John Guille Millais
1865–1931 · British painter, naturalist and travel writer
John Guille Millais (1865-1931) was a British painter, naturalist, gardener and travel writer who specialised in wildlife and flower portraiture. The son of Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais, he is regarded as one of Britain's most respected ornithologists and bird artists.
After six years in the army, he left the Seaforth Highlanders to travel through Europe, Africa and North America. Between 1890 and 1914 he published a series of books on birds and other natural history subjects. His most famous works, Natural History of British Feeding Ducks, British Diving Ducks and British Game Birds, with plates by Archibald Thorburn, are counted among the finest studies of wildfowl ever published.
His tenacity is evident in Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland (1904), for which he spent months with the Atlantic whaling fleet. In 1917 he published the first of two volumes on rhododendrons, in a limited edition of 550 copies, and became an authority on rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias. His private collection at Horsham, of around 14,000 specimens, was dispersed after his death.