Sir John Miller Adye was a British general, son of Major James P. Adye, was born at Sevenoaks, Kent, on 1 November 1819. He entered the Royal Artillery in 1836, was promoted to captain in 1846, and served throughout the Crimean War as brigade-major and assistant adjutant-general of artillery (awarded C.B., brevets of major and lieutenant-colonel).
In the Indian rebellion of 1857 he served on the staff in a similar capacity. Promoted brevet-colonel in 1860, he was specially employed in 1863 in the Northwest frontier of the India campaign, and was Deputy-Adjutant-General, Bengal, from 1863 to 1866, when he returned home. From 1870 to 1875 Adye was Director of Artillery and Stores at the War Office. He was made a K.C.B. in 1873, and was promoted to be major-general and appointed governor of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1875, and Surveyor-General of the Ordnance in 1880. In 1882 he was chief of staff and second in command of the expedition to Egypt, and served throughout the campaign (awarded G.C.B. and thanks of Parliament). He held the government of Gibraltar from 1883 to 1886.
At some time in his career he became good friends with both William Armstrong and Stuart Rendel, so much so that his daughter, Winifreda, married the former's grand-nephew and heir, William Henry Watson-Armstrong in 1889. His other daughter, Evelyn Violet, was to become John Meade Falkner's wife on 18 October 1899. His son, Sir John Adye, would become a Major-General.
