Richard Charles Mills
Richard Mills Captain (acting) | |
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Unit | 61st Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery |
Alma mater | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Economics |
Institutions | |
Thesis | The Colonization of Australia 1829–42 (1915) |
Notes | |
Professor Richard Charles Mills
Early years and background
Mills was born in
He was educated at Melbourne's University High School, Melbourne and the University of Melbourne, where he studied law, history and political economy, gaining his Bachelor of Laws in 1909 and Masters in 1910.[3] Mills was, in 1907, the first president of the Students' Representative Council, Melbourne University.
In 1912 he entered the
Career
Military
He enlisted with the British Army in December 1915, and after officer training served in France and Belgium with the 61st Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, and suffered from a gas attack at Armentières in April 1918, when he was mentioned in dispatches.[3]
Academia
After the war he returned to Melbourne, and for a few years tutored in history at Queen's College. In 1921 Mills lectured in economics and commerce at the University of Sydney, then in 1922 was appointed Professor of Economics and head of the faculty. He appointed Frederic Benham as a lecturer. Under his deanship the University of Sydney could claim to have the leading economics school in Australia.[3]
In 1930 he was awarded a Carnegie visiting professorship and spent several years with his family in America. In 1932 he was appointed to a committee to tasked with prepare a preliminary survey of Australia's Depression-induced economic problems and in the same year appointed by the
Mills served as a professor of economics at the University of Sydney from 1922 to 1945. He was the chairman of the professorial board of the University of Sydney from 1934 to 1941; and was a member of the University of Sydney Senate in from 1934 to 1946.
Government and other roles
He was instrumental in the negotiations that resulted in reformed Commonwealth taxes and simultaneously abolished state income taxes, replacing them with grants from the Commonwealth Grants Commission. In 1950 he was chairman of the committee on financing of universities which recommended a grants system, which resulted in expanded teaching and research capabilities and higher academic standards, an achievement of which Prime Minister Robert Menzies proudly pointed to as an achievement of his government.
As director of the newly formed Commonwealth Office of Education, Mills was responsible also for schools in the ACT and the Northern Territory, the Australian involvement with UNESCO, and other forms of overseas educational aid.
Mills served as a commissioner for the Victorian royal commission on high prices in 1919;
In 1924 he help to found the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand.
Mills was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1936. In 1957, the first R.C. Mills memorial lecture was held in his honour. In 1949, the University of Sydney named the first permanent building for the Faculty of Economics 'The R.C. Mills Building' in 1949. It remains to this day; and the Australian National University has named a boardroom in the Chancelry Building in Mills' honour.
Other interests
Mills was a keen sportsman; he excelled at
Mills enjoyed poetry, the theatre and reading. He was the author of several anonymously published short stories, and was an expert bridge player. In the 1930s The Sunday Sun published a humorous column, Diary of a Doctor who was Told,[3] a spoof on Diary of a Doctor who Tells, also in The Sunday Sun.
Family and later life
Mills married Irishwoman Helen Elizabeth Crawford at Ballymena, Ireland on 14 October 1916. They had two sons and two daughters, and lived most of their lives in the Sydney suburb of Mosman.
Mills, who suffered from chronic nephritis and arteriosclerosis, died in a hospital on 6 August 1952 and was cremated.[3]
Selected publications
- Mills, R. C.; Benham, Frederic C. (1925) Principles of Money, Banking and Foreign Exchange Applied to Australia. Workers' Educational Association, Sydney.[8]
- He wrote the introduction to the Everyman edition of Wakefield's A Letter from Sydney (London, 1929).
- He wrote the entry on Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences(New York, 1932).
- He contributed many articles to the Economic Record, journal of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand.
- Mills, R. C.; Sir Walker, Ronald. Money (1935), underwent 13 editions.
References
- ^ "New Books". The Argus. Victoria, Australia. 7 January 1916. p. 4. Retrieved 29 May 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ a b "Professor Mills Dies". The Argus. No. 33, 050. Victoria, Australia. 7 August 1952. p. 14. Retrieved 29 May 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Groenewegen, P. D. (1986). "Mills, Richard Charles (1886–1952)". Australian Dictionary of Biography (published first in hardcopy ed.). National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
- ^ "he Heyfield Herald". The Heyfield Herald. Victoria, Australia. 23 November 1916. p. 2. Retrieved 29 May 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Resignation of the Hon. Sir Frederic Wikkiam Eggleston. Appointment of Professor Richard Charles Mills, O.B.E., LL.M., D.Sc.Econ., Associate Professor Gordon Leslie Wood, M.A., Litt. D., and the Right Hon. Sir George Foster Pearce, K.C.V.O." Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 226. Australia. 13 November 1941. p. 2509. Retrieved 29 May 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Death in Sydney of Professor R.C. Mills". The Canberra Times. Vol. 26, no. 7788. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 7 August 1952. p. 2. Retrieved 29 May 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "'Varsity Athletics". The Sun. No. 5438. New South Wales, Australia. 13 April 1928. p. 12. Retrieved 29 May 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "New Publications". Huon Times. Vol. 16, no. 1680. Tasmania, Australia. 18 August 1925. p. 5. Retrieved 29 May 2017 – via National Library of Australia.