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Selth"},"datePublished":"2012-12-11","description":"Eric Stanislaus Joseph Miller (1903-1986), barrister, was born on 15 May 1903 at Rockdale, Sydney, second of four surviving children of Austrian-born Gustav Miller Prochatschek (d.1918), railway engineer, and his Irish-born wife Mary Agnes (Minnie), née Willis.","headline":"Miller, Eric Stanislaus (1903–1986)","keywords":"Eric Stanislaus Miller, biography","image":"https://adb.anu.edu.au/uploads/obituaries/14960/miller.gif","isPartOf":{"@type":"Book","bookEdition":18,"bookFormat":"https://schema.org/Hardcover","datePublished":2012,"description":"The Australian Dictionary of Biography contains concise, informative and fascinating descriptions of the lives of significant and representative persons in Australian history.","image":"https://adb.anu.edu.au/images/covers/volume18.png","isbn":9780522861310,"name":"Australian Dictionary of Biography","url":"https://adb.anu.edu.au","copyrightHolder":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Australian National University","url":"https://www.anu.edu.au"},"copyrightYear":2012,"editor":{"@type":"Person","givenName":"Melanie","familyName":"Nolan","name":"Melanie Nolan"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Melbourne University Press","url":"https://www.mup.com.au"}}} </script> <title>Biography - Eric Stanislaus Miller - Australian Dictionary of Biography</title> <script async src="https://ssl.google-analytics.com/ga.js"></script> <script> var _gaq = _gaq || []; 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A. Selth</a></p> <div class="publish-notice publish-notice--major-project" style="background-color:#dee9f2;color:#153449;"> <p>This article was published:</p> <ul> <li> in the <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biographies/project/?name=australian-dictionary-biography-volume-18" style="color:#905d27;"> <span class="publish-notice__project-name">Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 18</span> </a> , 2012 </li> <li>online in 2012</li> </ul> </div> <div class="biographyContent textContent" id="26149">  <div class="print"> <div class="mainPic"><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.cs-pa-http%253A%252F%252Fcas.awm.gov.au%252Fphotograph%252F139210" title="Eric Miller (right), with W. J. Dignam, 1943"><img src="/uploads/obituaries/14960/thumbs/miller_246x550.gif" alt="Eric Miller (right), with W. J. Dignam, 1943" width='246' height='429' /></a> </div> <p class="caption"><span class="captionName">Eric Miller </span>(right), with W. J. Dignam, 1943</p><p class="credit"><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.cs-pa-http%253A%252F%252Fcas.awm.gov.au%252Fphotograph%252F139210">Australian War Memorial, 139210</a></p></div> <p> Eric Stanislaus Joseph Miller (1903-1986), barrister, was born on 15 May 1903 at Rockdale, Sydney, second of four surviving children of Austrian-born Gustav Miller Prochatschek (d.1918), railway engineer, and his Irish-born wife Mary Agnes (Minnie), née Willis. Miller was added to his names at baptism; the family later adopted it as a surname. Eric was educated at Marist Brothers’ Boys’ School, Kogarah, and at St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill. In 1921 he began work as a junior clerk in the sheriff’s office, Department of the Attorney-General and of Justice, before moving to the new Workers’ Compensation Commission of New South Wales in 1926. He attended the University of Sydney (LL.B, 1926) part time. In April 1927 he was appointed associate to the chief judge in Equity, Justice (Sir) John Harvey, and on 28 July that year was admitted to the Bar. He married Rita Clarke, a masseuse, on 30 December 1931 at St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, Sydney.</p> <p> Although Miller co-authored <em>Short Company</em> <em>Practice (New South Wales)</em> (1933) and <em>Equity Forms and Precedents (New South Wales)</em> (1934), he made his name as a common law jury and appellate advocate, specialising in workers’ compensation and industrial law. He was junior to Herbert Vere Evatt in the <em>Caledonian Collieries Case (Nos 1 and 2)</em> (1930) arising out of the 1929 New South Wales coalminers’ lockout. In 1940 he took silk.</p> <p> Miller was counsel assisting Justice (Sir) Charles Lowe in the 1943 ‘Brisbane Line’ royal commission that inquired into Eddie Ward’s wild allegations. In 1949 Miller appeared for Ward in Justice (Sir) George Ligertwood’s Papua-New Guinea timber rights royal commission. The <em>Australian Financial</em> <em>Review</em> erroneously claimed in 1959 that Ward had refused to give evidence to the timber royal commission. Miller acted for him in the defamation case that followed.