On February 20, I paid my first visit to Denny Cemetery. It is located across from Denny High School, an attractive, landscaped Victorian-era cemetery containing various headstones and memorials. The Miller Family memorial is among the grander. It is an elegant granite obelisk in relatively good condition. Siblings Janet and William Miller are commemorated on a side-facing panel. Neither died in Denny nor in Scotland; indeed, they died thousands of miles apart, both from Spanish influenza. Janet died on November 5, aged twenty-five, at Plough Farm, Great Bentley, Essex, from influenza and double lobular pneumonia. William died on November 29, aged twenty-nine, at Lake Saskatoon. Alberta, Canada, from influenza and double-pneumonia. He is interred in Lake Saskatoon Cemetery but commemorated on the family headstone in Denny.
William was born on May 23, 1889, at Middle Bankhead, Haggs, Stirlingshire, to Thomas Miller, a farmer, and Jane (nee Hamilton). William was the couple’s third son and fourth child. Janet was born in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, on July 8, 1893. She was their second daughter and sixth child; John, who had arrived between William and Janet, was their fifth.
By the time the 1901 Census was taken, the Miller family had relocated west to Cardonald Turnberry, Paisley, Renfrewshire. William, aged eleven, and Janet, aged seven, attended school. The family had grown further since David’s arrival two years before.
William likely emigrated to Canada in March 1908, aged nineteen, sailing on the Ionian to Halifax. The following month, he applied for citizenship and spent the remainder of his life in Canada. I found no record of any war service, though he may have served voluntarily or through compulsory service. Moreover, I found no evidence suggesting he married or had children.
Sadly, William and Janet lost their father, Thomas, in 1911, aged sixty. He was interred in Denny Cemetery. I was unable to locate Janet precisely on the 1911 Census. She may still have resided in Renfrewshire, by which time she would have been seventeen. Her elder sister Jane was present at her death, suggesting that Janet died in her home, where she was either a temporary visitor or a permanent resident. Her death registration cites her as a “spinster of independent means.“ Her remains were not repatriated to Scotland but were interred in the Churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Great Bentley. The location of her burial suggests that Great Bentley may have been her permanent home. Alternatively, her family may not have had the money to transport her body to Scotland, or perhaps local public health guidelines promoted swift disposal of an influenza victim’s remains.
The surviving members of the Miller family would encounter another cruel blow a week after Janet’s death, with the death of her elder brother John in France on November 12 from war wounds. William’s death in Canada followed shortly, fuelling the fire of grief.
Sources: Ancestry, Find a Grave, General Register Office, Scotland’s People
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