Search our records : Alec Miller

Alec Miller was born in Beer on the 3^rd May 1892.

He joined the Royal Navy on 3^rd November 1914 as an Acting Engine Room Artificer (ERA), to serve for the duration of the war.  His RN record describes him as being 5ft 5ins tall, with brown hair, hazel eyes and a dark complexion.   He gave his civilian occupation as engineer.

After training at Plymouth (HMS Vivid), he joined the cruiser HMS Duke of Edinburgh, which had a crew of 774, on 23^rd December 1914.  Duke of Edinburgh was part of the 1^st Cruiser Squadron, a unit of the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys.

Although it dates from before Alec joined the ship, an entry in Duke of Edinburgh’s log for April 23^rd 1914 gives us a revealing glimpse of life on board ship at this time, at least as regards the food:

At Malta

Lat 35.9, Long 14.4

am/pm: Drawing provisions from Dockyard for 90 days’ provisions:

Rum: 1272 pints	Chocolate: 750 lbs
Flour: 22,400 lbs	Mustard: 100 lbs
Milk: 3240 lbs	Pepper: 100 lbs
Sugar: 13,560 lbs	Salt: 672 lbs
Tea: 896 lbs	Salt Pork: 1192 lbs
Split peas: 560 lbs	Suet: 1340 lbs
Raisins: 240 lbs	Hops: 10 lbs
Lard: 28 lbs

HMS Duke of Edinburgh fought at Jutland on 31^st May 1916, and the following month joined the 2^nd Cruiser Squadron.  In 1917 she escorted Arctic convoys to Russia, and from August to November 1918 was on the North America and West Indies Station.

Alec was discharged from the Royal Navy in February 1919.