Eric Grant Miles

Major-General Eric Grant Miles, (11 August 1891 – 3 November 1977) was a senior British Army officer who saw active service during both the First and Second World Wars, where he commanded the 126th Infantry Brigade in the Battle of France and the 56th (London) Infantry Division in the final stages of the Tunisian Campaign.

Early life and military career Born on 11 August 1891, the second son of George Herbert Miles, Eric Grant Miles was educated at Harrow School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB) on 3 June 1911. Upon passing out from Sandhurst, Miles was posted to the 2nd Battalion, KOSB, then serving in Belfast, Ireland.

Upon the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Miles, with his battalion, then serving in Dublin as part of the 13th Brigade of the 5th Division, was sent overseas to France, landing at Le Havre on 15 August, as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant on 27 August 1914, Miles, his rank of lieutenant made permanent, participated in all the major battles in which the battalion was engaged that year, beginning with the Battle of Mons and the subsequent retreat, and culminating in the First Battle of Ypres, where Miles's battalion suffered very heavy losses, although Miles himself survived unscathed and, from 18 November 1914, was seconded to the Army Signal Service. During the Battle of Hill 60 in April–May 1915, Miles, while attached to the 5th Signal Company, Royal Engineers, was awarded the Military Cross (MC) on 23 July 1915. The citation read:

He later became a staff officer for the rest of the war, remaining on the Western Front throughout the conflict. (made permanent on 25 January 1916), in March 1916, he was appointed a brigade major with the 54th Brigade, part of Major-General Ivor Maxse's 18th (Eastern) Division, a Kitchener's Army formation composed largely of civilian volunteers, which saw service, and suffered heavy casualties, that summer during the Somme offensive. On 4 June 1917 Miles was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), "for distinguished service in the field", and, from July 1917 he served as a General Staff Officer Grade 3 (GSO3) until 23 September 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive and shortly before the end of the war, when he was wounded in action and returned to England, to become a GSO2 at the Staff School, Cambridge. During the war Miles was five times mentioned in dispatches. Miles continued to serve in a variety of staff positions, notably as a GSO2 with the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) from 1919 to 1920.

Returning to England in 1930, he spent until early 1934 as a GSO2 at the War Office, during which time he was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel in July 1931, before attending the Imperial Defence College, later in 1934. he was given a field command, being appointed Commanding Officer (CO) of the 1st Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment, then stationed in Southern England, with Major Miles Dempsey as second-in-command (2-i-c). and posted to Malaya where he became a GSO1 with Malaya Command.

Second World War Still in Malaya when the Second World War broke out in September 1939, later in the year he returned to England where, promoted to acting brigadier, The division comprised, in addition to Miles's old 126th Brigade, the 125th and 127th Infantry Brigades, and divisional troops, and was serving in Eastern Command in East Anglia as part of Lieutenant General Hugh Massy's XI Corps. During a reconnaissance into Tunisia during the last stages of the campaign there, he was wounded in the head by artillery in early May 1943 and returned to the United Kingdom.

Later in 1943, after recovering from his injury, he became GOC Kent and South East Districts and, in September 1944, as an acting lieutenant general, he took over as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of South-Eastern Command.

Postwar Miles retired from the army, after a career spanning thirty-five years, in September 1946, retaining his permanent rank of major general. until 19 June 1954. He was Deputy Chairman of the Lichfield Diocesan Board of Finance from 1954 to 1960, becoming Chairman from 1960 to 1971, and became a member of the House of Laity, Church Assembly from 1955 to 1960. After the death of his wife in 1972, his last five years were spent as a widower