Search our records : Garnet Miller

Garnet Miller was born in Beer on 29^th January 1882, the son of Henry Miller and his wife Flora.

Garnet joined the Royal Naval Reserve on 29^th January 1902, when he lived at 13 The Meadows, Beer.  He was 5ft 9ins tall, with blue eyes and a fair complexion. 

He married Emily Snell from Seaton at Seaton parish church on 8^th December 1910, and at the time of the 1911 census they were living with Garnet’s mother and his brother Leonard at 5 Ottons Court, Beer.

He was mobilised on 3^rd August 1914, and was posted to HMS Albion (see separate panel), and served in the Dardanelles, supporting the Gallipoli landings.  Albion was in action, and damaged by Turkish gunfire, on 18^th March 1915, and again on 25^th April, when the ship suffered 23 killed and 45 wounded.

After a spell supporting Allied troops in Salonika, Garnet left Albion in May 1916 a spent a few months ashore at Plymouth (HMS Vivid).  In January 1917 he joined HMS Doris, an Eclipse class cruiser, and remained for the rest of the war.  Doris moved from the Mediterranean to the East Indies Station, and operated between Fremantle and Mauritius.

Garnet was demobilised on 1^st May 1919, but remained in the RNR until 1921.  He returned to fishing out of Beer on the Corona (E87) and Kingfisher (E101).