(Material researched & presented by Barbara Armstrong)

[1842 - 1894]

Dr Andrew Miller Photograph courtesy of Charles Miller (great grandson)

Andrew Miller was born in Scotland on 8 June 1842. He was the second son of Andrew Miller, a successful merchant, and his wife Janet Blair.

By 1844 the family lived in Islington, London, with the 1851 English census showing them at Tollington Park, Islington. They were sufficiently well-off to be able to have a coachman, a cook and an undermaid. At the time of the 1861 Census they were living at 18 Arundel Square, Barnsbury, London. Andrew Miller Junior, age 18, was a Medical Undergraduate at Kings College, London. His mother died 3 years later in 1864.

Dr Miller became registered as a Medical Practitioner on 28 August, 1866. The UK Medical Register for 1867 showed his qualifications: MRCS Eng, 1864 and MD Edinburgh,1866. His address at that time was still 18 Arundel Square. According to an Australian newspaper report of 1869, he spent a few years in Paris and Vienna. He also worked as a physician at the London Homœopathic Hospital.

In November 1869 the South Australian Register reported that Dr Wheeler was about to leave Adelaide, but that Dr Andrew Miller was already on his way to Melbourne to take his place.  Dr Miller was en route to Adelaide where he would become a partner with Dr Allan Campbell, providing medical care via Dr Campbell's private practice as well as via the Adelaide Homœopathic Dispensary.  Dr Miller travelled from London to Melbourne aboard the "Savernake". He then travelled to Adelaide aboard the "Aldinga", arriving 7 January 1870.

Dr Andrew Miller's wife (Nee Agnes Madeline Stuckey) Photograph courtesy of Charles Miller (great grandson)

On 2 November, 1870 he married South Australia-born Agnes Madeline Stuckey, daughter of well-known South Australian architect Henry Stuckey and Agnes Jane Rippingille. Mr Stuckey had died on 31 May 1851, just a few months after his daughter's birth in Adelaide on 2 February 1851. Agnes' mother re-married a year later and therefore Agnes was raised by Edmund William Wright, also a local architect of renown.

Later death notices for Dr Miller stated that he was connected with the Flinders Street Baptist Church in Adelaide. Being part of the Baptist Church, he would have known many of the other families and doctors in Adelaide who were strong believers in their Christian faith, and advocates for homœopathy, such as Dr Samuel Kidner. Miller's death notice also stated that later he was prominently associated with the Plymouth Brethren. His father started his religious life as a voluntary pastor of a Baptist Church in London. Later he became a member of the Plymouth Brethren, writing books such as 'The Brethren' and 'Miller's Church History'. So Dr Miller was following in his father's footsteps.

In 1872 Drs Campbell and Miller were appointed to the Committee of the Adelaide City Mission.

In July 1873 the Loyal Albert Lodge advertised that Dr Miller had been appointed to attend those members who preferred homœopathic treatment. At this time his private residence was at Franklin Street. When the Franklin Street house was advertised as being 'To Let', it was described as having 9 rooms, stabling, a coachhouse, and rooms for servants.

He must have known that his partnership with Dr Campbell was coming to an end at the end of the year and that it was not going to be renewed, as in mid-November he started to advertise for suitable public consulting rooms in the immediate vicinity of the Homœopathic Pharmacy in King William Street, occupation to commence 1 January 1874. His new rooms were 'next to Messrs Townsend & Co's Auction Mart, King William Street, nearly opposite Mr Wigg's Pharmacy'. An announcement was made about the expiration of the partnership 'by effluxion of time'. Dr Campbell continued to occupy the Pharmacy consulting rooms.

In January 1875 the Loyal Duke of Kent Lodge AIOOF decided to appoint an allopath and a homœopath as surgeons to provide services for their members. Dr Miller was the homœopath who was appointed.

Once again he moved his practice in early 1875, this time to the Eagle Chambers on Pirie Street, with the entrance door next to the Town Hall in King William Street. The address in the post office directory was 104 King William Street. At the same time he advertised his private residence in Franklin Street as being 'To Let' and moved to Victoria Terrace, West side, 'next Mr Cotton's'.

