'Lions Led By Donkeys'
Philip John Miles
(1864-1948)
Brigadier-General
CB, CMG. GOC Infantry Brigade
Shrewsbury School, RNC Greenwich
Indian Army
Philip John Miles was the son of the Rev P E Miles. He was
commissioned in the Royal Marine Light Infantry on 1 March 1885, but transferred
to the Indian Army on 31 December 1887. Miles spent the rest of his pre-war
career with the Indian Army, serving with the 45th Sikhs, 57th Wilde’s Rifles,
53rd Sikhs (Frontier Force) and, finally as CO 51st Sikhs (Frontier Force)
(1909-14). He saw much action in brush fire wars, including the Hazara
Expedition (1888), the first Miranzai Expedition (1891), China (1900) and the
North West Frontier (1908). When the European War broke out Miles was at home on
leave, but he soon found employment as the first commander of 47th Brigade, 16th
(Irish) Division. He trained the brigade and deployed with it to France in
December 1915, but was replaced within a few weeks, succumbing to the purge of
16th Division’s senior officers carried out by the new divisional commander,
William Hickie.
Miles’s ruthless ‘stellenbosching’ did not end his
career, however. He commanded 189th Brigade, 63rd (2nd Northumbrian Division) TF,
from March to October 1916, before returning to India, where he commanded a
column in the Marri Punitive Force (1918), the Multan Brigade (1918-9), and a
brigade in the Waziristan Field Force (1919). He retired form the Indian Army in
December 1919. Brigadier-General Miles was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical
Society.
John Bourne
Centre for First World War Studies
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