Herbert was born in the spring of 1879 in the town of Halstead in Essex. He was the sixth child of Thomas and Emily Miller. His father worked as a local gardener and his mother supported the family as a silk weaver.

We have been fortunate to find out that he came to the hospital in 1917, and have records of his last letter to his wife.

Herbert's Life

Herbert, aged 22, had secured employment in the print trade when the daughter of a local shoemaker, Mary Ann Bone, caught his eye. They were married in June 1901, at Chesham Parish Church. Their first child, Sidney Charles, was born the following year, soon to be followed by a daughter, Elva Emily. The young family then moved to Oxford where their third child, Winifred Doris, was born in 1909.  Around this time Herbert was working in the print trade as a machine minder at the Oxford University Press. He and his family were living close to the city centre in the parish of St Ebbe’s.

Aged 32, the family moved to Oxford, and Herbert became a father for the fourth and final time, completing his family with a second son, Herbert James Miller. However, storm clouds were gathering over Europe and the Great War was to start in 1914. Herbert, along with many thousands of men of his generation, signed up to fight. He enlisted on 15 November 1915 to the 4th Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, serving in the 2nd /4th Battalion.

Following initial training Herbert landed in France in May 1916, deployed to the Western front trenches as a sniper.

Early in 1917, Herbert was involved in a drill training exercise in France resulting in a broken leg. Unable to fight he was brought back across the channel and then on by train to recover at Queen Mary’s Military Hospital in Whalley, Lancashire.

Death

In Herbert’s final letter from the hospital to his wife, dated 9 February 1917, he wrote of his injury “if all goes well I shall be none the worse for it”.  Despite Herbert’s confidence in making a recovery, he sadly died of his injuries at Queen Mary’s Military Hospital on February 18th, aged 37. The full wording of his letter is below.

Herbert was bought back to Oxford to be buried in the churchyard of St Mary and St John, Cowley Road.

His widow and their four children subsequently moved from Oxford to Hertfordshire, where they were closer to their family.

Whilst their daughter Elva, sadly died at the age of 21 the other three children Sid, Winnie and Herbert all married and had children of their own.

Original Envelope & 1st page