In June 1875 he advertised that he had entered into partnership with Dr S J Magarey in the Eagle Chambers in Pirie Street, Adelaide.

Newspaper advertisements were actively publicising the move of the practice and the new partnership. However just a short while later, on 26 July 1875, a notice in the papers stated that he was leaving for England ‘by the next mail’. The advertisements stated that ‘in his absence’ Dr Magarey would manage the practice. This could be taken to mean that he was going to return to Adelaide. However, on 9 August advertisements showed that he was selling his furniture, buggies etc ‘in consequence of his having to visit England’. ‘Having to visit’ implies that there was some urgency, but that he was just visiting England, not staying.

We can only guess at the reason for the sudden move. Andrew and Agnes had two children in Adelaide. Frances Blair Miller was born on 23 July 1871. Marion Madeline Miller was born at their Franklin Street address on 18 September 1874. Sadly, she died just one month later on 20 October 1874. Having lost one child through ill-health, was there a problem with the health of their remaining son?

Frances Miller (Dr Andrew Miller's first son) Photograph courtesy of Charles Miller

Dr & Mrs Miller and child sailed on August 12 1875 aboard the “Pera” bound for King George’s Sound and Galle (on the southern tip of what is now called Sri Lanka), then Southampton. The process of boarding the ship was ‘accomplished by means of a chair’ because the weather was poor and they were unable to berth alongside. Their son, Frances, died on 27 August 1875 during the long journey to England. The ship was 3 miles from Galle. He was only 4 years of age. If he was already experiencing ill-health, they may have wished to return to England for the child's medical treatment. Alternatively, Andrew may have received news that his father's health had declined, although there is no real evidence for this and his father did not die until several years later in 1883.

Following the sudden decision to leave Adelaide and his return to London, at some stage Andrew decided not to travel back to Australia but to settle in England. Despite this, in 1876 there was an advertisement from Birks Chemists, stating that they were favoured by the patronage of Dr Miller.

Notices which advertised the partnership with Dr Magarey and the fact that Dr Magarey was managing the practice during Dr Miller's absence ceased at the end of October 1875, soon after the "Pera" had arrived in England. Dr Magarey must have been informed that his partner was not going to return, as he moved his consulting rooms to his private residence at North Terrace.

Dr Miller’s registered English address in 1875, as per the UK Medical Register, was that of his father at 18 Arundel Square.  By 1879 Dr Miller’s family had moved to 1 Hampstead Hill Gardens, while his father remained at Arundel Square until he died on 8 May 1883. By 1891 Dr Miller & family were at 12 Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead.

Dr Miller and his wife had two more children - Celia Blair Miller, born in 1877, and Reginald Henry Miller, born 10 September 1880. Reginald also became a doctor.

Dr Andrew Miller died on 26 July 1894, having fallen from a horse at Henley-on-Thames. He was only 52 years of age.

Dr Miller’s Will stated that he was ‘of 12 Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead and of 5 Grosvenor Street, and of Parawurlie, Henley-on-Thames’. It was at this last place that he died. He left his estate to his widow, who married again, this time to Morton Alfred Smale, MRCS, LDS. Smale’s death notice in The Chemist & Druggist of 1916 stated: ‘for many years Dean of the Royal Dental Hospital and Member of the Dental Board of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons’. Interestingly, he also died at Parawurlie, which he would have inherited via his wife, Andrew’s widow.

Agnes Madeline Smale died at Henley-on-Thames in 1947, age 96.

NOTE:

The name ‘Parawurlie’ or ‘Para-Wurlie’ is an area on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia – ‘Kawi-Padla, in the hundred of Parawurlie’. Kawi-Padla is aboriginal for “dying water”.  Despite the fact that Dr Miller spent only a few years in South Australia, his choice for the name of his property in England shows that Australia had made and impact on him and that a part of the country remained as a fond memory in his heart. Or perhaps the property had been named by his Australia-born wife?

©   Barbara Armstrong