The Award of Dux of Miller Miller Institution and Miller Academy

Prizes, such as medals and watches, were presented to top pupils at Miller before 1898 but the first reference in the school log books to a school Dux is in that year when the Reverend Doctor Alexander Miller of Buckie gifted the funds to provide a Dux’s medal and an associated monetary prize.  The tradition of awarding a Dux’s medal carried on uninterrupted until 1995. 

Reverend Miller was very specific in his Gift to the school laying down clearly the criteria for the award of the medal and prize.

                                                                                                                      BUCKIE, 

                                                                                                                      June 11^th 1898.

                                              To the School Board of Thurso.

Gentlemen,

I desire to place in your hands a sum of money, probably in the form of £350 Preference Stock No. 1 of the Caledonian Railway to be held by you as the Managing Body of the Miller Institution, Thurso, in trust with the usual powers of Trustees, for the following purposes in connection with that School, from the annual proceeds shall be provided:

First

(a)   A Gold Medal named in memory of my Father and his close connection with the earlier years of the said institution, The William Miller Gold Medal,

(b)  The Board shall forward the Medal after consultation with the Head Master, to the pupil, girl or boy, who after at least one session of fairly regular attendance at said school, shall stand first, when tested by examination, regard being had to all branches of the year’s regular work,

(c)  The Leaving Certificate Examination, shall for the present be the basis of the award, so that the Medal shall go to the pupil who shall have won certificates in the greatest number of subjects, and these certificates of the highest grades.  The number of marks if these can be ascertained, may be taken into account, and in event of equality, proficiency in Classics shall count for more than any other subjects, and proficiency in Greek more than in Latin.

(d)  In the event of the Leaving Certificate Examination being so altered as to be an inconvenient basis of award, the Board may appoint some other form of examination to take its place.

(e)   In case of equality the Board may after consultation with the Head Master divide the value of the Medal into two or into three book prizes, and in case of what it may deem, after such consultation, insufficient merit in all the eligible pupils, it may withhold the Medal altogether for one year. In that case the value of the Medal shall be added to the Capital,

(f)  The Medal shall not be awarded to the same pupil a second time, nor any part of it.

Second.

(a)  The remainder of the Annual proceeds shall form a prize, named in like manner, The William Miller Prize.

(b)  The Prize shall be offered to the holder of the Medal provided the holder undertakes to carry on education for at least one year, at some University or Training or Technical College, of which the Board shall approve.  It shall be payable not sooner than three months after the Session of such University or College opens, and the Board may refuse payment if not satisfied with the holder’s attendance at classes or diligence in study.

(c)  In the event of the holder of the Medal declining to carry his or her education further, the prize shall be offered to the pupil next in order of merit of the same year’s classes at said School.

(d)  The Board may in the event of what it deems, after consultation with the Head Master, insufficient qualification in all the pupils withhold the prize wholly for one year, in which case, and in the case of all the pupils eligible declining to agree to the conditions, the amount shall be added to the capital.

(e)  The Prize shall not be awarded to the same pupil a second time.

(f)  For the holding of this prize, the holding or any other prize or any bursary shall not disqualify.

(g)    In case of equality the prize may also be divided.

In the event of your agreeing to accept the Trust on these conditions I shall be glad to be furnished with the names and designations of the Members of the Board as now constituted, in order that the transfer may be duly executed.

For the present year I shall supply the Medal, after which, the Dies which I shall arrange for the production of by Messrs Kirkwood and Son, Edinburgh, shall become your property and if an eligible holder for the prize be found I shall be glad to provide the amount necessary for the current year.  The name of the holder and the year will probably require to be engraved locally on the Medal.

                                                            I remain, Dear Sirs,

Yours most sincerely,

(Sgd.) Alexander Miller.

By 1909, the structure of education and the curriculum at the Miller Institution and disputes earlier in the decade, regarding the choice of recipients of the award, made changes in the regulations governing the award of the Medal and Prize necessary.  At a School Board meeting on 23^rd June of that year, the required alteration was approved.

