Charles William Mills, 2nd Baron Hillingdon (26 January 1855 – 6 April 1919) was a British banker and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1892, speaking once, in 1889. Mills was eldest son of Charles Mills, 1st Baron Hillingdon and Lady Louisa Isabella (d.1918), daughter of Henry Lascelles, 3rd Earl of Harewood. He was a lieutenant in the

Queen's Own West Kent Yeomanry The Queen's Own West Kent Yeomanry was a British Army regiment formed in 1794. It served in the Second Boer War and the First World War. It amalgamated with the Royal East Kent (The Duke of Connaught's Own) Yeomanry (Mounted Rifles) to form the ...

and a partner in the banking firm of Glyn, Mills & Co. In the 1885 general election, Mills was elected as

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for the inceptive

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combinat ...

of Sevenoaks in which he owned The Wildernesse, setting up community allotments and an orphanage there. He stood down from the Commons at the 1892 general election. In 1898 he inherited the title Baron Hillingdon and

Hillingdon Court Hillingdon Court is a Grade II listed mansion in Hillingdon, within the London Borough of Hillingdon. Originally built in 1858 as the family home of the Mills family, the mansion has formed part of the ACS Hillingdon International School since 1 ...

outright. In the same year Hillingdon commissioned

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori ...

, who was then working locally, to design

Overstrand Hall Overstrand Hall is a country house in Overstrand, Norfolk, England, designed by Edwin Lutyens for Charles William Mills, 2nd Baron Hillingdon, a partner in Glyn, Mills & Co. Bank. It was built between 1899 and 1901 and is Grade II listed as of ...

. Its work began in 1899 and it was completed by 1901.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

considered it one of Lutyens' most remarkable buildings, but other critics of the day thought it "lacked the picturesqueness of his best works". Lord Hillingdon was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

in March 1900. Hillingdon was godfather to

Harry Elkins Widener Harry Elkins Widener (January 3, 1885 – April 15, 1912) was an American businessman and bibliophile, and a member of the Widener family. His mother built Harvard University's Widener Memorial Library in his memory, after his death on the founde ...

, son of

George Dunton Widener George Dunton Widener (June 16, 1861 – April 15, 1912) was an American businessman who died in the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic''. Early life Widener was born in Philadelphia on June 16, 1861. He was the eldest son of Hannah Josephine Du ...

who both perished on the ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

'' He died in April 1919, aged 64, and was succeeded in the barony by his second son Arthur, the MP for

Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxbrid ...

, elected unopposed to replace his elder brother.

Charles Thomas Mills The Honourable Charles Thomas Mills (13 March 1887 – 6 October 1915) was Conservative Member of Parliament for Uxbridge, elected in January 1910 when he was the youngest MP. He was killed, serving as an officer with the Scots Guards on the W ...

was killed on the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

in France in 1915. Lady Hillingdon, by Frank Dicksee

Hillingdon married Alice Marion Harbord, daughter of Charles Harbord, 5th Baron Suffield, in 1886. They were given Overstrand Hall as a wedding present. Lord Hillingdon's probate was sworn in 1919 at as was that of his mother at a little over 5% of that sum.https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk Calendar of Probates and Administrations

Arms

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hillingdon, Charles Mills, 2nd Baron 1855 births 1919 deaths Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom British bankers Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Queen's Own West Kent Yeomanry officers UK MPs 1885–1886 UK MPs 1886–1892 Hillingdon, B2 19th-century British businesspeople