Birth
Born in the western Melbourne suburb of Sunshine on 28 November 1919, Keith Ross Miller was the youngest of Leslie (Les Sr) and Edith (Edie) Miller's four children. He had two older brothers and a sister. Sister Gladys was 12 when Miller was born, while Les Jr and Ray were nine and seven respectively. Miller was named after the Australian pioneer aviator brothers Keith and Ross Smith, who were half-way through their historic flight from England to Australia at the time of his birth. Miller's two Christian names reflected his Scottish heritage; his father's family originated from the dock area of Edinburgh and Dundee, and his paternal grandfather arrived in Australia in April 1849. The family lived in a one-level terrace house in Sunshine, which at the time was a separate town of 900 people, 11 km (6.8 mi) west of Melbourne's city centre. The area was and remains a working-class area. The town's lifeblood was the farm machinery maker H. V. McKay, which employed a large proportion of the population. Miller's father started as a teacher in Warracknabeal in rural Victoria, before working as an engineer for McKay in Ballarat until a transfer brought him to Sunshine.
Read more about this topic: Early Life Of Keith Miller
Famous quotes containing the word birth:
“I am not fooling myself with dreams of immortality, know how relative all literature is, don’t have any faith in mankind, derive enjoyment from too few things. Sometimes these crises give birth to something worth while, sometimes they simply plunge one deeper into depression, but, of course, it is all part of the same thing.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy tale nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow’d and so gracious is the time.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Our birth is nothing but our death begun.”
—Edward Young (1683–1765)