E. K. Miller


Rev. Edmund King Miller, invariably known as E. K. Miller, was an Anglican minister in South Australia, the first principal of the Pulteney Street School in Adelaide.

History

Rev. Miller, who had previously held a similar position near Rotherham, Yorkshire, and his wife Mary Miller, née Kirtland, arrived in South Australia aboard Hindoo in April 1848 to take the position of headmaster,
He was one of the two first clergymen to be ordained in the Diocese of Adelaide.
He was twelfth Anglican clergyman in South Australia, the others being:
Miller was required to combine headmasterly duties with those of assistant minister of Christ Church, North Adelaide, but appears to have had a breakdown and after three years, on medical advice, he resigned from the school.
Rev. Frederick Lamb and Mrs Lamb, who arrived in May 1851 took his place. By June 1852 the institution had become Pulteney Street Central Schools with W. A. Cawthorne appointed headmaster.
In 1852 Miller took charge of St. George's, Magill, and was able to minister to victims of a diphtheria outbreak in the district. At considerable risk to himself he treated the throats of those affected with a caustic pencil, at that time the only effective remedy. His wife, who had nursed the family of Dr. Wark, caught the disease, as did her three children, and Miller nursed them as no one else dared come near.
In 1863 Miller moved to Willunga, which also encompassed Aldinga and Noarlunga. He retired this cure on 1 January 1892 to live in Semaphore, where he was active in supporting local charitable organizations, notably the Deaf and Dumb institutions at Brighton and Wright Street, Adelaide, and the Convalescent Home at Semaphore.
Miller was a regular contributor to the correspondence columns of The South Australian Register over a long period. Recurrent themes were his love of the Book of Common Prayer and his antipathy to the promotion of high church liturgy by a powerful cabal of Anglicans.

Family

Miller married Mary Kirtland in England before leaving for Australia. Their children included: