Fond farewell to 'a true gentleman'
December 06, 2007
A MOVING funeral service at Easthampstead Park Crematorium honoured Harry Daniel Miller, who died aged 81 and was described by his son as ‘a true citizen of Bracknell’.
The local Royal British Legion branch placed a Union Jack over Mr Miller’s coffin in tribute to his service to the country.
The crematorium was full of well-wishers including people who had come from Germany, and one who had flown all the way from Canada.
The song Something Good from The Sound of Music played as the procession entered the crematorium and, as the congregation left. Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade was also played following prayers, hymns and a tribute from his son Danny.
Mr Miller, who had lived in Bracknell and Wokingham since 1955, died as a result of lung cancer on Sunday, November 18 at Thames Hospicecare in Windsor.
Danny Miller, former Mayor of Wokingham, said: “How to describe Harry is difficult as he was so many things to so many people.
“A real gentleman, kind and considerate, always cheerful and pleasant to all who knew him or came into contact with him.
“Dad was what being a good father, grandfather, husband and citizen is all about.
“He was a great man, a credit to the Miller family, his friends, those who knew him, and our country.”
Mr Miller was a lifelong, passionate fan of Barnet Football Club and was well known around the club for sharing his mint humbugs with everyone.
His passing was felt so deeply there that on Saturday, November 24, they held a minute’s silence for him before their match.
Danny Miller and his son were invited onto the pitch and they linked arms with the players as the whole ground stood in silence.
When young, Harry Miller has been forced to live in a children’s home after his parents went bankrupt as a result of arson on their businesses.
At 16, after a hard upbringing, he moved in with a foster family and then, in 1946, at the age of 20, he joined the Middlesex regiment of the army, nicknamed the Diehards. He was posted to Hamburg to guard a warehouse holding the new German currency.
He fell in love with a German girl called Carla Kubin and he left the army to marry her.
Danny Miller paid tribute to their relationship: “They faced the world together, brave, and resolute and determined to do their best not only for themselves, their family and friends, but also in a way of honour, gentleness and goodness that I can only commend.”
Together they moved to Hart Close in Bracknell in 1955 and Mr Miller was a metal worker for CF Taylor as well as other companies and would sometimes work 80-hour weeks.
He and his wife would holiday in Hamburg every year until she died in 2006 after they had been married for 57 years.
Harry leaves behind his brother Phillip, two sons Danny and John and grandchildren Kirsten, Danielle and Robin.
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