WHO DARED
TO NOBLY STEM
TYRANNIC PRIDE
BURNS

SECOND LIEUTENANT ROBERT GOLDIE MILLER

ROYAL FLYING CORPS

17TH MARCH 1917 AGE 27

BURIED: LOUVENCOURT MILITARY CEMETERY, SOMME, FRANCE


Robert Burns' praise of the cottager's simple virtues does very well as a praise for the contribution 2nd Lieutenant Robert Goldie Miller made to the stemming of the Kaiser's 'tyrannic pride'. The quotation comes from Stanza XXI of 'The Cotter's Saturday Night':

O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide,
That stream'd thro' Wallace's undaunted heart:
Who dared to nobly stem tyrannic pride,
Or nobly die ...

Robert Goldie Miller was a Scotsman educated at Dollar Academy, Glasgow. When the war broke out he was working as an accountant in London. He originally joined the Stock Exchange London Battalion, was commissioned into the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in June 1915 and then transferred into the Royal Flying Corps as an observer. There is no information as to how he met his death. His father, William Goldie, confirmed his inscription.