
- Corporal
- Final Unit
- 4 Battalion AIF
Fate
Died (killed in action) between 6-9 August 1915, Gallipoli, Turkey aged 19 years
Commemoration
AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 41, Canberra ACT
Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey
Notes
Mills entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 12 March 1914 but was discharged on 9 December 1914. The Annual Report for RMC suggests it was because of unsatisfactory progress with his studies but other sources suggest he wanted to enlist, which he did shortly afterwards.
Mills embarked as a Sergeant with the 5th reinforcements to the 4th Battalion in April 1915 and landed on Gallipoli in mid June 1915 where he reverted to the rank of Corporal. In August 1915 the British launched their last major attempt to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula. The 4th Battalion were part of a feint attacking the Turkish positions on Lone Pine on 6 August. Mills was killed early on during the Battle of Lone Pine as he attempted to follow Major Iven Mackay through a junction of Turkish trenches which Bean refers to as the Traversed Trench.
Description - height 5 feet 3¾ inches, weight 134 pounds, fair complexion, blue grey eyes, fair hair, scars over both eyes and on top of his head, Church of England.
Sources
AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
AWM First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. VII, p.511, 512)
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Annual Report of the Royal Military College of Australia (1914-15)
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
NAA RecordSearch - (A10160) 137 Mills Hessel Sydney
Sydney Mail - 29 September 1915
Sydney Morning Herald - 13 September 1915
Hessel Mills. Sydney Morning Herald, 13 September 1915.