Name
Maurice George Miles
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
20878
Bedfordshire Regiment
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
Maurice Miles was born in the summer of 1894 at Abbots Langley. He was one of ten children (five sons and five daughters) born to Frederick and Elizabeth Miles. Four of the five sons served in the Great War. At the time of the 1901 Census the family lived at Hazelwood Park near Hunton Bridge, and Frederick was recorded working as a Gas Works Stoker. By the time of the 1911 Census the family had moved to Marlin Square at Abbots Langley. At that time Maurice worked as a Paper Maker.
He married Lily May Howard at Watford in the spring of 1914, and a first daughter was born on 4th October 1914. A second daughter was born on 21st September 1916. Maurice was first recorded in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in July 1915, serving with the 4th Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment. The National Roll of the Great War noted that Maurice volunteered in 1915, and was sent to the Western Front the following year, where he took part in many of the principal engagements, including actions at Ypres and at Beaumont Hamel, during the Battle of the Somme. The National Roll continued to record that Maurice was severely wounded and was taken Prisoner of War in 1917. This information was also reported in the Watford Observer published on 21st April 1917; “Sergt.M.G.Miles of Abbots Langley, who has been ‘missing’ since February 11th, has sent word home that he is a prisoner of war in Germany”
The 4th Bedford’s War Diary noted that between 6th and 12th February 1917 the battalion was in the Front Line trenches near Beaumont Hamel on the Somme, and at 9pm on 11th February was ordered to push forward. The Bedford’s were temporarily held up by the enemy wire and heavy machine gun fire but eventually took their objectives at 3am the next day. During this period the battalion suffered many casualties – 68 killed, 90 wounded, 7 missing – presumably including Maurice Miles.
The Abbots Langley Parish Magazine reported in the May 1917 edition that Maurice had been taken Prisoner of War.
Maurice was interned at Hanover and did not return to England until March 1919, at which point he was de-mobilised. He was recorded in the Absent Voter Records for Autumn 1918 and Spring 1919, serving with the 4th Bedfordshire’s (despite being imprisoned in Germany), and his home address was given at Garden Road, Abbots Langley.
Maurice Miles survived the War, as did his brothers Albert, Frederick and William.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
