Alexander Miller [commonly known as Alec Miller] was born the son of a cabinetmaker in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1879. He left school at the age of twelve and spent the next seven years as an apprentice of Miss Anstruther (later known as Mrs Mackay) who had a woodcarving workshop in Glasgow. During these years he also attended evening classes in art at Glasgow High School where he was taught by William Paddock, and took classes in wood carving at the Kyrle Society. In 1898 he qualified as a journeyman.
In 1902 he became acquainted with (1863-1942) and his Guild of Handicraft. Following the Guild's move from London's Whitechapel to Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire that year, Miller joined them. He was elected a Guildsman in 1904 Although the Guild was forced to close in 1908, he continued to live and work in Chipping Campden for the next thirty years, often collaborating with Ashbee on commissions. In 1908 Miller set up in business with Will Hart and acquired numerous commissions for architectural carving. At Ashbee's suggestion, he visited Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania in 1910-11. While there he received a commission to carve 40 stone gargoyles for Bryn Mawr College. Over the next two decades Miller visited the USA on a number of occasions where he both worked on carving commissions and lectured.
Miller taught at Campden School of Arts and Crafts from 1902 to 1914 and at Oxford City School of Art from 1919 to 1923.
During the years up to 1915 he was engaged on several ecclesiastical commissions including for Coventy Cathedral and the Church of St. Mary and St. Michael in Great Urswick, near Ulverston in the English Lake District. From 1915 onwards, however, he increasingly concentrated on carving portrait busts and reliefs. Notable among his portrait busts was that of the poet A. E. Housman (c.1924). Following World War One he was commissioned to work on war memorials including for Lavender Square, Bampton, Oxfordshire (1920) and for Park Lane, Lockinge, Oxfordshire (1921).
In 1937 [or 1939 - sources differ] he emigrated to the USA where he continued to work until he was in his eighties.
Miller was elected a member of the Art Workers Guild in 1925. He was the author of two books - 'Stone and Marble Carving: A Manual for the Student Carver' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1948) and 'Tradition in Sculpture' (London: Studio Publications, 1949).
A photograph of a sculptured frieze by Alec Miller incorporated into a mantelpiece designed by C.R. Ashbee and executed by the Guild of Handicraft, is illustrated in 'The Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art' 1906 (p. 110); a panel in carved oak for overmantel entitled 'The Jackdaw of Rheims', and a panel in carved oak for organ case designed and executed by Alec Miller are illustrated in 'The Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art' 1911 (p.100); a carved wood panel designed by Alec Miller and carved by W.T. Hart, is featured in 'The Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art' (p. 58); and a carved pearwood portrait relief showing a small child reading, by Alec Miller is illustrated in 'The Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art' 1916 (p. 77).
Miller died in Thanet, Kent on 17 May 1961 while on a visit to England.
Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)