The initial dispute surrounding the choice of Dux arose as no selection had been made timeously in 1900.  The Rector, David L. Phease, had left and a new Rector had been appointed.  He, along with the School Board, had to decide on the award with less than normal information.  A letter was sent to Mr Phease for assistance  and a reply received but this correspondence cannot now be found.  The terms of the reply are not known but it would appear that he was unable to help the Board to any great extent.  This being the case after some discussion and a number of meetings, not all running smoothly, a Donald Mackay was chosen.  This decision was legally challenged by the families of James Oag and Bain Bruce with the former following his claim through to the Sheriff Court.

The arguments and counter arguments are too long to include here but, suffice to say, the matter was eventually settled with the prize going, according to the School Board minutes, to James Oag.

Thurso, 23^rd June 1909.

Minute by the School Board of the Parish of Thurso, with refer­ence to the awarding of The William Miller Gold Medal and The William Miller Prize.

Whereas by the foregoing Letter or Deed of Trust granted by the Reverend Alexander Miller, D.D. dated 11th June 1898, it is provided under head First (d) that “In the event of the leaving Certificate Examination being so altered as to be an inconvenient :basis of award the Board may appoint some other form of examination to take its place”: And whereas the Leaving Certificate Examination has been materially altered since the said Letter or Deed of Trust was granted, so that it no longer forms a convenient basis of award of the said Medal and Prize.

Therefore the School Board of Thurso as Trustees under the said Letter or Deed of Trust and in virtue of the power thereby conferred on them have resolved that after the present session, “The William Miller Gold Medal” shall annually be awarded to the pupil, girl or boy, who shall stand first at the close of each succeeding Session as tested by the marks obtained by her or him in the quarterly examinations of the Highest Class during the Session in English and in any three of the following five subjects selected by such girl or boy. Viz:— Mathematics, Latin, Greek, French and German, and as confirmed by reports from His Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools for the District, combined with a satisfactory report by the Head Master on the pupil who shall be found by the said Board after considering the result of the quarterly Examinations and the said Inspectors’ Reports to stand first at the close of the Session: and that the “William Miller” Prize shall be awarded and paid by the Board to the winner of the Medal as provided for in the preceding Letter or Deed of Trust. 

That excepting in so far as necessary to give effect to those alterations the foregoing Letter or Deed of Trust shall remain in full force and effect in every respect.

Adopted by the School Board of the Parish of Thurso as an alteration of the Basis of the award of the “William Miller” Gold Medal and Prize at their Meeting held on 20th December 1909.

(Signed) Peter Keith

Chairman pro tem.

This alteration to the Gift appears to have remained in force until 1927.  In December 1926, the School Board considered a letter from Rector Ironside requesting that steps be taken to include Higher Science as one of the subjects on which the award of the Miller Medal be based and asked that the matter be considered by the Miller Institution Committee.  Further to this there was a recommendation to the January 1927 Board meeting that this alteration be accepted but not until after the present session and that this change be put to the Education Authority for approval.  Candidates would thus take English and select any three subjects from Mathematics, Latin, Greek, French, German and Higher Science.  By the following month the Education Authority had unanimously accepted Mr Ironside’s request to the school Board and at the end of the 1927-28 session the new rules applied.

A metal plate and two wooden display boards in the main corridor of the Primary School building lists the names of the individuals who were awarded the honour of Dux of ‘Miller’.

