Miller, Dr. James Graham

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Roseneath on Redesmouth Road was the home of Dr. James Graham Miller (1862-1931) and where he held his surgery. He was a Scotsman, who played a large part in Burns Nights (he played the pipes) and died a year after he retired in 1930 after attending a shepherds' "knees up" at the Redesdale Arms. He was well liked, especially in Plashetts, where, of course, there were a lot of Scottish miners and their families who took Burns Night very seriously. We have recently acquired a small doctor’s notebook dating from the late 19th century, which, from comparing the handwriting of the notebook with the handwriting of the 1911 census, makes it almost certainly his. In addition, the notebook contains references concerning directions, which suggest someone not yet familiar with the neighbourhood. I am not sure about why the house was called Roseneath. It was probably Dr. Miller who named this house this after moving up from 3 Russell Terrace. He was born in Leith and there are two streets named Roseneath but this may be irrelevant.

The 1881 census records James Graham Miller as a druggist’s apprentice living at home in Leith with his father, Thomas, a commercial traveller, and his mother, Margaret. He soon developed a vocation for medicine and, in August 1887, qualified as a doctor at Edinburgh University and School of Medicine. He arrived in Bellingham to succeed Robert Jackson, who died, aged 64, on 24th April 1889. There he lived and worked for the next 41 years. The 1891 census records him, aged 28, as a “duly registered general practitioner” living at ]]3 Russell Terrace]], Bellingham, with his younger sister Maggie, aged 20, and Elizabeth Bell, aged 15, a domestic servant. He quickly settled into the routine of a country General Practitioner, holding surgeries at his house and travelling the neighbourhood to see patients. The Hexham Herald of 9th November 1895 records that he was hurt while driving his pony and trap. The 1901 census records him as a “surgeon” still living at 3 Russell Terrace with his sister Mary, aged 22, and Margaret Weightman, aged 25, a domestic servant. On 5th March 1902, he was appointed Surgeon-Lieutenant, the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers, and remained with the unit after they became the 4th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers. Such volunteer units went on manoeuvres and summer camps and they were required to take their own doctor with them to attend to any injuries suffered during training.

Getting to see patients in the area surrounding Bellingham was always going to be difficult, especially the farmers and shepherds living on remote farms. Cars, if available, could not always negotiate the tracks and the gradients. His residences in Russell Terrace and at Roseneath were particularly convenient for Bellingham station. Until he got a phone (Bellingham 13) installed just after the end of the Great War, messages for assistance from neighbouring villages came to the adjacent Bellingham station, either by train or via the signal box. The doctor could then hop on a passenger or goods train, which was especially convenient for the isolated but well-populated colliery village of Plashetts, for which he was the appointed surgeon. Plashetts was hidden away on the fells above Falstone, 750 feet above sea level. It had no road access and even Plashetts station was two-miles away from the village. Access was by an incline plane which was used to bring the coal (and everything else, including granny on her final journey to the cemetery) down to the sidings at Plashetts station.

In the autumn of 1903, he married Laura Annie Holme, the daughter of George W. Holme, the Rector of Corsenside Church at West Woodburn. He had “Roseneath” built for him and his new bride and they moved in shortly after their marriage. This 11-roomed property was large enough for his surgery and spacious accommodation for himself, his wife and a couple of servants. The 1911 census records Thomas Storey Dodd, a groom and gardener, and Elizabeth Jane Wallace, a general domestic servant. There were no children from the marriage.

In the early 1920s, he took on Leeds-born George William Lister Kirk (1890-1958) as a partner to form the Bellingham medical practice of Miller & Kirk, General Medical Practitioners. Graham Miller retired on 30th June 1930 when the partnership was dissolved and Dr. Kirk carried on the practice alone. Graham Miller died on 7th March 1931 following a seizure at the Percy Arms Hotel, Otterburn, where he was a guest at a shepherds’ evening. He left just over £14,000 to his wife Laura, who died at Roseneath on 1st February 1934, leaving £16,617 to Robert Muckle, the local solicitor, and Wilfred Ernest Alderson, surgeon. No family heirs. Roseneath was then sold.

The 1939 register, compiled in September 1939 for the purpose of issuing identity cards, ration books, etc., lists Roseneath as occupied by James Askew Oliver, a master tailor and draper, and his wife, Muriel Parker Dove. TBC