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2nd 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 aged 20 and Daisy Bordon, aged 19 years. He was sent to a
Boarding School in Surrey, followed by University and before he enlisted he worked in a Bank with the
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position of clerk. Bruce was extremely tall at 6ft 2 ins. and Captain of the 2 Eleven Sidcup Cricket
Club.

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With his Scottish ancestry, Bruce Dickinson first joined the 14 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
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request of the Army Council. 2 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
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with the 12 Brandenburg Grenadiers at Tertre during the summer. It was at this time that the
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Regiment was undergoing great expansion with the 6 , 7 and 8 Service Battalions being raised.
They fought at the Battle of Loose and Bruce Dickinson was tragically killed by an exploding shell on
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29 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. He is remembered on the Foots Cray Memorial.
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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
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Africa as a private with the 60 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.

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William Walter John MILLS, born 1882, enlisted aged 32 in April 1915 and was assigned to 52
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
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formerly been in the navy. William Mills died in the trenches of N.W. Courcelette on 6 October 1916.
In Memoriam - Remembered on the Vimy Memorial, Pas de Calais, France