Walter R. Miller

Walter Richard Samuel Miller (born 1872 - died 1952) was a British missionary active in Nigeria during the first half of the 20th century. He was the main author of the first complete translation of the Bible into Hausa.

Born into an Anglican family, he set his sights on a life as a missionary from an early age, studying Arabic and Hausa in Cairo and then Tripoli with a view to evangelising northern Nigeria. A member of the Church Missionary Society, he arrived in Lagos at Christmas 1899 and travelled to Kano, but the emir of that city would not allow Christian missionaries to settle there. He finally settled in Zaria in 1902 with another missionary, George Bargery. His sister Ethel Miller joined him some time later. He opened a dispensary and a school.

In 1929, the new emir asked the Christian mission to leave Zaria for Wusasa. Miller gradually translated the Bible into Hausa, which was published in full in that language for the first time in 1932. He left the Church Missionary Society in 1935 and settled in Jos, where he devoted himself to teaching Hausa and writing until his death in 1952^[1].

• W. R. S. Miller, Walter Miller: An Autobiography 1872-1952, London, CMS, 1952
• W. R. S. Miller, Reflections of a Pioneer, London, CMS, 1936