FREDDIE MILLS

EARLY LIFE

He was born Frederick Percival Mills in Bournemouth, Hampshire, the youngest of the four children of Thomas James Mills, a totter and marine store dealer, and his wife Lottie Hilda Gray.

MILITARY SERVICE

In January 1940 he joined the Royal Air Force and went on to become first a corporal physical training instructor and, by the following year, a sergeant, while continuing to box professionally. In March 1945, Mills was posted to India and Burma as part of a touring party that also included Denis Compton, giving lectures and boxing demonstrations and taking part in exhibition bouts.

Mills returned to the UK and was demobilised in March 1946.

PERSONAL LIFE

On 30 September 1948, Mills married Christine Marie McCorkindale ("Chrissie") (25 December 1913 – 4 November 1994) at Herne Hill Methodist Church. She had a son, Donnie, by former husband Don McCorkindale. They honeymooned in South Africa, where they stayed with McCorkindale, with whom Mills was good friends.

Mills and his wife went on to have two daughters, Susan Marhea (born 17 June 1952) and Amanda Christine Elizabeth (born 12 June 1958). They lived, with Donnie, at Joggi Villa in Denmark Hill in south London from June 1947.

LIFE AFTER BOXING

A month after confirming his retirement, Mills was granted a manager's licence by the BBBofC, taking on Brixton heavyweight Terry O'Connor as his first boxer. In June 1950, Mills' autobiography, Twenty Years, was published. In 1951 he gained a promoter's licence and put on many successful events until the mid-1950s.

He appeared in 12 films, including Carry on Constable (1960) and Carry on Regardless (1961).

Mills began investing in property in the late 1940s, acquiring several houses and flats. In 1946 he opened the Freddie Mills Chinese Restaurant at 143 Charing Cross Road as a joint venture with Charles Luck and actor Andy Ho. He also briefly jointly owned a café in Peckham with his friend and investment adviser Bill Bavin. By 1963 the Chinese restaurant was no longer profitable, and Mills and Ho converted it to a nightclub ('The Freddie Mills Nite Spot') at a cost of around £12,000, re-opening in May that year. After initially hoping to make the club a family venue, they were pressured into allowing 'hostesses' to work there, unknown to Mills a euphemism for prostitutes. He became friends with the Kray Twins, notorious criminals who frequented his club. In August 1963 Mills and Ho started the Freddie Mills Theatrical Agency, based at the club. After its initial success his nightclub began to fail and he tried to sell it, without success.

DEATH

On 24 July 1965, Mills was found dead in his car, parked in Goslett Yard, off an alleyway behind his nightclub. A fairground rifle was found in the car with Mills, who had been shot through his right eye.

Mills's funeral took place at St. Giles’ Parish Church, Camberwell, and he was buried in Camberwell New Cemetery in south London. The pallbearers included boxing promoter Jack Solomons, British Heavyweight Champion Henry Cooper, the Secretary of the BBBofC, Teddy Waltham, and entertainer Bruce Forsyth (who also gave the funeral address). His grave has a marble boxing glove on it, beneath which is an urn containing a real boxing glove.