Millard

Millard, one of Miss Peregrine’s peculiar children, is introduced first through photographs that make Jacob doubt their authenticity and then as a living member of the group he has been seeking. In the later crisis, Millard becomes an active ally: he follows the man who has confined the children, helps the group understand their pursuer’s movements, and, despite being shot, insists that the rescue of Miss Peregrine must continue. His arc links the story’s uneasy passage from photographic evidence to lived reality with a quieter form of courage: he repeatedly puts the group’s survival and purpose ahead of his own safety.

Identity and Introduction

Millard is one of the children whose likeness appears among the old photographs associated with Abraham Portman. Those pictures initially reinforce Jacob’s suspicion that his grandfather’s accounts of extraordinary children were fabricated. Among them is an image of two masked children seeming to feed one another a coil of ribbon; Jacob recognizes it as a picture from Abraham’s cigar box. The photograph makes the children seem uncanny and difficult to interpret, but it also points toward a real community rather than a collection of unrelated tricks.

When Jacob finally encounters the children in person, he recognizes them from the photographs. That recognition gives the images a new status: they are no longer merely puzzling objects he can dismiss as manipulated. The old pictures have preserved a connection between Abraham’s childhood and the people Jacob now meets, including Millard. For Jacob, this shift is part of discovering that his grandfather’s stories had concealed a truth beneath their fantastic surface.

Background and the Hidden Past

The children’s history is set against Abraham’s escape from Poland before the Second World War and the loss of his family to Nazi persecution. Abraham was sent to Britain as a child, while those left behind were killed. His stories of monsters and of a protected home on an island transformed historical terror into language a child could hear: the imagined monsters gave shape to danger, while the enchanted refuge recast a place of safety as a fairy-tale haven.

Miss Peregrine explains that Abraham’s life carried the burden of persecution against both Jews and peculiars. After the war, the Nazis’ rule ended, but the Hollowgast remained a threat, and many peculiars continued to live in hiding. Abraham returned from the war changed and determined to build a life outside the loop. Millard belongs to the community whose hidden existence and wartime vulnerability stand behind the photographs Jacob first regarded as evidence of fakery.

Actions During the Crisis

During the escape from the icehouse, Bronwyn warns that the Hollowgast may come after the group, and the children race through the rain toward the loop, the place it cannot reach. Later, as aircraft and distant explosions sound, Fiona arrives in alarm with news of another danger: Millard had been hidden when the man shut the others in the basement, and, when that man left with a boat, Millard followed him. His decision supplies the group with a crucial lead, even though the others do not yet know where the man is going or what he intends to do.

At the coast, Millard helps assess the man’s position. With Golan and the captured ymbrynes out of sight, he suggests that Golan may be waiting for someone to collect him or for the tide to settle enough to row away. He stresses the uncertainty rather than pretending to know Golan’s plan. This practical reading of the situation gives the group possibilities to consider while they try to reach the captives.

Injury, Loyalty, and Relationships

During the approach to the lighthouse, Golan fires from the doorway and Millard is hit. The group reaches him on the wreck, where Emma asks whether he is all right. Millard responds with a dry apology for having got himself shot. The brief, understated remark characterizes his composure without concealing the seriousness of the moment: he is hurt, but remains attentive to what the others must do next.

When the group pauses to treat him, Millard refuses to let his injury determine their course. Hearing that Golan is climbing the stairs, he tells the others to go after him. Jacob objects that they should first care for Millard, but Millard argues that Golan will not let them get so close again and that turning back would mean losing Miss Peregrine. Bronwyn takes charge of stopping the bleeding while the others pursue Golan. Millard’s intervention thus helps divide the urgent tasks: his companions can attend to his wound without abandoning the rescue.

Narrative Role and Significance

Millard’s story is shaped by a contrast between images that appear false and events that make their truth consequential. Jacob once looked at extraordinary photographs and saw obvious manipulation; later, the photographs help him recognize the children themselves. The book’s closing note on its images adds a further distinction: the vintage photographs were authentic, with only a few minimally postprocessed. This real-world account of the photographs’ provenance echoes the novel’s concern with how appearance, evidence, and belief can mislead or illuminate.

Within the crisis, Millard is not defined by a single spectacular feat but by a series of decisions under pressure: following Golan after the children are confined, offering a cautious assessment of his possible escape, and urging the group onward after being shot. These actions make him an ally whose judgment and loyalty persist when the rescue becomes dangerous. His insistence that the others pursue Miss Peregrine gives the injury scene its decisive reversal: instead of drawing the group away from its objective, Millard’s vulnerability sharpens their resolve to reach her.