Frederick Miller

Frederick Miller
Rank 
Rifleman
Regiment 
London Regiment (London Irish Rifles)
Date of death 
28 September 1915
Age of death 
18
Address 
130 Balfour Road
Ilford
IG1 4JD
Address source 
1911 Census
Cemetery / Memorial 
France
Photo source 
Ilford County High School Magazines
Biography 

Frederick was born on 19th September 1897 and attended Ilford County High School between September 1910 and July 1914. He left just one week before the start of the war. His first and only occupation was as a soldier. When the war started, he was living in the Litherland district of Liverpool.

His father, John, was a 3rd Class Surveyor for Customs. The family lived at 130 Balfour Road in 1910 which meant that Frederick had one of the shortest possible journeys to school. His older brother, Charles had also attended Ilford County High School (1906-10).  Frederick was a keen amateur actor and he played Denis the Hangman in a Barnaby Rudge scene for the 1912 school prize-giving evening. He was also a keen sportsman and a member of the 1914 school athletics team that won the Russell Cup and Captain of the First Eleven Football team. By the time of the war, his parents (John and Margaret) were living at 9 Toronto Road, Ilford.

Prior to studying at Ilford County High School, Frederick had spent some time attending both Cleveland Road and Christchurch Road Elementary Schools.

Frederick is recorded on the first Roll of Honour (in the Christmas 1914 school magazine, Chronicles). It gives his regiment as the ‘London Irish’. Frederick was a Rifleman in the 1st/18th Battalion of the London Regiment (London Irish Rifles), service number 2051. He was buried in the Noeux-les-Mines Communal Cemetery (Grave I. B. 31).

The Christmas 1915 Chronicles included the following tribute;

‘It is hard to believe that Fred. Miller is dead- that his powerful, active body is still for ever. He took a very prominent part in our Sports; he was captain of Football and Captain of Cricket while in the Fifth Form. He was also a good broad-jumper, but his great event on Annual Sports Days was Throwing the Cricket Ball. For this he held our record. As a bomb-thrower he naturally earned distinction, and won a cup in France for his skill in this dangerous game. His death on the Field of Honour hits the Old Boys’ Association hard. We were relying on him for Football and Cricket after the war. Private Miller was in the 18th London (London Irish Rifles).’

Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS

Sources:

Ancestry.com

ICHS school records and magazines

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Note

Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.