Frank Mills

Frank Harland Mills AO (20 June 1910 – 6 April 2008) was an Australian surgeon who specialised in thyroid surgery and cardiac surgery. He was also known for his work as a military physician as a Japanese prisoner-of-war (POW) during World War II.

Early life Mills was born on 20 June 1910 in Armidale, New South Wales. He was one of four children born to Florence and Percy Mills; his father was a local magistrate.

Mills' mother died when was six years old and he was raised by his father in Moruya;

Mills performed the first successful surgery to treat blue baby syndrome at RPAH. In 1952, he performed a surgical widening of the tricuspid valve and in 1955 he repaired an atrial septal defect in "what is thought to be the first open-heart surgery done in Australia". He also performed surgeries for coarctation of the aorta, patent ductus arteriosus, and mitral stenosis.

Personal life In 1960, Mills married Elayne Smith, with whom he had two children, including composer Jonathan Mills. Outside medicine he was a part-owner of a vineyard in the Hunter Valley and was chairman of the pastoral company operating Wollogorang Station.

Mills died in Sydney on 2 April 2008, aged 97.