Name
Ernest Arthur Miles
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/08/1919
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Leading Seaman
J/8763
Royal Navy
H.M.S. “Vittoria”
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL
32.
United Kingdom
UK & Other Memorials
Christchurch Plaque, now in Holy Trinity Church, Bengeo
Not on the Hertford memorials
Portsmouth Cathedral Baltic Waters Memorial
Pre War
Born on 10th December 1894, in Hertford, he was baptised in St Andrews Church on 20 Jan 1895. His parents were Alfred and Mary of 14 Port Vale, Hertford and he had four brothers and one sister. In 1901 they were living at 27b Cowbridge, Hertford, his father was employed as a gravel pit labourer. By 1911 they were living at 10 The Folly, Hertford and his father was now a general building labourer and his mother was a charwomen, whilst Ernest was an A.B. Seaman. He was married to Ethel who lived at 14 Davies Street, Hertford at the time of his death, whilst his father was then living at 14 Port Vale, Hertford.
Wartime Service
Was in the crew of HMS Vittoria, a ‘V’ class destroyer that had been converted into a mine layer, in autumn 1919 she was part of a Royal Navy force that was in operation in the Baltic Sea, on the 1st September she was torpedoed and sunk by the Bolshevik submarine ‘Pantera’ in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea. Eight men from the crew of 30 died when the vessel sunk, one of whom was Ernest Miles. The wreck of the vessel was given to Finland on 12th December 1919 together with the wreck of its sister ship HMS Verulam, but when salvaging began in 1925 it was found that both wrecks were broken in two and impossible to repair. The remains of the Vittoria were found in November 2013 lying at a depth of 30m.
Acknowledgments
Terry & Glenis Collins, Malcolm Lennox
