Profile

MILLER, Peter Henry
(Service number 16315)

Aliases
First Rank Trooper Last Rank

Birth

Date 5 January 1896 Place of Birth Totara Valley, Pleasant Point

Enlistment Information

Date Age
Address at Enlistment Fairlie
Occupation Farmer
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status
Next of Kin Mrs Mary MILLER (mother), P.O. Box 31, Fairlie. Also Miss A. F. MILLER (sister), Correspondence Room, Pay Perauch, Defence Dept, Wellington.
Religion
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship 16th Reinforcements, New Zealand Mounted Rifles
Date 10 August 1916
Transport Moeraki. Transhipped to Mooltan at Sydney.
Embarked From Destination Suez, Egypt
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Farmer

Death

Date 6 September 1967 Age 71 years
Place of Death
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Salisbury Park Crematorium, Timaru. Ashes scattered
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Peter Henry Miller was born on 5 January 1896 at Totara Valley, Pleasant Point, the younger son of Joseph and Mary Ann (née Copland) Miller. Peter was educated at Hazelburn and Pleasant Point schools. In 1904 at Hazelburn he did well, giving a comic sketch and receiving an arithmetic prize. In 1905 he was first equal in composition and second in reading. He was called up and was farming at Fairlie when he enlisted. On 5 April 1916, the South Canterbury quota for the 15th Reinforcements left by the express for the military camps, the Mounted Rifles – including P. H. Miller - proceeding to Featherston. Before departing Timaru, the men were entertained by the Ladies’ Patriotic Committee at luncheon in the Stafford Tea Rooms. Falling in at the Drill Shed at 3pm, they were addressed by the Mayor, Mr Craigie, M.P., and the Rev. Dean Tubman. The 2nd South Canterbury Regimental Band was in attendance, and the High School Cadets and the Honorary Territorials formed a cordon at the railway station.

Bruce Andrew Miller was called up in 1917 and appealed, explaining that his only brother (Peter) was at the front. When he applied for a re-hearing, he said that his only brother had enlisted on condition that he (Bruce) stayed at home. If he went to camp they could not carry on the farm. Private P. H. Miller returned to New Zealand, invalided, in October 1918. Peter married Eva Mary Burt in 1929.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [07 August 2020]; NZ BDM records (Department of Internal Affairs) [08 August 2020]; School Admission record (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [08 August 2020]; Salisbury Park Crematorium record [10 August 2020]; Timaru Herald, 30 December 1904, December 1905, 5 April 1916, 4 October 1918 (Papers Past) [03 August 2020; 10 August 2020]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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