# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Miller, James Percy

​MILLER, Sir JAMES PERCY, second baronet (1864–1906), sportsman, born at Manderston on 22 Oct. 1864, was eldest surviving son of Sir William Miller, first baronet (1809–1887), of Manderston, Berwick, a Leith merchant, who was M.P. for Leith (1859–64) and Berwickshire (1893–4). James, after education at Eton and Sandhurst, joined the army, becoming captain in the 14th hussars on 8 Sept. 1888. On 10 Oct. 1887 he succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death. He was afterwards major of the Lothians and Berwickshire imperial yeomanry, and served in South Africa (1900–1) with the 6th battalion imperial yeomanry, being mentioned in despatches, and receiving the D.S.O. He was a J.P. and D.L. for Berwickshire. In 1889 Miller, who had previously owned a few steeplechasers, appeared upon the turf as an owner of racehorses, run under Jockey Club rules. In that year he purchased with rare judgment, of Sir Robert Jardine and John Porter, Sainfoin, which had won the Esher Stakes at Sandown Park very easily. The price was 6000l. and half the value of the Derby, if the horse won that prize. Sainfoin won the Derby of 1890 from Le Noir, Orwell, and Surefoot.
Miller's next stroke of luck was the purchase in 1894 for 4100 guineas, as a yearling, of the mare Roquebrune (foaled in 1893), by St. Simon, who had been bred by the Duchess of Montrose. With Roquebrune he won the New Stakes at Ascot and the Zetland Stakes at Doncaster. Mated in 1899 with Sainfoin, Roquebrune produced Rock Sand, her first foal. With this colt Sir James won in 1902 the Woodcote Stakes at Epsom, the Coventry Stakes at Ascot, the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, and the Dewhurst Plate at Newmarket. In the following year Rock Sand won the Two Thousand Guineas, Derby, and St. Leger. During the three seasons he was in training, this horse won stakes to the value of 45,618l., and was chiefly instrumental in placing Sir James at the head of the list of winning owners in 1903 and 1904, with totals of 24,768l. and 27,928l. Meanwhile Miller had in 1895 won the Oaks with La Sagesse, a daughter of Wisdom, and in 1901 his filly Aïda, by Galopin, won the One Thousand Guineas. The most important of his successes in handicaps was that gained in the Cesarewitch of 1898 with Chaleureux, destined to become the sire of the filly Signorinetta, who in 1908 won the Derby and Oaks for the Chevalier Ginistrelli. During the seventeen years he had horses in training Miller won 161 races, worth 114,005l.
Miller established a high-class breeding farm at Hamilton Stud, Newmarket, where Rock Sand was foaled. He was elected a member of the Jockey Club in 1903, and was a steward of that body when he died in 1906. In December 1905 he sold by auction most of his mares, and Roquebrune was purchased by a Belgian breeder for 4500 guineas. Six weeks later, on 22 Jan. 1906, Sir James died at Manderston, his Scottish home, from a chill caught in the hunting-field. His remains were interred at Christ Church, Duns. Rock Sand was shortly afterwards sold to Mr. August ​Belmont of New York for 26,000l. Married in 1893 to the Hon. Eveline Mary Curzon, third daughter of the fourth Baron Scarsdale, Miller left no issue, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his brother, John Alexander. A cartoon portrait appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1890.
[The Times, 23 Jan. 1906; Kingsclere (by John Porter), pp. 124-6; Ruff's Guide to the Turf; Debrett's Peerage; Burke's Peerage.]
E. M.