Bernard Miller

• Birth date            1894 at Liscard, Wirral Cheshire
• Baptism                12 June 1894 at St Mary, Liscard, Cheshire
• Married                1924, Joyce Wolstenholme at Birkenhead
• Death date          1960

The son of Percy Alexander Miller, a Church of England minister and his wife Ada Isobel, Bernard Alexander Millar was born at Luscard, Cheshire, in 1894. He trained at the Liverpool School of Architecture under Professor Charles Reilly and received his Certificate of Architecture in 1914. B Arch in 1928. He was elected Associate RIBA in 1920 and Fellow RIBA in 1933. From 1919 he also taught at the School of Architecture, Liverpool.

The churches of the 1930s proved a showcase for the talents of a generation of architects trained at the Liverpool School of Architecture before or just following World War One. As a result, Liverpool boasts a distinguished group of inter-war churches. Charles Reilly, the school's director from 1904 to 1933, may have been at heart a champion of a brand of Classicism that came to be termed "the Liverpool manner," ideally suited to the public and commercial buildings of the city centre. However, the school's church specialists, Ernest Gee (Christ Church, Norris Green), Bernard Miller (St Christopher's, Norris Green; St Columba's, Anfield, 1931—2; and St Aidan's, Speke, 1953) and Francis Xavier Velarde (the Catholic churches of St Matthew's, Clubmoor, 1927; St Monica's, 1937; and the demolished St Alexander's, Bootle, 1956), on the other hand, were more eclectic in their approach to design, happy to blend Baroque, neo-classicism and European Modernism with art deco flourishes. Financial constraints resulted in a Widespread reliance on brick and tile, but this necessity was turned into a virtue. In their angularity and severity these buildings Invite comparison with cinemas, but in the midst of so much that was low-rise and low-key, the churches represented architecture of distinction. In 1945 he was appointed architect to Chester Cathedral, a post he held until his death in 1960. In 1945 also, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners appointed a Church Building Advisory Panel to consider the special problems of Post War church building. Among those who agreed to serve was Bernard A Miller.

In Manchester Bernard Miller produced designs for three inter-war churches, the most significant being the now demolished St Christopher at Withington.

Address
1933-1936    3 Abercrombie Square Liverpool

Residence
1901        Liverpool Road Chester
1911        Woodchurch, Wirrall, Cheshire
1922-1924    Prenton Vicarage, Birkenhead
1927-1929    40 Glenmore Road, Oxton, Bikenhead

Reference    Charles Reilly and the Liverpool School of Architecture page 175
Reference    RIBA Journal November 1960 page 22