Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

MILLER Francis Julian Bowyer MB BS

1895-1974

Francis (Frank) Julian Bowyer Miller was born, on 1st November 1895, in Maryborough Victoria. He was the eldest child of William Francis Miller and Mary Cecil, nee Evans. He had a sister Lorna. His grandfather Francis Bowyer Miller was the Superintendent of the Bullion Office, at the Melbourne Mint, and the inventor of the Miller process of refining gold. Miller was educated at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School and Ormond College and studied medicine at Melbourne University, graduating in 1916. He enlisted, as a captain, in WW1 serving in England and France from 1917 until 1919. He took leave to study at the Queen' Hospital in Birmingham, England, in 1919. When he returned to Australia after WW1, he was appointed an assistant, ophthalmic surgeon at the Eye and Ear Hospital, in Melbourne. Miller moved to South Australia and took a position at the Adelaide Hospital as an ophthalmologist.

Miller was appointed to the AAMC in 4 MD with the rank of captain, on 1st July 1940, and commenced full-time duty on 22nd December 1940.  He was single and living at 240 Jeffcott Street, North Adelaide at the time and appears to have had rooms at 188 North Terrace, Adelaide.  He named his sister Miss Lorna CA Miller of Kew, Victoria as his next of kin. He was allotted to 7 AGH and embarked for the Middle East, from 3MD, on 3rd February 1942, arriving in Syria on 23 March 1941. He was admitted to hospital with an infected foot in June of that year. He spent some time as a convalescent in the AIF Officer’s Hostel and re-joined his unit on 12th December 1941. Miller was made temporary major on 26th February and attached to 2/2nd Aust Inf Div in Ceylon and posted RMO to 4 AGH. He then embarked from Colombo, Ceylon, for Melbourne in July 1942, after contracting Dengue Fever in June 1942. He was promoted major on 1st September 1942. He remained in the Victorian L of C and then taken on the strength of 121 AGH, at Northfield, as an ophthalmologist and otologist. He was admitted to 105 AMH, in SA, on 19th March 1944, with an infected wound of his right elbow, which was as a result of an accident received at 121 AGH. The accident was attributed to conditions of service, and no investigation was needed. Miller was attached to the Loveday Internment Camp for a short time in November 1944. He was then appointed as an otolaryngologist at 105 AMH on 30th March 1945. He changed his next of kin status to Marian George Miller when he married on 10th March 1945. He remained with the L of C area, SA, until his discharge on 4th January 1946, when he was placed on the Reserve of Officers list in SA.

Miller returned to ophthalmology practice in Adelaide after the war and retired in 1972. Frank Julian Bowyer Miller died on 23rd October 1974 and was cremated at Centennial Park SA. His uncle Mr G Crowe was noted at his next of kin at the time of his death.

Source

Blood, Sweat and Fears III: Medical Practitioners South Australia, who Served in World War 2. 

Swain, Jelly, Verco, Summers. Open Books Howden, Adelaide 2019. 

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD