Ian Mills passed away in Harare on 22 February, 2007, after a long battle with leukemia and, latterly, cancer. He was born in Dorking, Surrey, in 1932 and moved, with his parents, to Umtali, Rhodesia, in 1949. After short spells as a customs officer and soldier, he joined The Rhodesia Herald at the age of 26. He became municipal correspondent and, latterly, political editor. He left Herald House in the 1970s to freelance and was the BBC’s correspondent for Rhodesia, and then Zimbabwe, in the last years of UDI and the early years of the Mugabe regime ~ “One of the BBC’s all-time great correspondents”, according to a senior BBC editor.
He reported for several other newspapers, radio stations and magazines around the World, including Newsweek and Time magazines. Friends remember him, also, as a keen cyclist, skater and golfer. Ian was not only a first-class journalist, he was also a very talented musician, considered one of the finest jazz pianists to play in southern Africa. Many older Rhodesians will remember bring highly entertained by he and his group, SOUNDS ANONYMOUS, at Highlands Park Hotel, Salisbury.
Ian had two sons ~ Stephen and Paul ~ by his first marriage to Jill and two daughters ~ Melissa and Camilla ~ from his second marriage, to journalist Heather Silk. At this memorial service, Melissa played a hymn, to the tune of Danny Boy, which reduced mourners to tears.
Reproduced per kind permission of Chris Whitehead, the Editor of the Rhodesians Worldwide magazine.