Throughout the war period the ‘William Miller Medal and Prize’ continued to be presented to the Dux of the school.  The medal being given upon approval by the Management Committee of the marks attained by the winning pupil.  The Prize had certain conditions attached to it and was given when those conditions were met.  The Dux was required to indicate that he or she had fulfilled the required conditions and at the same time claimed the monetary prize.  In 1940, for instance, Isabel Haslam indicated she was to go to Edinburgh University and presumably was asking for the bursary, or at least part of it, associated with the prize to be paid to enable her to continue her studies.  In another claim for the prize money Louie Murray wrote to the Management Committee stating that she had now qualified for payment of the award.  The exact nature of this qualification or the contents of the letter are not noted in the minute of the meeting where approval was given.  However, a memory sheet returned on Miss Murray’s behalf indicates she used her award well and that she was very successful in her studies.  Having won a bursary to Edinburgh University she graduated M.A. Honours in Mathematics in 1941 and then went on to work in the foreign office for the rest of the war.  This was followed by a return to Edinburgh University, in 1954, to become qualified as an Almoner and in 1957 she took up posts in Aberdeen Hospitals until retirement.  I am told that Miss Murray is rather reticent about her war-time service but this is hardly surprising since she worked at ‘Bletchley Park’ which indicates for itself her academic quality and professionalism. 

Though there was probably no question of the ‘William Miller Medal’ not being given at any time prior to its discontinuation in 1995, consideration was given by the Management Committee in 1942 to discontinuing the monetary prize.  The notice for this proposal was, by some, thought to be too short and pupils should have twelve months notice of such a move.  The motive behind the change was probably shortage of funds in the war years.  It would appear that the proposal to remove prize money was not implemented as the Management Committee minutes continue to record both the winners and the amount allocated to the schools in the Thurso area for prizes.

While the Dux’s medals were highly prized by the winners and valued by the education community, the recording of the winners was not always so diligently undertaken.  Mr Ironside remarked that the Dux’s Board for 1938 to 1943 had not been inscribed.  After some discussion at the Management Committee, it was agreed to provide the money for the inscriptions on the board to brought up to date.

In the accounts at that time the cost of the gold medal was given as £5  3s 6d. 

It is not possible to document the career of many recipients of the Dux’s medal here though a suitable future project might be to follow the careers of those receiving the coveted prize and to document their later achievements.  It is, however, quite appropriate to mention just a few students, some who became Dux and others who did not, to give an indication of the quality of some of the individuals who received their education at  Miller Academy.  Many who are named on the Dux’s boards became teachers, university graduates, doctors of law and medicine, ministers and authors.  In addition, it has to be acknowledged that hundreds of students who passed through the school but were never Dux or prize winners were very successful in their chosen trades and professions. 

Among the famous pupils not on the Dux Boards are Sir Charles Findlay who became Judge of the Supreme Court in Edinburgh, Sir George Waters, a former Editor of the Scotsman, and Sheriff Barrogil Keith of Orkney.  More than one Dux has returned to teach in the school.  A former Provost of Thurso, Isabella Cormack, was a long serving member of the staff, Mary Smith (Rodgers) still works in the school on a regular basis and Mary Lyall (Munro) has been both a permanent member of the teaching staff and a substitute teacher at Miller Academy.  She also taught in Thurso High School.

A Dux of some prominence who returned to work in Caithness was Donald Carmichael.  Mr Carmichael worked at a senior level for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority at Dounreay.  He took a first class honours degree at Edinburgh University and for four years lectured at that University.  Not satisfied with his achievements at Edinburgh he did research work in psychology and anthropology at St. John’s College, Cambridge.  Mr Carmichael’s brother, another former pupil, worked for some time at Cambridge University under Lord Rutherford after gaining a first class honours degree in Mathematics and Physics.   He then went to Canada where took Canadian citizenship.  In his adopted country he was involved in early atomic research with a group of scientists at Chalk River.

Shown below is the Gold Dux’s Medal won by Margaret E. B. Cameron in session 1906-07.  With the Dux Medal is the Ulbster Prize Medal for Modern Languages for 1907 to the left and the Provost Durran Medal for English for 1907.

The front and rear of the Dux Medal won by Margaret E. B. Cameron for session 1906-07.  Margaret Cameron is on the Dux’s Board for 1906, the start of the session in which she was Dux.