Eric Grant Miles

Major-General Eric Grant Miles CB DSO MC (11 August 1891 – 3 November 1977) was a senior British Army officer who saw active service during both World War I and World War II, where he commanded the 126th Infantry Brigade in the Battle of France and the 56th (London) Infantry Division in the final stages of the campaign in Tunisia. 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 World War I 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. After receiving a promotion to temporary captain on 1 September 1915 (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.