Lieutenant Colonel Armour Miller
134th (48th Highlanders of Toronto) Battalion

A reliable and conscientious Officer. He has always been keen and anxious to acquire new ideas. His work here, both theoretical & practical, has shown that he possesses sound military knowledge with the capacity of imparting it to others. He has a cherry disposition.

(Senior Officers School report, 15 Dec 1917)

Along with the 15th and 92nd Battalions, the 134th was the third overseas unit organized by the 48th Highlander Regiment in Toronto. Initiated by Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Donald, the battalion began recruiting in November 1915 to replace the losses suffered by the 15th at St. Julien. Born on 17 December 1869, Donald was a Toronto barrister and commanding officer of the 48th Highlanders. He had served for over twenty-three years in the militia regiment. After Donald stepped down due to illness in July 1916, Armour Adamson Miller assumed command of the 134th.

Born on 19 February 1876 in Goderich, Ontario, Miller was a lawyer, a member of the Ontario Rifle Association and nineteen-year officer with the 48th Highlanders. Miller and his volunteers departed Canada in August 1916 for England, where it provided reinforcements to the 15th Battalion. The 134th lost its identity when it was absorbed into the 12th Reserve Battalion in March 1918.

In early 1918, Miller reverted to the rank of major and joined the 19th Battalion in France. During a trench raid near Doullens on the morning of 21 June 1918, Miller was shot in his left arm, legs, abdomen and chest. Finding the wounded major in No Man’s Land, Lieutenant J. P. Fitzgerald attempted to crawl back to the Canadian lines with Miller on his back. After 150 yards, Fitzgerald was forced to leave Miller in a shell hole because the major was too exhausted to carry on. Private W. B. Perry eventually retrieved the wounded officer, who by that point was “in very bad condition.”

Miller died of his wounds at the No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital.