Herbert Vincent Mills 1856-1928

[Bob Dobson]

HV Mills was born in Accrington. His father was a railway engineer then living on Richmond St, which is not far from Charter Street where the engine sheds were located. Herbert was apprenticed as a railway engineer, but soon after qualifying, he went to attend what would become the Unitarian College and Owens College, which would become Manchester University.(1876-79) He left to become a minister in Bolton, Colne, Liverpool and Kendal. His father, Edmund, was a trustee of Accrington's Unitarian church, built in Oxford St in 1859/60.
Whilst serving at Kendal he took a great deal of interest in the social conditions of working class people and attracted some influential social workers to live in a colony at nearby Starnthwaite. He directed the group for nine years, with some success. He left in 1916 in failing health, but in 1922 resumed his ministry in Bridegwater for three years, then at Islington, London and Glasgow.

Mills was a highly-respected socialist, known for his work with young people and the working classes.

[Bob Dobson]

In the 1901 census, HV's parents are living at 110, Whalley Rd. That area was known as 'Waterloo' at that time. HV had a brother and a sister