</p> <p> In 1945 Miller had inquired into the administration of the Peace Officer Guard. Next year he represented his wife’s cousin John Joseph Murphy in a court martial on charges of treacherously giving information to the Japanese; Murphy was honourably acquitted. Miller acted for the, at best, ‘grossly negligent’ vice squad sergeant John Freeman in the 1951-54 royal commission on the liquor laws in New South Wales. During the 1962-63 off-course betting royal commission, Justice Edward Kinsella criticised Miller, who was representing a bookmaker, claiming that Miller intended to undermine public confidence in the commission. The council of the Bar Association of New South Wales, chaired by its vice-president, (Sir) John Kerr, found no professional misconduct.</p> <p> Miller had a varied workload; some of his most celebrated cases came from unions or firms with Catholic connections. He acted with Kerr for Laurie Short in the long-running Federated Ironworkers’ Association of Australia ‘forged ballots’ case. Judge Edward Dunphy found forgery, fraud and irregularity on a grand scale and installed Short as national secretary. Miller won <em>Jones</em> v <em>Dunkel</em> in the High Court of Australia (1959) and <em>Commissioner for Railways</em> v <em>Quinlan</em> in the Privy Council (1964).</p> <p> ‘A towering figure of the Bar’, according to Justice Michael Kirby, Miller was a private person who kept his emotions under firm control yet would engage strangers in conversation. James McClelland, a Sydney lawyer and Federal politician, described him as a formidable jury advocate who ‘exuded confidence in his own rectitude’, and was willing to challenge judges. However, ‘you wouldn’t brief him in a complicated constitutional case’. He was impervious to reversals of fortune in court. In 1973 he retired from practice.</p> <p> Miller was a founding member of the Sydney University Newman Society, a prominent Catholic layman and a friend of Cardinal Sir Norman Gilroy. Developing a passionate interest in the track after appearing in a doping inquiry, Miller owned ‘mid-week’ horses. His other interests included tennis, golf and his property, ‘Bowen Park’, near Trangie. He and his wife raised his brother Cecil’s orphaned son. Survived by his wife and their three sons and four daughters, he died on 31 March 1986 at Darlinghurst and was cremated. A portrait (1949) by Edward M. Smith is in private possession.</p> </div> <div class="infoList"> <h3>Select Bibliography</h3> <ul> <li> J. McClelland, <em>Stirring the Possum</em> (1988)</li><li><em>Australian Law Journal</em>, vol 60, no 7, 1986, p 421</li><li><em>Australian Journal of Family Law</em>, vol 19, no 3, 2005, p 3</li><li><em>Cerise and Blue</em>, 1928, p 51, May 1986, p 36</li><li><em>Sydney Morning Herald</em>, 29 June 1963, p 7</li><li>private information.</li> </ul> </div> <div class="infoList"> <h3>Related Entries in NCB Sites</h3> <ul> <li><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gilroy-sir-norman-thomas-10308">Gilroy, Norman Thomas</a> (friend)<span class="linkicon"><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gilroy-sir-norman-thomas-10308"><img src="/images/site/adb/siteIcon.jpg" alt="go to ADB entry" title="go to ADB entry"/></a></span></li> <li><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/harvey-sir-john-musgrave-6594">Harvey, John Musgrave</a> (work colleague)<span class="linkicon"><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/harvey-sir-john-musgrave-6594"><img src="/images/site/adb/siteIcon.jpg" alt="go to ADB entry" title="go to ADB entry"/></a></span></li> <li><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lowe-sir-charles-john-10865">Lowe, Charles John</a> (work colleague)<span class="linkicon"><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lowe-sir-charles-john-10865"><img src="/images/site/adb/siteIcon.jpg" alt="go to ADB entry" title="go to ADB entry"/></a></span></li> <li><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/evatt-herbert-vere-bert-10131">Evatt, Herbert Vere</a> (work colleague)<span class="linkicon"><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/evatt-herbert-vere-bert-10131"><img src="/images/site/adb/siteIcon.jpg" alt="go to ADB entry" title="go to ADB entry"/></a></span></li> <li><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kinsella-edward-parnell-ted-10748">Kinsella, Edward Parnell</a> (opposer)<span class="linkicon"><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kinsella-edward-parnell-ted-10748"><img src="/images/site/adb/siteIcon.jpg" alt="go to ADB entry" title="go to ADB entry"/></a></span></li> <li><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ward-edward-john-eddie-11959">Ward, Edward John</a> (client)<span class="linkicon"><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ward-edward-john-eddie-11959"><img src="/images/site/adb/siteIcon.jpg" alt="go to ADB entry" title="go to ADB entry"/></a></span></li> </ul> </div> <div class="citation"> <h3>Citation details</h3> <p>P. A. Selth, 'Miller, Eric Stanislaus (1903–1986)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/miller-eric-stanislaus-14960/text26149, published first in hardcopy 2012, accessed online 26 February 2025.