11/1345 L/Corporal James Miller, MM, 27/7/1899-19/4/1924.

James Miller was working as a farm labourer when he joined the army in 1915.  He was a good soldier, eventually being promoted to the rank of Corporal and eventually being wounded four times.  He was shot in the thigh on the Somme in 1916 and gassed at Passchendaele in 1917.

By September 1918 the Otago Regiment, assisted by other units of the Allied Armies, had nearly reached the German defensive system of the Hindenberg Line. On September 6 they were ordered to clear yet another line of German trenches on their way to the Line which barred their way into Germany.

On that day, as far as I can tell, James Miller was seriously wounded, suffering several bullet wounds, including one to his face.  He was evacuated to a Casualty Clearing Station and then to a hospital in Bolougne, France. It was the fourth time he had been wounded.  On August 15 he had been awarded the Military Medal for "Acts of gallantry in the field."

James was sent home and discharged as physically unfit for future service, due to the poisoning he had suffered from German gas.  In 1920, living with his family at Portobello, he made an appplication for hospital treatment, having seen blood in his urine.  He was diagnosed with tuberculosis affecting the kindey and bladder.

FOR KING AND COUNTRY. 

DEATH.

MILLER.. — On April 19, 1924, at Dunedin, 11/1345 Lance-corporal James Miller (6th Reinforcements), beloved youngest son of Samuel and Margaret Gray Miller, of Portobello, aged 35 years. The Funeral will leave the Dunedin Hospital To-morrow (Tuesday), at, 10 a.m., for the Anderson's Bay Cemetery. — McLean and Son, undertakers.  -Evening Star, 21/4/1924.

PERSONAL

The executive of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association on Tuesday night passed a motion of sympathy with the relatives of Mr James Miller, a member who died recently. The late Miller was one of those men who, badly wounded in the war, patiently bore his sufferings for years after the war had ended. As a member of the 4th Company of the 2nd (Otago) Battalion in France, he was a splendid soldier, doing a great deal of patrol work in front of the lines at Armentieres and other places. For some years after his return he was an inmate of the Montecillo Convalescent Home.  -Evening Star, 8/5/1924.

Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin.