George Mills

George Mills (1808–1881) was a 19th-century Scottish shipbuilder, journalist and novelist. Life He was born 13 April 1808, the son of William Mills, a successful merchant trading between American and Britain (with bases in Liverpool and Greenock, who was later Lord Provost of Glasgow. He studied at Glasgow University, but did not graduate, instead becoming a Manager of the Leith branch of his father's shipping company in 1827 (aged only 19). He organised steam packets between Leith and London from an office at Newhaven harbour. In 1833/34 Mills went into independent business with a partner, Charles Wood, creating "Wood & Mills", based at Littlemills in Bowling west of Glasgow. Here they made iron-hull steamers and canal boats. Charles Wood dissolved the partnership around 1840 to set up alone, and Mills himself abandoned shipbuilding in 1844 due to a downturn in the market. In 1845 he began working both as a stockbroker and as Manager of the Bowling and Balloch Railway Company and the Loch Lomond Steamship Company (based at Balloch). In 1857 he branched out into journalism, creating the Glasgow Advertiser and Shipping Gazette.