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Name: MILLER, Ralph William Richardson CMG
Photo Source: Phil Toye
Birth Date: 25 Jan 1892 Darlington
Death Date: 23.4.1958 Nairobi
First Date: 1919
Last Date: 1925
Profession: Agric officer; analytical chemist
Area: Nairobi, Tanganyika
Married: In Edinburgh 18 Sep 1918 Jane Anderson Inglis b. 16 Nov 1890 Musselburgh, d. 31 Jan 1976 Freeland, Oxfordshire
Children: Jean Elizabeth (6 Aug 1919 Edinburgh-2004); Margaret Doreen (Bradstock) (16 May 1921 Nairobi-25 Dec 2008 Ilminster); Grizel Beryl (19 Sep 1923-2008)
Book Reference: KAD, Red 25, Colonial, EA & Rhodesia, Red 22, Barnes
War Service: Military service 1915-19, 2nd Lieut.
School: Darlington and Trinity College Cambridge; BA (Cantab), Dip. Agric. (Camb)
General Information:
EA & Rhodesia - 8/5/58 - Mr Ralph Richardson Miller has died in Nairobi at the age of 65. After graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge, he served with the South Lancashire Regiment and later in the Special Gas Corps, Royal Engineers, during the first world war, and then joined the Colonial Service as a chemist and was posted to Kenya. In 1925 he was transferred to Tanganyika as a senior agricultural officer, and was promoted Director of Agriculture, in Barbados in 1929. Eight years later he went to Zanzibar in the same capacity, and two years later was appointed Zanzibar's member of the East African Economic Council.
In 1940 he returned to Tanganyika as Director of Agriculture, and in 1942 was appointed war-time Sisal Controller for East Africa. In 1945 he became a member of the Executive Council, and three years later the first Minister for Agriculture and Natural Resources. In 1949 he retired to farm at Lushoto, Tanganyika, and was appointed a director of Steel Bros. (Tanganyika) Ltd.
A well-known sportsman, he gained his Blue for soccer at Cambridge, and also played for Darlington, his home town, and Corinthian Casuals, missing an England trial owing to an attack of quinsy. In Kenya he was best known as a skilful player of cricket and football, leading the Gymkhana Club to win most of the cups and trophies between 1920 and 1925. In 1918 he married Jean Inglis, of Musselburgh, Midlothian, who survives him with 3 daughters.
Nairobi Forest Road Cemetery - Ralph William Richardson Miller, British, age 65, died 23/4/58
Gazette 12/11/1919 - Arrived on 1st Appointment - Asst. Chemist - 2/11/1919
KAD 1922 - Chemical Officer, Chem. Research Dept.
Colonial - Asst. Analyst 1919; Chemical Offr. 1923; Senr. Agric. Offr. Tanganyika 1925; Dir. Agric. Barbados 1929; Dir. Agric. Zanzibar 1937, Tanganyika 1940
Gazette - 6/2/1924 - Voters Register - Nairobi South - Ralph William Richardson Miller, Civil Servant, Protectorate Road and Mrs Joan Anderson Miller, Married, Protectorate Road