In La Chaudiere Military Cemetery, Vimy, France is the Commonwealth War Grave of 625235 Private Alfred Miller serving with the 78th Battalion Canadian Infantry who died 18/06/1917.
The son of John Charles Miller and Elizabeth, his wife, of 25, Hopper Street, Sunderland, England.
Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
Alfred was one of four sons born to John Charles Miller of West Rainton and his Sunderland born wife Elizabeth Brickell, who had married in 1881. Charles was born in 1881, Alfred on 11th January 1889, Walter in 1894 and Andrew in 1897 just before their father died the following year. Elizabeth married John Stevenson, a brewers labourer from Penshaw at the end of 1900 and at the time of the 1901 census they and her four sons were sharing a house in Hopper Street, Sunderland with two other families.
On 12th May 1907 Alfred arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia having sailed from Liverpool on board the SS Siberian, the manifest listed him as a farm labourer making for Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. Seventeen months later he was in Edmonton applying for a Homestead Grant for land in Fort Saskatchewan.
When he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 22nd March 1916 Alfred gave his occupation as farmer and his home in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta and his next of kin as his mother back in Sunderland. With a long scar on the side of his face Alfred became Private 625235 attached to the 151st (Central Alberta) Battalion, which was based at Sarcee Camp near Calgary. After sailing to England on the SS California in October 1916 the Battalion was absorbed into the 9th, 11th and 21st Reserve Battalions, with Private Miller joining the 11th based at Shorncliffe on the south coast. November saw him posted to France with reinforcements for the 78th Battalion and he joined them in billets at Neuvillette. Christmas Day saw the battalion marching to Villers au Bois prior to entering the trenches on the front line and to bring in the New Year they put a shot in the Hun rear area sharp on the stroke of midnight.
April saw the 78th based in the Vincent Tunnel, Vimy Ridge and it was here the Private Miller was wounded in the face and left thigh and was treated at the Canadian General Hospital at Etaples, re-joining his unit after two weeks. The report from the commander of the 78th Battalion on the Battle at Vimy Ridge ends with the statement All ranks were eager for the attack and I am satisfied the sacrifices (60%) were cheerfully made. After a quiet time in May the Battalion returned to the front line at Vimy Ridge in June and it was here on the night of 18th June 1917 that as part of a D Company working party Private 625235 was killed.
Alfred Miller is remembered in Sunderland in S140.048 part 9 page 201
He is also remembered in Canada on their Virtual War Memorial.