</p> <p id="origPubDetails"><strong>This article was published in hardcopy in <em><strong>Australian Dictionary of Biography</strong></em>, Volume 18, (Melbourne University Press), 2012</strong></p> <p style="margin-top: 20px;">View the <a href="/frontpages/fp18.pdf" target="_blank">front pages</a> for Volume 18</p> </div> <div id="printFooter"> <p class="floatLeft">© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2025</p> </div> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> $(function() { Shadowbox.init({ counterType: 'skip', continuous: true, overlayOpacity: 0.80 }); }); </script> <div id="pageSidebar"> <div class="mainPic"><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.cs-pa-http%253A%252F%252Fcas.awm.gov.au%252Fphotograph%252F139210" title="Eric Miller (right), with W. J. Dignam, 1943"><img src="/uploads/obituaries/14960/thumbs/miller_246x550.gif" alt="Eric Miller (right), with W. J. Dignam, 1943" width='246' height='429' /></a> </div> <p class="caption"><span class="captionName">Eric Miller </span>(right), with W. J. Dignam, 1943</p><p class="credit"><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.cs-pa-http%253A%252F%252Fcas.awm.gov.au%252Fphotograph%252F139210">Australian War Memorial, 139210</a></p> <div class="lifeSummary"> <h3>Life Summary <span><a href ="/lifesummary/miller-eric-stanislaus-14960" target="_blank">[details]</a></span></h3> <h5>Birth</h5> <p> <a href="/biographies/birth/?bdate=15051903">15 May</a>, <a href="/biographies/birth/?bdate=1903">1903</a> <br /> <a href="/biographies/search/?query=birthLocation%3A%22Rockdale%2C%20Sydney%2C%20New%20South%20Wales%2C%20Australia%22">Rockdale, Sydney</a>, <a href="/biographies/search/?query=birthLocation%3A%22New%20South%20Wales%2C%20Australia%22">New South Wales</a>, <a href="/biographies/search/?query=birthLocation%3A%22Australia%22">Australia</a> </p> <h5>Death</h5> <p> <a href="/biographies/death/?ddate=31031986">31 March</a>, <a href="/biographies/death/?ddate=1986">1986</a> (aged 82) <br /> <a href="/biographies/search/?query=deathLocation%3A%22Darlinghurst%2C%20Sydney%2C%20New%20South%20Wales%2C%20Australia%22">Darlinghurst, Sydney</a>, <a href="/biographies/search/?query=deathLocation%3A%22New%20South%20Wales%2C%20Australia%22">New South Wales</a>, <a href="/biographies/search/?query=deathLocation%3A%22Australia%22">Australia</a> </p> <div class="life-summary__heading-container"> <h5 class="life-summary__heading--note">Cultural Heritage</h5> <button class="life-summary__note-button" title="View explanatory note" data-note-text-id="life-summary-cultural"> <img src="/images/down_arrow.png" class="life-summary__button-image"> </button> </div> <p class="life-summary__note-text" id="life-summary-cultural"> Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity. </p><ul> <li> <a href="/biographies/search/?query=ethnicity%3A%22Austrian%22">Austrian</a> </li> <li> <a href="/biographies/search/?query=ethnicity%3A%22Irish%22">Irish</a> </li> </ul> <div class="life-summary__heading-container"> <h5 class="life-summary__heading--note">Religious Influence</h5> <button class="life-summary__note-button" title="View explanatory note" data-note-text-id="life-summary-religious"> <img src="/images/down_arrow.png" class="life-summary__button-image"> </button> </div> <p class="life-summary__note-text" id="life-summary-religious"> Includes the religion in which subjects were raised, have chosen themselves, attendance at religious schools and/or religious funeral rites; Atheism and Agnosticism have been included. </p><ul> <li> <a href="/biographies/search/?query=religion%3A%22Catholic%22">Catholic</a> </li> </ul> <h5> Occupation or Descriptor </h5> <ul> <li> <a href="/biographies/occupation/?occupation=barrister&rpp=200">barrister</a> </li> <li> <a href="/biographies/occupation/?occupation=public%20servant&rpp=200">public servant</a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <footer> <div class="clearFix" id="footer"> <h3>Australian Dictionary of Biography</h3> <p>An initiative of the <a href="https://history.cass.anu.edu.au/centres/ncb">National Centre of Biography</a> at the <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/">Australian National University</a></p> <div class="clearFix"> <p class="floatLeft">© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2025</p> <p class="floatLeft cdp"><a href="/copyright/">Copyright</a> · <a href="/disclaimer/">Disclaimer</a> · <a href="/privacy/">Privacy Policy</a> · <a href="/contact-us/">Contact Us</a></p> </div> </div> </footer> </body> </html>