1845 – 1901 Henry Michell Millett

Henry Michell Millett was born in Liverpool on 31 December 1845 to Honey and Mary Millett. He was baptised at St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool on 28 May 1946.

At the age of 3, Henry’s father died of Typhus in Liverpool.  On 30th May 1850, his mother Mary remarried.

At the age of 5, Henry is recorded as living in the town of Conchan on the Isle of Man with his mother and stepfather, Thomas W. Allpress, together with siblings Helen E. Millett, age 11, Walter H. Millett, age 7, and Honey Millett Jnr. age 3. His older brother Charles Dewen Millett is recorded as living with his grandfather, Richard Oke Millett, at Penpol, in Hayle, Cornwall.

On the 19th of May 1866, Henry married Catherine Elizabeth Stansbury at St. Mary’s Spring Grove, London. Their son, Henry Stansbury Millett, was born on the 22nd of February 1867.

Henry worked for the civil engineering company, Wilkinson and Jarvis, of Westminster, London. This company was responsible for constructing some of the railway lines in Norfolk, including the Yarmouth and North Norfolk Railway, the Lynn and Fakenham Railway and the Yarmouth Union. 

In the 1881 census, Henry, aged 35, is recorded as living in Walsingham, Norfolk, with his wife and is recorded as a civil engineer. This village is a short distance north of Fakenham.  It lay on the Wells and Fakenham Railway railway line between Fakenham and Wells-on Sea.

In 1883 Henry was living in The Grove, Holt, Norfolk, as the Eastern and Midlands Railway resident engineer. [1]

In 1884 Wilkinson and Jarvis advertised for investment in a new line, part of the Eastern and Midlands Railway, for which they were the contractors.

He later became an engineer during the construction of the Luleå – Ofoten line in Sweden. [6] He took on his nephew, George Curnow Millett, as an apprentice, working on both these projects.

In 1884 the Swedish and Norwegian Railway Co. entered a contract with a firm of contractors to build the line. However, behind the contractors were Messrs Wilkinson and Jarvis, described as honorary engineers to the company but who were largely interested in the contract.

In the Business Directory of London in 1884, Pinn & Millett are recorded as contractors at 3 Victoria Street, SW (London), and in 1888, the electoral register showed his ‘chambers’ as 3, Victoria Street in Westminster, London.

The contractors for constructing the line between Luleå and Ofotenbanan in Northern Sweden were the company, Pinn and Millett.

The London Gazette on 26th December 1893 reported that Pinn and Millett formerly carrying on business at 16 (late 3), Victoria-street, Westminster, in the county of Middlesex, England, as Engineers, under the style of Pinn and Millett, under the partnership formerly existing between them, were calling for creditors to come forward. [4]

On 21st September 1897, Henry joined the Freemason’s Union Lodge, in Georgetown, Demerara, British Guiana.  It is unclear what took him there but the Freemason’s records show he resigned in 1899, presumably to return home to England. [3]

1901 he was living in Fulham with his wife Katherine and Henry S Millett.

Henry died on 18th January 1903 at 30 Lexham Gardens, Middlesex leaving effects of £983.00 (£147,394 in today’s money). He was buried in Kensington and Chelsea, London.

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1. William White’s History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1883.

2. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Henry_Michell_Millett

   * The Homeward Mail from India, China, and the East was first published on 1 January 1857 by Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co. It is a compendium of political, military, and economic news from the East. A predominant part of the paper is related to news about India, the jewel of the British imperial crown. In the early years, it was published every two weeks, but this steadily increased until 1876 when it was published weekly.

3. https://gbggs.org/
4. The London Gazette 26/9/1893