Rushden Echo, 24th June 1927, transcribed by Peter Brown

“Happiest Couple” for Raunds
New Officials Win Stonehenge Flitch - A Model Husband

The newly appointed superintendent and matron of Raunds Children’s Home, Mr and Mrs Ernest Mills, who take up their duties at Raunds next month, have achieved the enviable honour of winning the Stonehenge Flitch for being the most happily wedded couple.

The flitch (of bacon) was presented to them on Saturday at Amesbury, Wiltshire, where Mr and Mrs Mills have been porter and nurse respectively of the Poor Law Institution.

Pleading their claim before the “court” Mr Mills, who belongs to Stoke Newington, North London, said they had been happily married ten years, and every morning he took he took his wife’s tea to her in bed. He always nursed her when she was ill. Amesbury Workhouse, he said, was noted for its skilly, and recently a “crimson rambler” – a new kind of road surveyor – paid tribute to it on the wall of the Institution as follows:

“Here lie the remains of a Weary Willie,
He has done with oakum, dry bread, and skilly;
He has left his can to Tired Tim,
For Amesbury skilly has done for him.”

Mrs Mills said she was born at Wellington and was aged 37. Her husband was not too much of a “frothblower,” but with her consent he had half-a-pint of beer a week. He was neither a Freemason nor a Buffalo, and so had no vices. Even when her pet dog ate all his canaries he spoke no angry word. Since her marriage her husband had kissed her three times daily.