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Lt Bruce Norman DICKINSON, London Scottish/Royal West Kent Regt.
1890 - 1916

The youngest son of James Watson Dickinson, a Manager of a Bank who was born in
Scotland, Bruce had an older brother, Roy and lived in a large and comfortable house in the
Drive, Sidcup. The family had two live-in servants: Amelia Wickens and Daisy Bordon. He
was sent to a Boarding School in Surrey, followed by University and before he enlisted he
worked in a Bank with the position of clerk. Bruce was extremely tall at 6ft 2 ins. and
Captain of the 2nd Eleven Sidcup Cricket Club.

With his Scottish ancestry, Bruce Dickinson first joined the 14th London Regiment, London
Scottish, but was later transferred to the Royal West Kent Regiment with the position of
Second Lieutenant. The Regiment was formed at Maidstone in May 1915 by Lord Harris,
Vice Lieutenant of Kent, at the request of the Army Council. 2nd Lt. Dickinson was in the
same regiment as Captain Robert Pillman of the Cottage, Church Road, Foots Cray.

In 1915, the R.W.K.R. was the first of the regimental battalions in the thick of the fray when
it clashed with the 12th Brandenburg Grenadiers at Tertre during the summer. It was at this
time that the Regiment was undergoing great expansion with the 6th, 7th and 8th Service
Battalions being raised. They fought at the Battle of Loose and Bruce Dickinson was
tragically killed by an exploding shell on 29th June 1916. Both Lt. Ivor Jones and Captain
Pillman wrote letters of condolence to Bruce Dickinson’s parents.

In Memoriam - Bruce Dickinson was buried in the Gunners Farm Military Cemetery,
Hainault, Belgium, which was begun in July 1915.

Mrs Mary Ann King, The Dairy, Foots Cray was very well known throughout both Foots
Cray and North Cray. Together with her husband, John Thomas, she operated a dairy and
milk depot, which was established in Foots Cray village about 1880 on a piece of ground
owned by them on the site of their house.

Knowing that the workers from London factories regularly passed their Foots Cray
premises in horse-drawn omnibuses when on their way to a country outing, Mr & Mrs
King decided to turn the small piece of land alongside their dairy into a business
opportunity and opened up a Tea Garden. They did most of the work themselves, but by
1911 they had a young girl helping who was Mrs. King’s niece and had been born in South
Africa.

Mrs King was born Mary Ann Mills 1853, in Meopham, Kent the eldest of six siblings. Her
younger brother, Walter John Mills, joined the Army and before he was 18 years-old he was
serving in South Africa as a private with the 60th Kings Royal Rifles. On leaving the army
he decided to settle in South Africa and in 1881 he was working as a policeman when he
married a girl from the north of England, Maria Sugitt. The couple had two sons and three
daughters. Their two sons, William Walter Mills, born 1882, and Godfrey Mills, born 1894 in
South Africa both later emigrated to Canada with the whole family.

William Walter John MILLS enlisted aged 32 in April 1915 and was assigned to 52nd
Battalion, Canadian Infantry. He soon reached the standard of Company Sgt Major. He was
married to Edith Ethel of Main Street, Kenora, Ontario. Before joining the army as an
instructor, he had formerly been in the navy. William Mills died in the trenches of N.W.
Courcelette on 6th October 1916.

In Memoriam - Remembered on the Vimy Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

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