Miller, Charles Blois, Vice-Admiral, 1867-1926.

The collection mainly consists of a continuous series of journals covering Miller's seagoing career in the period from 1882 to 1903.

Administrative / biographical background
Miller was one of the sons of the barrister Sir Alexander Edward Miller, of Ballycastle, County Antrim, and Elizabeth Miller née Crecry. He entered the Navy as a cadet in 1880 and went to sea on the armoured frigate HMS NORTHUMBERLAND (1866) during the Egyptian campaign of 1882. He was then on the battleship HMS AUDACIOUS (1869) on the China station until 1884. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1890 and with that rank served successively on the composite screw gunboat HMS PARTRIDGE (1888) in the West Indies, the torpedo gunboat HMS SPEEDWELL (1889) in the Channel, the ironclad battleship HMS HOWE (1885) in the Mediterranean, the cruiser HMS BONAVENTURE (1892) in the East Indies, the cruiser HMS PEARL (1890) on the North America and West Indies station, and the cruiser HMS TALBOT (1895) on the China station. He was promoted to commander in 1903 and to captain in 1908, subsequently serving on the Australian station and in home waters. During the First World War he commanded the cruiser HMS NOTTINGHAM (1913), torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in 1916, then the new battlecruiser HMS GLORIOUS (1916). For his services during the Battle of Jutland he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. He became a rear-admiral in 1920 and vice-admiral in 1922. His last appointment before retirement in 1922 was as rear-admiral of the Reserve Fleet at Rosyth. He died in a motoring accident near his home in Oxfordshire four years later.