Alan Miller RIP

Kyt · Mar 31, 2008

Alan Miller | Times Online Obituary

An RNVR officer who in 1942 participated in both the St Nazaire and Dieppe raids, and later commanded a succession of destroyers on convoy escort duty, Alan Miller returned to civilian life after the war and ran the family marine insulation business until it was taken over by Bell's Asbestos. Remaining with the company, he became overseas director and then managing director and chairman of Bell's, overseeing expansion and diversification of the business.

Alan John McCulloch Miller was born in Glasgow, the son of Louis Miller, a marine engineer who built high-speed marine diesel engines before the First World War, and after it founded the company of Miller's Insulation in Glasgow. He studied marine engineering at what is now the University of Strathclyde.

In the late 1930s he joined the RNVR and when war came was called up. Drafted to the cruiser Dorsetshire in the Far East, he was deployed in her to the South Atlantic during the pursuit of the pocket battleship Graf Spee, and later saw action against the Vichy French battleship Richelieu at Dakar, in which the latter's propeller shafts were damaged by charges dropped under them from a small boat.

Early in 1942 he was sent to the destroyer Brocklesby. He was in the thick of the action as part of the support force for the St Nazaire raid in March, leading a boarding party that took off the crew of one of the motor launches, which had suffered severely from German shell and machinegun fire.

In July 1942 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for the part he played in desperate gunnery duels against German aircraft in the Channel. The following month Brocklesby took part in the Dieppe raid and herself sustained serious damage from German 88mm guns, while close inshore providing support for Canadian troops who were trying to re-embark. At one point she grounded, but managed to extricate herself and limp, full of holes, home to Portsmouth. After a spell as first lieutenant of the destroyer Orwell, Miller commanded a succession of destroyers on convoy escort duty until the end of the war: Fitzroy, Wolverine and Holderness. He was offered a permanent commission, but returned to the family business, continuing with its new masters when Bell's Asbestos took over in 1951. He retired as chairman of what was by then Bestobell in 1973 and in 1975 re-established the family business at Dumbarton, remaining chairman until 1986.

Miller became chairman of the British National Export Council to Southern Africa and the United Kingdom-South Africa Trade Association, and was closely engaged with the South Africa Foundation. He was always seeking new enterprises revolving around his love of the sea, and in 1966 established Antigua Slipway in English Harbour, then a little known yachting haven but today a thriving centre in the Caribbean. He also became involved in Truckline Ferries operating between Poole and Cherbourg. He owned a number of ocean racers and he competed on the RORC circuit for many years, in 1964 competing in his favourite yacht, China Clipper, in the Bermuda Race. During his sailing career he served as Vice-Commodore of the Royal Naval Sailing Association and Rear Commodore of the Royal Thames Yacht Club.

He worked for many years with the Central Council for Physical Recreation and as a member of the Sports Council. He devoted enormous energy to the development of the National Sports Centres at Lilleshall, Bisham Abbey, and the Cowes Sailing Centre. Miller, who remained in the RNVR until 1959, had been awarded the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Officers' Decoration in 1950.

In 1940 he married Kirsteen Ross Orr who died in 1995. He is survived by a daughter and three sons.

Alan Miller, DSC, VRD, naval officer and businessman, was born on April 21, 1914. He died on February 2, 2008, aged 93
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spidge · Mar 31, 2008

RIP............

Antipodean Andy · Apr 9, 2008

A busy boy during and after the war. RIP.

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Alan Miller RIP

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