South Mimms is a village and civil parish in the Hertsmere district of Hertfordshire in the East of England. It is a small settlement located near to the junction of the M25 motorway with the A1(M) motorway. History South Mimms parish was the northernmost part of the county of Middlesex. The name is thought to derive from the name of a tribe who once inhabited the area. Potters Bar was originally a small settlement in the parish. Potters Bar became the location of the nearest railway station and eventually became much larger. The parish was split in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894 with the extreme southern tip forming South Mimms Urban parish in the Barnet Urban District and was transferred to Hertfordshire. This area now forms part of the London Borough of Barnet. The rest of the parish became the South Mimms Rural District, later renamed the Potters Bar Urban District. Potters Bar and South Mimms were transferred to Hertfordshire in 1965 instead of becoming part of Greater London. The Grange, a country house in South Mimms, served as a home for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands during her exile during World War II, from 1940. On 20 February 1944, a German air attack on South Mimms narrowly missed her, killing two of her guards, an incident mentioned in her autobiography. This prompted her move to a house near Reading. Dancers Hill in South Mimms was the location of a World War II prisoner-of-war camp, Camp 33, that consisted of two compounds, both providing tented accommodation for prisoners. Richmond Thackeray, father of William Makepeace Thackeray, was born in the parish and baptised in the church in 1781. Clare Hall Manor, a former private residence, became a tuberculosis sanatorium and then a research laboratory. St Giles' Church, South Mimms The Grade I listed parish church of South Mimms is dedicated to Saint Giles. It is situated on the west side of the village. It has a chancel with north vestry and chapel, nave with north aisle and south porch, and west tower. Except for the north aisle and chapel, which are partly of brick, the walls are of flint rubble with stone dressings. The chancel, or at least its western part, is of the 13th century; the east end may be an extension of the earlier 14th century, the date of the east window. It is not structurally divided