James P. Mills (1909–1987) was an American investment banker, throughbred owner,
polo
Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...
player and philanthropist.
Biography
Early life
James P. Mills was born in 1909 the son of Paul Denckla Mills (son of the late General Samuel Miles Mills, Commandant of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point) and Ellen Drexel Paul the granddaughter of Anthony J. Drexel.James P. Mills, 78, Is Dead; Philanthropist Raced Horses ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', September 15, 1987Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame: James P. "Jimmy" Mills /ref> He graduated from
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
, where he was the captain of the polo team in 1931 and 1932.
Banking career
He worked as an investment banker.
Equestrian interests
He owned
Devil's Bag
Devil's Bag (1981–2005) was an American champion Thoroughbred racehorse who was syndicated as a two-year-old for US$36 million, the highest price for any 2-year-old in racing history.
Background
Bred by Canadian E. P. Taylor at his Windfie ...
(1981–2005), Gone West (1984-2009), Believe It, Chumming and Akureyri. Additionally, he was a member of The Jockey Club, the
National Steeplechase Association
The National Steeplechase Association is the official sanctioning body of American steeplechase horse racing.
The National Steeplechase Association was founded on February 15, 1895 by August Belmont Jr., the first president of The Jockey Club an ...
and the
Virginia Equine Hall of Fame
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States, Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United Stat ...
.
He was also an eight-goal polo player from the age of twenty-five. He played at the
Meadowbrook Polo Club
The Meadowbrook Polo Club (originally styled as the "Meadow Brook Club"), located in Old Westbury, New York, is the oldest continuously operating polo club in the United States, first established in 1881.Marie, Kim (August 27, 201The Power of The ...
in
Nassau County, New York
Nassau County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of New York. At the 2020 U.S. census, Nassau County's population is 1,395,774. The county seat is Mineola and the largest town is Hempstead.
Nassau County is situated on western Long Island ...
and at the
Aiken Polo Club The Aiken Polo Club is a polo club in Aiken, South Carolina.
Location
It is located at 240-399 Mead Avenue in Aiken, South Carolina, 29801. It is two blocks away from the Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and Museum, the Rye Patch Estate and t ...
in Aiken, South Carolina.
He won many championships. Both in 1929 and in 1933, he won the
Silver Cup
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical cond ...
, also known as the Junior Championship Cup. In 1932, together with
Elmer Boeseke
Elmer Julius Boeseke, Jr. (August 5, 1895 – October 17, 1963) was an American polo player who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics. He was born in Santa Barbara, California. In 1924 he won the silver medal with the American team in the Olympi ...
(1895-1963),
Winston Frederick Churchill Guest
Winston Frederick Churchill Guest (May 20, 1906 – October 25, 1982), was an Anglo-American polo champion and a member of the Guest family of Britain.
Early life
Winston Frederick Churchill Guest was born on May 20, 1906, to Frederick Guest (18 ...
(1906-1982),
Stewart Iglehart
Stewart Birrell Iglehart (February 22, 1910 – December 19,1993) was a rancher, ice hockey and polo player. He was born in Valparaíso, Chile but moved to the United States at a young age. As a child he learned to play both ice hockey and p ...
Palermo, Buenos Aires
Palermo is a ''barrio'' or neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is located in the north of the city, near the Rio de la Plata.
It has a total land area of 17.4 km2 and a population of 256,927. It is the only ''barrio'' within the admi ...
. The following year, in 1933, he won the
U.S. Open Polo Championship
The US Open Polo Championship is an annual polo championship in the United States. It is organized since 1904 by the United States Polo Association (USPA).
History
The tournament was first played on September 20, 1904 at Van Cortlandt Park in T ...
in
Seymour H. Knox II
Seymour Horace Knox II (September 1, 1898 – September 27, 1990) was a Buffalo, New York, philanthropist and polo player. The son of wealthy businessman Seymour H. Knox, he owned a palatial home designed by C. P. H. Gilbert.Elbridge T. Gerry, Sr. (1909-1999), and Elmer Boeseke.
He also won the Monty Waterbury Cup twice: in 1933 and, three years later, in 1936. That year, in 1936, he was also a reserve for the
International Polo Cup
The International Polo Cup, also called the Newport Cup and the Westchester Cup, is a trophy in polo that was created in 1876 and was played for by teams from the United States and United Kingdom. The match has varied in length over the years ...
. The same year, together with Michael Phipps, Winston Guest and Robert E. Strawbridge, Jr. (1896-1986), he won the
Hurlingham Champion Cup Hurlingham may refer to: Places
*Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, a city in the Buenos Aires Province of Argentina
*Hurlingham Partido, a department of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
* Hurlingham, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa
* Hurlingham, a ...
, the
Roehampton Open Challenge Cup
Roehampton is an area in southwest London, in the Putney SW15 postal district, and takes up a far western strip running north to south of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large council house estates and is home to the ...
and the
Coronation Cup
The Coronation Cup is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Epsom Downs over a distance of 1 mile, 4 furlongs and 6 yards (2, ...
.
Additionally, he wrote about polo for ''The Sportsman''.Joseph Cornelius Rathborne, 'The Copas de Las Americas', ''The Sportsman'', January 1933, p. 22
On February 17, 2012, he was inducted in the Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame in Lake Worth, Florida.
Philanthropy
He founded the
Arthritis Foundation
The Arthritis Foundation is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to addressing the needs of people living with arthritis in the United States. There are more than 50 million adults and 300,000 children living with arthritis, the nation's l ...
.
Personal life
In 1935, he married Alice du Pont Mills (1912-2012). They had two daughters and a son:
*Mimi Mills.Vicky Moon, ''The Middleburg Mystique: A Peek Inside the Gates of Middleburg, Virginia'', Capital Books, 2001 , p. 4 /ref> She was married to William Abel-Smith.
*Phyllis Mills. She is married to painter Jamie Wyeth.
*James P. Mills Jr. He is married to Debbie Manoog Mills.
They lived on Hickory Tree Farm, which includes the Confederate Hall and is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register, located in Middleburg, Virginia. He developed spinal
arthritis
Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In som ...