by TREVOR GRUNDY
Journalist and musician; Born December 21, 1932; Died February 23, 2007.
The death of Ian Mills, the BBC's correspondent in Rhodesia and later Zimbabwe from 1960 to 1990, marks the end of an era for journalists in southern Africa.
He was the BBC's last full-time correspondent in Zimbabwe. He brought the cruel, twisted and, at the end, staggeringly violent saga of the end of all-white rule in Rhodesia and the birth of all-black power in Zimbabwe into the homes of millions.
"He was one of the BBC's all-time great correspondents," said Peter Burdin, assignment editor at the BBC when told of Ian's death following a long fight against leukaemia.
Ian Mills was not only a first-class journalist. He was a vastly talented musician, one of the finest jazz pianists ever heard in southern Africa.
He came from a humble Scottish home. After their marriage in 1930, Ian's father, William McLean Mills from Montrose, and his mother, Margaret Armstrong Mills (nee MacDougall), from Northumberland, moved south.
Ian was born in Dorking, Surrey, on December 21, 1932. A sickly child, Ian lost time at primary school because of severe bouts of scarlet fever.
He failed his 11-plus exam and was enrolled at East Lane Secondary Modern School. He left there without any qualification at 14.
His first job was as a messenger and tea boy. He earned two shillings a week. In his spare time he played kettle drum for the Greendale Citadel Salvation Army Band, graduating at 13 as a trumpet player with the Hanwell Silver Prize Band.
"His lack of formal education left him scarred," says his journalist wife, Heather. "He said he had such affinity for Peter Sellers, who also didn't know quite who he was. Ian always thought people looked down on him. It was hard to make him think otherwise."
In 1949 the Mills family, which included Ian's sister, Andrea, left England and sailed to Beira in Mozambique and from there travelled by train to the picturesque border town of Umtali (Mutare) where Ian's father joined Rhodesia Railways working as an artisan.
Fortune smiled. Mr Mills won the local lottery and changed occupation, becoming the owner of a jeweller's shop which catered mainly for tourists.
In Rhodesia, Ian Mills blossomed. After a short spell as a customs officer, then as a soldier with the Rhodesian Army, he learned the local language, Shona, and at the age of 26 became a cadet journalist with The Rhodesia Herald, ending up as that newspaper's political editor.
He went on to become a household name in Britain (because of his work for the BBC) during the build-up to Ian Smith's unilateral declaration of independence in 1965.
Mills has two sons by his first marriage, Stephen and Paul, and two daughters by his second, Melissa and Camilla.
His funeral takes place in Harare on Wednesday.
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