Frederick Alvah Miller (1846 - 1901) was the husband of Clara Miller, and the father of Margaret Frary Miller, Louis Montant Miller and Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller.
Frederick was the son of Nathaniel Frary Miller and Martha Ann Messerve. Nathaniel was a self-made man and had worked his way up from a junior post at a milling firm, ultimately becoming a partner an amassing a fortune. From the mid-1850s, Nathaniel came frequently to England where his firm had a branch in Manchester. He met and married his second wife Margaret West and settled down in Cheshire. Here Frederick, then seventeen, first met his future wife Clara who was a niece of Margaret. The two married in 1878 and after a honeymoon in Switzerland, settled down in Torquay, taking a long lease at a comfortable villa Ashfield.
Frederick lived the life of a socialite. On Agatha's birth certificate, for example, he listed his occupation as "gentlement". Frederick and Clara entertained frequently at Ashfield. In New York Frederick was a member of the exclusive Union Club. In London, he was a member of Boodles. In Torquay he was active in many clubs and other leisure activities, notably the Torquay Cricket Club (of which he was vice-president) and the Torquay Yacht Club.
Towards the end of his life, Frederick's financial fortunes declined significantly, due to a combination of mismanagement, financial crises and chicanery. His last years were characterised by ill health and he died of pneumonia in 1901 leaving his family in some financial difficulty. Frederick is buried at South Ealing Cemetery.[1]