An Ice Skating Family

Hughie Mille, Janette & Miles Heffernan, Honey Miller Paradice Auckland.

Ice skating has played an important part of the Miller/Heffernan families as my mother met my father on an ice rink and I met my husband on one too. Ice dancing has played cupid twice!

Ice Skating became popular in the 1930's partly due to my grandfather who introduced skating to the Empire Pool Wembley. Ice Hockey was a tremendous financial success on Saturday nights but the rest of the week was devoted to Ice Skating and this is where my father, Hughie Miller spotted my mother.

Honey Thorpe was the youngest daughter of the Thorpe Family and as she had no education at all my grandfather did not know what to do with her so he gave her a skating pass. She turned out to be a first class ice dancer even gaining  a silver medal when this was the top award. I never got even a bronze.

It is not surprising that my father, a young Lloyds underwriter, fell in love with her. Daddy adored skating as can be seen here in the Daily Mail skating at Golders Green wearing a kilt!

Hughie Miller, in kilt in the Daily Mail 1938?

I met my GP husband Miles at Queens Ice Rink in Bayswater. It was a good place to meet people when I worked in London.  Queens was near St Mary's Hospital Paddington and to my surprise many young doctors skate.

It took 8 years many ice dances for Miles to eventually  ask me to marry him. We kept skating twice a week for years. I had to give up because I hurt my back badly when I fell but Miles continued to skate all his life. I was never any good at skating but I gave up three years of my life to it as it is addictive. Never regretted it although I was hopeless.