Mills, Hugh

Personal

Fullname: Hugh Mills
aka: ‘Bunty’, Hugh McMillan Mills
Born: 9 Mar 1909 (see notes)
Died: […]
Birthplace: Bonhill
Signed: 6 June 1935
Left: Apr 1936 (free); 1936 (Luton Town)
Position: Forward
Debut: Dunfermline 1-0 Celtic, League, 14 Dec 1935
Internationals: none

Biog

Bonhill-born forward Hugh Mills was a former West Ham United player who signed for Celtic in June 1935 after being released by the English club, despite having scored for West Ham in their first ten games of season 1934-35. He was brought in as cover for the departing Jimmy Dunn.

“Mills may give Celtic the bite they need” it was remarked. A pacey player, reputedly able to do the 100 yards sprint in 11 seconds.

Bunty actually had to appeal to the English League authorities to get West Ham to reduce the transfer fee on his head. The English League turned out to be even more sympathetic and cut it to nothing.

Despite the dramas over his transfer, he actually only had a solitary senior league appearance for the Bhoys, a 1-0 league defeat at Dunfermline on 14th December 1935. Without Delaney and McGrory, Celtic suffered their first league defeat since the opening game of the season against Aberdeen, when Dunfermline’s centre-forward Morrison, making his first-team debut, scored the only goal of the game in 58 minutes.

Hugh Mills may have got the chance with the first team, but the loss of two key players like Delaney & McGrory was never going to be easy to cover for anyone, let alone a debutant. Hugh Mills had taken Crum’s role as outside-right, whilst Crum had taken on Jimmy McGrory’s role as main striker.

The result from his debut was a shock defeat, but Celtic bounced back the next week to defeat Aberdeen 5-3 (victors over Celtic at the start of the season) but now without Hugh Mills, and Celtic carried on to win the league title. Aberdeen were Celtic’s main challengers for the title, and Aberdeen were on top of the league at the time of Celtic’s victory which helped turn the tables.

He would be released by the club in April 1936 and went on to join Luton Town and Carlisle United, the latter is where he is said to have had his best spell under manager David Taylor.

Hugh Mills came from a large footballing family. His father was a decent Junior player and trainer, and he had four brothers who all distinguished themselves at various levels of the game. The best of the brothers was Willie, who played for Aberdeen and Clyde and was capped three times for Scotland.

While playing Junior football, Hugh Mills crossed the sectarian divide by moving from St Anthony’s to Bridgeton Waverley.

According to the book ‘Alphabet of the Celts’, Hugh Mills was also a sprinter, winning the Powderhall Sprint Handicap under the assumed name “C. McCallum“. The McCallum in question may have been a notorious Vale of Leven player with a reputation for assaulting referees.

• 1935-36