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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Charles Mills | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 26 November 1866 Camberwell, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 26 July 1948 (aged 81) Southwark, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-arm medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Only Test (cap 20) | 19 March 1892 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: Cricinfo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Charles Mills (26 November 1866 – 26 July 1948) was a cricketer who played in one Test for South Africa in 1892.[1]
Born in London, to Charles Mills a writing engraver and Sarah Jane Wilkinson, Charles Mills was educated at Dulwich College in London. After leaving school he briefly studied art before deciding to become a professional cricketer.[2] A medium-pace bowler and a steady batsman, he played for Surrey from 1885 to 1896, mostly for the club's secondary teams, but including two first-class matches in 1888.[3]
With his Surrey colleague Bill Brockwell, Mills went to South Africa for the 1889–90 season in the hope of finding a coaching position, which they both did in Kimberley.[2] In Mills's first match for the Kimberley Club he scored 297, which was at the time a record score in South Africa.[2] He played a first-class match for Kimberley later that season, when Brockwell took 10 wickets in an innings victory over Natal.[4]
In 1890-91 Mills took up a coaching position in Cape Town, where he stayed for four years, playing in the Western Province team that won the Currie Cup in 1893–94.[5] In March 1892 he played for South Africa in the Test against England, scoring 4 and 21 in a match in which the highest score by a South African batsman was 24.[6]
Mills toured England with the South African team in 1894, in which no first-class matches were played, scoring 452 runs at an average of 14.58, and taking 28 wickets at 23.71.[7] He took his best bowling figures in his last first-class match, for Western Province in the final of the 1894–95 Currie Cup against Transvaal: 5 for 36 in the second innings.[8]
He returned to England in the mid-1890s. He coached in Philadelphia and Scotland and at the English public schools Haileybury, Bradfield and Mill Hill.[2] He umpired Minor Counties matches, mostly involving Norfolk, from 1904 to 1906.[9]