Tributes to ex-Huddersfield sergeant killed at Alicante blackspot
Oct 15 2010 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
Tributes to ex-Huddersfield sergeant killed at sunshine blackspot
TRIBUTES have been paid to a retired Huddersfield police officer who died in a crash at an accident blackspot in Spain.
John Douglas Miller, who was known as ‘Dusty,’ was on holiday when the car he was in was involved in a smash with another car and a truck on the CV 95 highway near San Miguel, Alicante.
His wife, Anne, was left in a coma after suffering multiple injuries.
Several people from Huddersfield have holiday villas and apartments in that area.
Mr Miller, 76, started working for the then Huddersfield Borough Police in 1955.
A former apprentice engineer and RAF man, he served in the town centre and Moldgreen, before moving into CID and later becoming a coroner’s officer, a position he held for five-and-a-half years. He became a sergeant in 1968.
Former police officer Billy Kaye, 78, of Almondbury, served with Mr Miller for most of his 30 year career.
He said: “John was in the police when I started in 1957 and I got to know him really well.
“He was a great police officer, a big burley type who played rugby union with the old boys’ team and football.
“He was a great lad – really good company.
“When he became a coroner’s officer we used to joke with him that dealing with so many different deaths turned him into a hypochondriac.
“It’s a shock to hear how he died.”
Former Huddersfield detective Gary Haigh said: “John was a gregarious character, really good company, a very likeable personality.
“He was just a good old fashioned bobby. He was really good with people, both in the job and outside it.
