Commanding Officer 134th Battalion (48th Highlanders)  CEF 1916 – 1917

Killed in Action serving with 19th Battalion CEF

Along with the 15th and 92nd Battalions, the 134th was the third overseas unit organized by the 48th Highlanders. Initiated by Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Donald, the battalion began recruiting in November 1915 to replace the losses suffered by the 15th at St. Julien. Born on 17 December 1869, Donald was a Toronto barrister and commanding officer of the 48th Highlanders. He had served for over twenty-three years in the militia regiment. After Donald stepped down due to illness in July 1916, LCol Miller assumed command of the 134th.

When Armour Adamson Miller was born on 19 February 1876, in Goderich, Huron, Ontario, Canada, his father, John Robertson Miller, was 34 and his mother, Mary Armour, was 35. He married Helen Bell Brown on 12 October 1905. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 1 daughter. He lived in Goderich Township, Huron, Ontario, Canada in 1881 and Vaughan, York, Ontario, Canada in 1891.

Miller was a lawyer, a member of the Ontario Rifle Association. Lieutenant Armour Miller enrolled in the 48th Highlanders in 1901. Miller and his volunteers departed Canada in August 1916 for England, where it provided reinforcements to the 15th Battalion. The 134th lost its identity when it was absorbed into the 12th Reserve Battalion in March 1918.

With war in Europe, then Major Miller joined the 134th Battalion [48th Highlanders] at its organization in November 1915. In July 1916 he succeeded in commanding the 134th Battalion upon LCol Donald’s retirement due to illness. In August the battalion embarked at Halifax and headed overseas. In January 1917 while training in England the battalion became part of the 5th Canadian Division. A year later the 5th Division was broken up to form reinforcement drafts.

In early 1918, Miller reverted to the rank of major and joined the 19th Battalion in France. During a trench raid near Doullens on the morning of 21 June 1918, Miller was shot in his left arm, legs, abdomen and chest. Finding the wounded major in No Man’s Land, Lieutenant J. P. Fitzgerald attempted to crawl back to the Canadian lines with Miller on his back. After 150 yards, Fitzgerald was forced to leave Miller in a shell hole because the major was too exhausted to carry on. Private W. B. Perry eventually retrieved the wounded officer, who by that point was “in very bad condition.”