Mills, Henry Greer (Henry)
Lance Corporal
No. 18479, ‘A’ Battalion, 13th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles
Killed in action on Thursday 16 August 1917 (aged 28)
Buried:
Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium (Grave III. D. 3)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Holywood and District War Memorial
Holywood Orange Lodges Memorial Plaque
Holywood Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Philip & St James)
Church Bell Ringers’ Memorial Book 1914 – 1918 (Book 2)
Brother of Private Frederick James Greer Mills (No. PLY/16454)
BIOGRAPHY
Henry Greer Mills was born on 15 August 1889 in Knocknagoney and he was a son of John and Anne (Annie) Jane Mills (nee Greer) who were married on 2 March 1887 in Holywood Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Philip & St James). John Mills from Church View, Holywood was a son of John Mills, a labourer. Anne Jane Greer from Windsor Avenue, Belfast was a daughter of David Greer, an Army surgeon.
The Mills family lived at 23 Spencer Street, Holywood and later in the townland of Ballycultra. John Mills worked as a gardener and he and Annie had three children:
Henry Greer (born 15 August 1889 in Knocknagoney)
Florence (born 10 August 1891 in Knocknagoney)
Frederick James Greer (born 8 April 1894 in Knocknagoney)
Prior to the outbreak of the Great War Henry Greer Mills worked as a gardener and he was a bellringer in Holywood Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Philip & St James). He was a member of Holywood Church Bell Ringers Society and his address was Culloden Cottage, Marino.
Henry Greer Mills enlisted in Holywood and served with the 13th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles in 108th Brigade of the 36th (Ulster) Division. Lance Corporal Henry Greer Mills was killed in action on 16 August 1917 at the Battle of Langemarck. It was the day after his 28th birthday and he was buried in Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium. There is an inscription on his CWGC headstone:
THY WILL BE DONE
Lance Corporal Henry Greer Mills is commemorated on Holywood and District War Memorial; on the Holywood Orange Lodges Memorial Plaque, and in Holywood Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Philip & St James). He is also commemorated in the Church Bell Ringers’ Memorial Book 1914 – 1918 (Book 2). This book contains the inscription:
The Central Council
Memorial Book of
Church Bell-Ringers
Who fell in the Great War
1914 – 1918
They whom this book commemorates,
Were numbered among those who,
At the call of King and Country,
Left all that was dear to them,
Endured hardness, faced danger, and
Finally passed out of the sight of men
By the path of duty and self-sacrifice,
Giving up their own lives
That others might live in freedom.