The Haileybury Society is saddened to learn of the death on 26^th May, 2023, of James Vincent Miller (Ha 70) – the youngest of the four Miller brothers in Hailey House – aged 67. We publish below a brief obituary provided by his family.

Cup winner

He was educated, like his brothers, first at Seaford Court prep. school in Malvern Link, were he won the Victor Operis cup. This was famously presented by the flamboyant local Conservative MP, Sir Gerald Nabarro, who arrived in a very exotic Daimler Dart sports car with the personalised registration number NAB3.

James excelled at chess and benefitted from encouragement from the enthusiastic maths teacher, Hugh Courtney, who was a prominent county player.

Haileybury and beyond

At Haileybury James enjoyed singing in the choir under Jack Hindmarsh like his elder brother and music scholar, William.

While reading philosophy at Kent University in Canterbury he represented the university at chess. After graduating he earned a considerable sum of money by teaching EFL, first in Italy then Saudi Arabia, enough in fact to purchase a house outright for cash when he returned.

Ambitions in writing

On returning to England, he tried various careers, none of which he really enjoyed as he really wanted to write. He married Catherine Clapham, the daughter of a very wealthy London estate agent, and had a lovely daughter Charlotte, who has recently graduated in dance from Trinity Laban at Greenwich.

The Miller family is now trying to have his best novel published posthumously. Called “The very truthful tale of Marocco (sic) and Mr Bankes”, it is quite remarkable.

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