Robert was born on 1 August 1897 in Swanley (Dartford) Kent, the first of 5 children of Robert and Alice (née Murphy) Mills, with brother Bertie (1900) and 3 sisters Clara (1901), Kate (1907) and Alice (1909) completing the family unit living in the Swanley, Dartford, area of Kent.

When he enlisted, Robert made himself appear one year older by changing his birth year from 1897 (actual) to 1896 according to his RN Doc’s. He joined HMS PEMBROKE ll on 9 November 1914 as a Stoker Second Class.  On 27 April 1915 he joined the cruiser HMS DIAMOND and was advanced to Stoker First Class on 9 November 1915. After completing 27 months on board and volunteering for the submarine service, he received a draft to HMS DOLPHIN on 20 July 1917. After only 10 days in DOLPHIN, on 31 July he was drafted to HMS LUCIA moored in the Tees and depot ship for the 10th Submarine Flotilla where he joined HMS G9 attached to LUCIA.

G9 left Scapa Flow on 9 September 1917 for a patrol area between the Shetland Islands and Norway, later area moved further North to keep her clear of Home Fleet exercises. On 16 September G9 attacked what she thought was a German U-boat but was in fact the RN destroyer HMS PASLEY. In atrocious weather conditions and bad visibility, the OOW of PASLEY reacted by thinking G9 was a German U-boat and rammed the submarine that had fired torpedoes at him. After the collision G9 sank very quickly. Though 5 of her crew managed to escape the submarine, only one was alive and survived the ordeal of the rough cold seas and was picked up by PASLEY.

Stoker 1c Robert Henry Mills, Svc No. K23500 “Crossed The Bar” with 32 of his shipmates. He is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial on Panel 24.