Francis George Miles

Stormed machine guns alone and opened their road to victory.

Francis George Miles (9 July 1896–8 November 1961) was a Gloucestershire coal miner and British Army private whose initiative broke a German machine-gun position holding up his company at Bois-l’Évêque, France. Born and raised in Clearwell in the Forest of Dean, he worked at a local colliery after leaving school. Miles enlisted in the Gloucestershire Regiment in December 1914. After being wounded and hospitalized in France, he returned to service and, because of his mining experience, was attached to the Royal Engineers as a tunneller. A mine explosion wounded him again; he later rejoined the Gloucestershire Regiment and served with the 1/5th Battalion, including on the Italian Front, before it returned to France for the final Allied offensives.

On 23 October 1918, during the advance through Bois-l’Évêque near Landrecies, Miles’s company was stopped by German machine guns firing from a sunken road. He went forward alone through exceptionally heavy fire, located one gun, shot its gunner, and put it out of action. Seeing a second gun nearby, he advanced again, shot the gunner, and captured the eight-man crew. He then stood and signalled his company. The official citation says his signals enabled the company to work around the rear of the line and capture sixteen machine guns, an officer, and fifty other ranks. It credited his courage, initiative, and disregard for personal safety with enabling the company to advance when delay threatened the operation. King George V presented Miles with the Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace in May 1919.

After the war, Miles returned to Clearwell and resumed work in the mines, despite continuing poor health. He re-enlisted in the Gloucestershire Regiment in 1939 and was discharged in June 1940. Miles died in 1961 and was buried at St Peter’s Church in Clearwell. His Victoria Cross group is now held in the Lord Ashcroft collection. He also served with the Monmouthshire Regiment in the Territorial Army between 1922 and 1926.

Sources: “Francis Miles VC,” The Gloucestershire Regiment; “Francis George Miles,” Victoria Cross Online; “Francis Miles V.C. (Church Memorial),” War Memorials Online; “No. 31108, Supplement to The London Gazette,” 3 January 1919.

[Biographical and award record](https://victoriacross.org.uk/bbmilesf.htm)