Corporal Martin Hugh MILES (3969841)
2nd Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment

Date of birth: 19th November 1915
Date of death: 11th June 1944

Killed in action aged 28
Commemorated on the Bayeux Memorial Panel 14 Column 3
He was born in Teignmouth, Devon on the 19th of November 1915, the younger son of the Reverend Joseph Henry Miles TCD BA, and his second wife Helen J (nee Kolb) of 39 South Road, Faversham; St Ninian's, The Vale, Broadstairs; and of Upper Basildon, Berkshire.

He was educated at Asheton School, Tenterden, and at the King's School Canterbury from September 1929 to March 1934, where he was in Langley House. He was a monitor and was Head of House. He played in the Rugby XV and captained the Hockey XI (1933/34). He was a member of the Debating Society and was Editor of The Cantuarian.

After school he went to St Edmund Hall, Oxford, following which he trained for the stage at the London Mask Theatre School.

Following the outbreak of war he served with Auxiliary Fire Service until he enlisted in the Gloucestershire Regiment in 1940 and was posted to the 2nd Battalion of his regiment. The battalion landed on "Gold" Beach in Normandy on the 6th of June 1944 as part of 56th Infantry Brigade, 50th Infantry Division.

On the 11th of June 1944 the battalion mounted an attack on the town of Tilly-sur- Seulles. Supported by tanks they attacked across open fields towards the town but were met by fierce machine gun fire and took heavy casualties. Many of the tanks which were in support were knocked out by German 88mm guns and there was a Tiger tank on the main road of the town. Under heavy shell fire the battle lasted for four hours before the battalion were ordered to withdraw and dig in which they did, in the fields to the north. They then laid out markers for an attack by Royal Air Force Typhoons which fired rockets at the German positions in the evening. To protect against an expected counter-attack, searchlights were brought up but no further fighting occurred that day.

After heavy fighting Tilly finally fell on the 19th of June.

His half brother, Captain Harry Godfrey Massy-Miles MC, Royal Army Medical Corps attached to the 1/8th (City of London) Battalion (Post Office Rifles), died of wounds in France on the 26th April 1918.

He is commemorated on the war memorial at St Edmund Hall Oxford.
Langley House

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