Mills bombs

[Alan Tucker]

Sir William Mills was Sunderland born in 1856. He set up a factory in Birmingham to manufacture the Mills bomb. But in his obituary (Times January 8 1932) it states re the 75,131,962 manufactured...

"He established Mills Munition Company with works at Birmingham and Sunderland to manufacture it"

So who knows anything about the Sunderland works?

[calibre792x57.y]

Sir William Mills was Sunderland born in 1856. He set up a factory in Birmingham to manufacture the Mills bomb. But in his obituary (Times January 8 1932) it states re the 75,131,962 manufactured...

"He established Mills Munition Company with works at Birmingham and Sunderland to manufacture it"

So who knows anything about the Sunderland works?

Well, Mills had an engineering company at Sunderland and opened an aluminium foundry there. He produced items such as golf clubs and shooting sticks in the 1890's. It is logical to assume that the company would be used to produce components for grenades, but I know of no evidence to substantiate this. It was The Atlas Works,Bonnersfield, Monkwearmouth. - SW

[Gunner Bailey]

Sir William Mills was Sunderland born in 1856. He set up a factory in Birmingham to manufacture the Mills bomb. But in his obituary (Times January 8 1932) it states re the 75,131,962 manufactured...

"He established Mills Munition Company with works at Birmingham and Sunderland to manufacture it"

So who knows anything about the Sunderland works?

Alan

Mills was originally a marine engineer and Sunderland was where he was born and brought up. He was apprenticed as a marine engineer and spend a number of years on cable laying ships. When he retired from the sea he made himself an expert in casting aluminum and his first product in Sunderland was gold clubs. He later went on to make parts for aircraft. That aspect of the business expanded and he set up a factory in Birmingham. When he had developed the Mills No 5 from the Belgian Roland Grenade he set up the Mills Munitions works in Birmingham. It is probable that he made the aluminium centre pieces and early base plugs and filler screws in Sunderland whilst the Birminham factory concentrated on the iron casting and manufacture of levers and steel strikers. Mills Munitions only made about 19 million grenades in WW1, with the majority being made by the hundreds of sub contractors who were drafted in to cope with the huge volume of orders.

Oddly, Mills Munitions in Sunderland and Birmingham also made aluminium parts for a range of shooting sticks sold by Mills. These are marked 'Mills Munitions Birmingham' or W Mills (Sund) Ltd Birmingham.

John

[Alan Tucker]

Thanks John. I know all the biographical stuff but how do you know which factory did what and also the bit about sub-contracting.

[Gunner Bailey]

Alan

When Mills got the first contract for the No 5 he was overwhelmed with the numbers ordered by the Army. Initially he subcontracted to about half a dozen local businesses in Birmingham, but after about 6 months again the number of subcontractors and stand alone contractors expanded. Production of the No 5 only really took off about September 1915. I've always believed that the Sunderland works continued to make items for the civil market, such as golf clubs, shooting sticks etc, but that in the early days of the Mills it would have contributed to the aluminium side of production, though I've not seen written evidence of that. The fact that the shooting sticks come up marked for Birmingham shows that civil work was also done at that site. Mills held a number of patents for marine apparatus and this production would also have been centred on Sunderland, at least pre war.

John

[nigelfe]

Very, very few (probably none) companies took raw material in at one end and finished munitions out the other. Not least because they didn't manufacture explosives and didn't usually do the filling. Sub-contracting was essential to make full use of national capabilities.