People on board

MILDRED, Vivian Leopold

Vivian Leopold Mildred was born in 1884 in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire to Francis William Mildred and Charlotte Ann Day. He was the fourteenth of their fifteen children, ten of whom were alive in 1911. Francis Mildred was, at various stages, a manager, accountant, cashier and colliery agent before setting up his own business as a coal and lime merchant. He entered local politics in 1878 when he won a seat in the Middlesbrough Municipal Election. His obituary named him as “one of the most useful members of the Corporation”. The family lived in Cumberland Villas, Borough Road in the city.

In the 1891 census Francis gave his occupation as General Merchant, while his eldest son was an Analytical Chemist and the second was a Merchant’s Clerk. In June of that year Francis, then aged forty-four, died during an influenza epidemic, leaving Charlotte with just under £6,000 and thirteen children. By the time of the 1901 census only four were at home, including Vivian then aged seventeen and working as a Shipping Clerk. That was still his occupation in 1911 when only he and one sister were in Borough Road with their mother.

Vivian Mildred enlisted in the Yorkshire Hussars, but no details of his military career have been found. In October 1918 he was Squadron Quarter Master Sergeant with the 2/1 Brigade which had moved to Ireland in April of that year. Presumably returning home on leave he travelled on RMS Leinster but he did not survive the sinking, nor was his body recovered.

His name is recorded on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton and on the Middlesbrough War Memorial. It is also included in the Book of Remembrance in the parish church of St John and St Michael in Middlesbrough.