Beatrix Miller CBE |
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Born |
Beatrix Molineux Miller 29 June 1923 |
Died | 21 February 2014 | (aged 90)
Nationality | British |
Other names | Miss Miller; Bea |
Alma mater | University of Paris |
Occupation | Magazine editor |
Title | Editor of British Vogue |
Term | 1964–85 |
Predecessor | Ailsa Garland |
Successor | Anna Wintour |
Awards | Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1986) |
Beatrix Molineux Miller, CBE (29 June 1923 – 21 February 2014) was a British fashion and cultural magazine editor. She was editor of Queen from 1958 to 1964, and editor of British Vogue from 1964 to 1985.
Miller was born on 29 June 1923. Her father was a doctor and her mother was a nurse; they had met on the Western Front during World War I. She was brought up in Rudgwick, Sussex, England. At the age of 15, she was evacuated to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where she lived with an uncle and aunt for the duration of World War II. She was educated to the age of 17 by tutors and later studied for six months at University of Paris.
Miller began her career as a secretary. After the war, she worked with MI6 in Germany, and at the Nuremberg Trials. She rarely spoke about those two years of her life.
She began her journalistic career as a secretary for The Queen, a British society magazine. She also wrote features for the magazine, and ended her time there as features editor. In 1956, she moved to New York City where she joined the American version of Vogue as a copywriter. In 1958, The Queen was bought by Jocelyn Stevens and Miller was invited to return to the magazine as editor. She changed the renamed Queen into a magazine for young women rather than one aimed at the older, traditional socialite.