24 Dec 2024
Ginger Mills was one of the city’s legendary icons, but fact and fiction blur together when trying to piece together the life story of this eccentric character.
He is believed to have been born in London in 1937, presumably an orphan or a foundling as he was raised in a convent in Worcestershire.
Ginger spent his adolescence at Harperbury Hospital, leaving in 1961 to work with Bertram Mills travelling circus, possibly with the elephants.
It was at this time that he honed his image of leathers, star-studded belt and tattoos, and after leaving the circus moved to St Albans in around 1968, although some sources say earlier.
He acquired a camper van and moved to Gentle’s Yard, a wasteland on the site of what is now Christopher Place Shopping Centre, before being bought out in 1980 and relocating near the Fighting Cocks.
Ginger featured in the first issue of iconic music magazine Zigzag, edited by Peter Frame, as the subject of a poem penned by St Albans writer Jeff Gloves.
He also partly inspired playwright Jez Butterworth in the creation of Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron for his play Jerusalem.
As time wore on, Ginger began spending less time in St Albans, and more with friends in Pershore, Worcestershire, growing disillusioned with how the city was changing.
He died from a heart attack in a Worcestershire hospital on Friday, February 8 2008 at the age of 70.
