Harry William Miller
Harry William Miller (c1858-1940)
Engineer, Pioneer Powder Factory, Bariaanspoort, Pretoria, South Africa.
1941 Obituary [1]
HARRY WILLIAM MILLER, whose death, in his eighty-second year, occurred in October 1940, was a Member of the Institution for fifty-five years, having been elected in 1885. He was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. After serving his apprenticeship with Messrs. Nasmyth Wilson and Company in Manchester, he worked for one year as an improver with Messrs. Mather and Platt; subsequently he was appointed chief draughtsman to Mr. J. W. Hall, of Cardiff. After further experience which he received during a special engagement with Messrs. J. and E. Hall, of Dartford, for whom he was employed on gunpowder machinery, he went in 1883 to the Transvaal.
On his arrival he took up an appointment as managing engineer to the South African Pioneer Powder Factory Company for whom he superintended the erection and starting of machinery. During the war of 1914-18 he was stationed at Woolwich and had considerable experience in the manufacture of gun ammunition and in the testing of iron, steel, and alloyed metals. On his return to South Africa, he joined the firm of R. H. Harriss, Ltd., engineers and steel specialists, of Johannesburg, and finally accepted an appointment as superintendent of the Vaal River Barrage, under the control of the Rand Water Board.
Mr. Miller was a past-president of the South African Institution of Engineers.