Joseph Miller

Reverend Joseph Miller BD (born 1874) was a Congregational minister, much in demand as an "eloquent preacher" for 14 years in the north of England. While in Hamburg during his ministry he "rendered valuable assistance to his countrymen in distress" following a call from the American Embassy there. However, in 1929 he "created a sensation" by becoming an Anglican priest. His first Anglican incumbency was as vicar of the Church of St Mark, Old Leeds Road, Huddersfield, England, from 1929 to 1931. Life His father was Saul Miller (1841–1902) who was born in Leesrigg, Cumbria and died in Wigton. He was a farmer of 273 acres, employing five men and one woman. His mother was Betty "Jane" Timperon (1846–1895), born in Keswick. They were married at Wigton in 1870. Joseph was born in Leesrigg or Allhallows, Cumbria, the second of five children, in 1874. He was descended from a long line of Anglicans. Miller said that "one of his uncles offered to send him to Oxford or Cambridge in order to prepare for the Anglican ministry." However he graduated from Nottingham Paton College, a dissenting academy, in 1900. In 1901 he was a boarder at Kirton House, Spalding Road, Kirton, Lincolnshire, and a student Congregationalist pastor at age 26. He married Lily Hemsley (born Newcastle 1875) in Nottingham in 1908. Congregationalist He was minister at the Congregational Church, Regent Street, Oldham 1904–1908. He was minister at Bethesda Church, Runcorn, 1908–1911, living with his wife at the eight-room Manse. He had just been appointed Minister of Spittal Congregational Church 1911–1912, when in 1911 he "received and accepted a unanimous call" to officiate in Hamburg. He was Minister of the English Reformed Church, also described as the Congregational church, in Hamburg 1912–1914. World War I compelled him to leave. The Morpeth Herald claimed that he had completed four years there. In Hamburg he "rendered valuable assistance to his countrymen in distress." The church was closed, and he and his wife were asked by the American Consulate to work among the refugees in Hamburg. He was made treasurer of the British Emergency Relief Fund for Refugees. Alien men between 17 and 55 years old were interned, but doctors and clergy were permitted and advised to return home.