Mills, John
No.6299 – Private John Mills–16th Battalion AIF
John Mills was born in Balaklava South Australia to Samuel and Catherine Mills in 1871. He was educated at Prince Alfred College and a Commercial College in South Australia. After leaving school he took up work as an Ironmonger and also joined the volunteer forces in South Australia. He later came to Western Australia and married his wife Edith West. They had two children both born in Fremantle, Reginald in 1892 and Mavis in 1897. The family lived in South Terrace and John worked in a few stores in the Fremantle area over the coming years, mainly in the Hardware trade. Prior to the war he also lived for a time in Coolup and then Pinjarra.
Reginald Mills enlisted into the AIF in October 1915 and sailed away in January 1916 with reinforcements to the 16th Battalion. Perhaps this was a spur for John, as despite being 45 years of age; on the 7th March 1916 he went to the Bunbury Drill Hall to enlist in the AIF. He was passed as fit for service with the medical examiner finding him to be 5 feet 10 inches tall; weight of 144 lbs; chest measurement of 35-37 inches; fair complexion; blue eyes and white hair. His religious denomination was Church of England.
After enlisting; John was sent to Blackboy Hill Camp where he was assigned to No.58 Training Depot. However he was soon assigned to the 20th Reinforcements to the 16th Battalion AIF. He trained with them in WA until the 13th October 1916 when they embarked from Fremantle aboard the HMAT Suffolk. The long sea journey to England took just under two months and the ship berthed at Plymouth Harbour on the 2nd December 1916. After disembarking John was sent to the 4th Training Battalion on the Salisbury Plains. He only remained here for a few weeks on the 29th December 1916 he boarded a troopship at Folkestone and sailed across the Channel to France. The following day John was taken on strength of the 4th Australian Division Base Depot.
John remained at the depot for nearly six weeks before reporting to the 16th Battalion on the 11th February 1917. The battalion were then in the vicinity of Flers on the Somme battlefield. Towards the end of the month the Germans began a withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. Their withdrawal was pressed all the way by Australian and British troops but by early April they were behind the thick wire of the Hindenburg Line. An attack was planned to break through this position at Bullecourt. The 16th Battalion, along with the 13th Battalion would advance against this position and try to capture the Germans trench lines. A great advance was made against very heavy fire and the Australians made it into the trenches however with no artillery support the Germans were able to get superiority of fire and stop any reinforcements from coming across No Man’s Land. The Australian casualties were heavy and with no supplies coming in the men were soon out of ammunition. Those who could made their way back to the Australian lines but many of the 16th Battalion had been surrounded and were taken Prisoner of War.
John, who was known to his fellow soldiers as “Dad” due to his elderly appearance was one such soldier who was captured. Along with other unwounded soldiers he was mistreated by the Germans by being forced to work on hard labour behind their lines on work which was often conducted under British shellfire. They were based at a hell hole of a prison camp in Lille for the next few months and were overworked and not given enough food. In late June 1917 John was moved to Dulmen Camp in Germany but became very ill from the treatment by the Germans and he died on the 3rd July 1917.
He was buried in the Prisoners of war Cemetery in Dulmen but after the war was exhumed and moved to Cologne Southern Cemetery in plot X.A.5.
His son Reginald served with the 48th Battalion at Pozieres and was wounded. He returned to his battalion but was severely wounded in November 1916 at Flers. As a result of this wound he returned to Australia in 1917 and came back to Fremantle.