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Name: MILLS, Thomas Henry Arthur
Birth Date: 6 Oct 1911 Hersham, Surrey
Death Date: 20 Nov 1955 murdered at Rumuruti
First Date: 1931
Last Date: 1955
Profession: Farmer
Area: Rumuruti
Book Reference: Sitrep 2, Hut, EA & Rhodesia, Sheardown
General Information:
One of the original '500' men in the Kenya Regt. in 1937. (KR 219).
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Aberdare Voters List
East Africa & Rhodesia - 19/1/56 - On a charge of murdering his employer, Major Arthur Mills of Rumuruti, Kenya, his farm manager Allen Edward Huxley, who went to the Colony last May, has been committed for trial. Dr. Maurice Rogoff, police pathologist, told the court in Nakuru that the deceased had died from heart failure and asphyxia following convulsions which could have been caused by strychnine poisoning.
For the defence Mr L.E. Long admitted that there was evidence that death had occurred from strychnine poisoning and that Huxley had a motive for wishing the death of Major Mills but said that the Crown must prove that the accused had actually administered the poison with intent to murder.
Sheardown - "….. Surprising, therefore, that a prominent member of the local community [Rumuruti] Major Tom Mills, should have been murdered. Tom was a good friend of mine. He was about 40 years of age and a very hale and hearty sort of chap. It came as something of a shock to me, in the circumstances, to learn that he had died suddenly of a heart attack. His manager, Alan Huxley, told me the sad tidings when I met him on one of my visits to town, and he seemed so cut up about it that I invited him to our place for the night. Next morning, after the usual Kenya light breakfast of a couple of eggs and a chop or two, he went back to his place 20 miles away, and that was the last that I saw of him for he was subsequently arrested, charged with murdering Tom, to whom he had administered a lethal dose of strychnine in a gin and tonic, and hanged in Nakuru Prison a couple of months later. This was one of the annual murders, which took place regularly on or around Christmas Day for 3 years running.
Hut - Hon. Sec. Laikipia Farmers Ass. Narok Est. sold to A. Cole. Murdered by Huxley
Gazette 27 Dec 1955 probate