James Love Miller (1929-2011)
My father died peacefully but suddenly in the early hours of 1st January 2011. He was 81 years old. My mother and the rest of the family are all deeply mourning his loss. The date of the funeral has now been set for Monday, 17th January 2011.
James Love Miller was born in Glasgow on 3rd October 1929 and he was the second youngest of the eight children of Thomas Miller (1890-1973) and Mary Miller née Bryant (1891-1955). Coincidentally he shared his birthday with my mother though she was born in a different year. He was baptised at Guthrie Memorial Congregational Church in Calton on 22 October 1929.
He grew up in the Hutchesontown area of the Gorbals in Naburn Street and attended Strathbungo Secondary School, though his school years were much disrupted by the Second World War.
After the war, he was called up for National Service and entered the Royal Air Force. He was an armourer and served at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire (the same airfield where the Dambusters Raid flew from in 1943).
After being honourably discharged from the RAF he worked in several jobs including his old job at a Ham Curers in Glassford Street and then at Kelvin Construction in Maryhill.
The family moved from the Gorbals to Maryhill and a new house at Langa Street.
Later he moved to his main career as a civil servant for the Ministry of Defence at HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane, where he worked doing work that cannot be disclosed here for reasons of national security. He worked there through till his retirement in 1992.
Aside from work my dad was a very social man and a committed Protestant. He was a member of the Church of Scotland, of the Orange Lodge and the Black Preceptory. It was at an Orange Lodge social dance that he met my mother Christine McCulloch in 1967. They married on 23 October 1971 and then moved in to her her house in Abercromby Street and then in 1978 to a newer and larger house in Bridgeton. They have four children - me and my three sisters. We are a close family and though he later stopped going to lodge meetings he was always involved at church with the rest of us and he had a quiet but real faith and he attended church more regularly in later years.
He was a lifelong Clyde FC supporter and used to travel regularly to home and away games although his time for this decreased in later years especially when Clyde moved away from their traditional home at Shawfield Stadium. He also was very knowledgeable about horse racing and enjoyed betting - especially when he won!
His main other interests were watching films and television, doing DIY (which he was still doing up till last October when he helped me with my garden shed), and spending time with his wife and family.
I am immensely proud of my father and how he helped bring me and my three sisters up. Above all he was my friend and I will miss his wisdom, his humour and the affection he always had for all of us so very much.
