Children of Francis Benjamin Miller
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Francis Spurstow Miller, 1863-1954, was the oldest of the two sons of Benjamin Miller and Charlotte Elizabeth Taylor. He was born in Liverpool 25 November 1863 and entered the Royal Navy in January 1877. He was presented in 1919 with the Companion of the Order of the Bath for his military service. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral in 1913 just before World War I prior to which he commanded the cruiser Niobe, the Hawke, the Sutlej, the battleship Goliath and the pre-dreadnought Duncan. In 1917 he was put in charge of the northern division of the naval command in Ireland. By the end of the war he was a vice-admiral. Just after he retired on 1 June 1922 he was promoted to full admiral. His obituary appeared in The Times, 8 Feb 1954, p.8, col. E. He married Amy Knowles Ross in 1888 in Liverpool and they had four children: Charlotte May Miller, who died young; William Francis Spurstow Miller, who died in France in 1916 during World War I; Cecil Spurstow Miller, who married Dorothy Scholes; and Henry Nelson Spurstow Miller, who died as an infant. Amy Ross Miller died in 1949 and Francis died 6 February 1954, both in Bournemouth, Dorset, England. Photograph of Admiral Francis Spurstow Miller in uniform Photo of Francis Spurstow Miller and his bride, Amy Knowles Ross |
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William Joseph Miller, 1864-1904, second son of Benjamin Miller and his first wife, Charlotte Elizabeth Taylor, emigrated to Canada with he father and stepmother in 1880, ending up in Birtle, Manitoba. Benjamin and his son, William, bought 640 acres in an area called the “Birdtail” and later named Solsgirth in the
St. James district. William eventually took over the full management of "Rosevale" farm. He died 5 November 1904 in Winnipeg following an operation for a ruptured appendix. According to one of his nephews he was virtually a second father to his half brothers and sisters. He is buried by his father in the St. James Anglican Cemetery in Solsgirth, Manitoba. He was only thirty-nine years old.
Gravestones of Francis Benjamin Miller, his son William Joseph and daughter Ruby Blanche, St. James Anglican Cemetery, Solsgirth, Manitoba, Canada |
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Rose Miller Plant, 1877-1927, was born 10 July 1877 in Liverpool, England, the first child of Benjamin Miller and Frances Louise "Fanny" Frodsham, Benjamin's second wife. Her father was a ship broker when she was christened a month later in St. Mary's Church in Grassendale, a section of Liverpool. When her family moved to Canada in 1880 she was just a toddler. Rose's mother hired a governess for Rose and her other siblings, Frederick, Bernard and Gerald. Rose then taught her two youngest sisters, Helen and Ruby until they were able to attend school. Rose married Henry William "Harry" Plant, born in England, on 4 December 1903 in Birtle, Manitoba. They had two children, John and Joan. Rose was in New Orleans when she died suddenly on 12 November 1927. She was unconscious when they took her to the hospital. Her daughter was with her when she died. She was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Harry died 28 September 1960 in Los Angeles and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, in Los Angeles. Baptismal record, 1877 Gravestone for Rose Miller Plant, Glendale, California |
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Rev. Frederick Charles Miller, 1878-1938, was born 15 November 1878 in Liverpool, the son of Benjamin Miller and Fanny Louise Frodsham. He was christened at St. Mary's Church in the suburb of Grassendale on 22 Dec 1878. In 1904 he was living in Austin in Manitoba, about halfway between Birtle and Winnipeg, employed as a school teacher. When he was thirty-four, in 1913, he left Manitoba and emigrated to the United States. When he registered for the draft in 1918, he was working at Camp Fremont as a secretary for the YMCA in Menlo Park, south of San Francisco. Camp Fremont was a temporary post on the west coast of the United States to train National Guard units for combat. In 1920 he married Marion Menona Sanders, the daughter of James William Sanders and Margaret Mcgregor. She was born 16 December 1878 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, one of four children. In 1932, he became a naturalized citizen. Frederick became an ordained minister in the Anglican Church and lived in Walnut Creek, Santa Barbara and Oceanside until he died on 25 December 1938 in Los Angeles. He is buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, the same cemetery where his mother and sister Helen are buried. Marion died 21 March 1938, just a few months before Frederick, and is buried in the Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California. Frederick and Marion had no children.
Baptismal record, 1878 Gravestone for Rev. Frederick Charles Miller, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles, California |
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Bernard West Miller, 1880-1971, was the third child born to Benjamin Miller and Fanny Frodsham. He and his twin sister, Dorothy, who died young, were the first in the family to be born in Canada. While in Manitoba he was a farmer. He later moved to British Columbia where he was involved in real estate with Kerr & Kerr. He married Marguerite Lilian Pearson, known as
"Queenie," 15 June 1909 in Birtle. She was the daughter of William and Marguerite Annie Wadsworth Pearson. They both died in Vancouver, Marguerite on 10 February 1965 and Bernard West on 19 October 1971. They are buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver.
Bernard West Miller family, 1935, Vancouver Bernard West Miller family, 1952, Vancouver Bernard West Miller family gravestone, Vancouver Donovan Francis Miller, 1917-1997 Garth Wadsworth Miller, in uniform, 1944 Garth Wadsworth Miller, portrait Garth Wadsworth Miller, wedding photo |
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Dorothy Miller, 1880-1880, was Bernard West's twin sister, born in Portage La Prairie on the journey to Birtle, Manitoba, only two months old. |
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Gerald Hope Miller, 1881-1973, was born in Birtle, Manitoba, just before Christmas on 22 December. He married Ethel Pearson in Birtle, on 5 June 1907 and by 1911 they were living in Winnipeg. They had moved to Vancouver by 1936. They had four children: William Sydney, Vernon Hope, Philip Pearson and Mavis Ethel. Ethel died in Santa Monica, California in 1965 and Gerald in 1973 and they are both buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica.
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Helen Miller, 1885-1983, was the sixth child born to Benjamin Miller and Fanny Frodsham. Born in Birtle, Manitoba, Helen never married. After her father's death, when she was fifteen, she eventually moved with her mother and sister Ruby to Hollywood, California. Helen lived a long life and died in 1983 in Los Angeles where she is buried.
Gravestone for Helen Miller, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles, California |
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Ruby Blanche Miller, 1887-1953, was the youngest child of Benjamin and Fanny. After her father died in 1901 and her older brother, William died in 1904, Ruby and her mother and sister sold the family home, eventually moving to Winnipeg, England, and finally, Hollywood, California. Ruby worked in Hollywood for Lasky
Studio, in charge of girls who typed scripts for well-known movie stars. She later worked for the YWCA and as a
secretary for St. Stephen’s Church in Hollywood. She died 20 October 1953 in Los Angeles but was buried in the St. James Anglican Cemetery with her father and her brother, William, in Solsgirth, Manitoba.
Gravestones of Francis Benjamin Miller, his son William Joseph and daughter Ruby Blanche, St. James Anglican Cemetery, Solsgirth, Manitoba, Canada |
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Anne Healy's Genealogy, Created October 2002 Photographs and web page content, Copyright © 2002- , Anne Field, all rights reserved. Please feel free to link to my web page. For permission to use any pictures or content on my web pages, please email me at 
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Page created 18 July 2014 Updated 5 January 2023 |
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