Most decorated · 15 medals and honours, 4 for gallantry
Brigadier Reginald Miles
Reginald Miles was a regular artillery officer from Springston, Canterbury, who graduated from Duntroon in 1914 and won the Military Cross on the Somme and the DSO (recommended for the VC) at Ploegsteert Wood in 1918. In the Second World War, as Commander Royal Artillery of the 2nd New Zealand Division, he added a Greek decoration, a bar to the DSO for escaping from a prison camp in Italy, and the CBE.
15medals and honours
4of them for gallantry
His medals and honours
Won for gallantry
Gallantry award
Military Cross (MC)
1916 (Somme) · Somme, France · Captain, New Zealand Field Artillery, 15 (Howitzer) Battery
Gazetted: London Gazette 29886, supplement 29 Dec 1916 (dated 1 Jan 1917)
Miles won the Military Cross as a battery officer on the Somme in the second half of 1916. It appeared in the New Year Honours list of 1 January 1917, which carried no individual citations, so the sources say only that it was for his gallantry and steady command of 15 Howitzer Battery while it came under heavy shelling. He had returned to the guns shortly before the Gallipoli evacuation after being badly wounded in July 1915, and by 1916 was an experienced battery officer with the New Zealand Division in France. The award was his first gallantry decoration; he would be promoted Major in May 1917 and given his own battery.
No citation published for the MC. Te Ara and the Army Museum agree on the Somme; the exact date of the act is not recorded.
Counted in his gallantry totalSource: https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/44638/Miles-Reginald.htm
Gallantry award
Distinguished Service Order (DSO)
April 1918 · Ploegsteert Wood, Belgium · Major, New Zealand Field Artillery, 6 (Howitzer) Battery
Gazetted: London Gazette 30813, 5th supplement of 23 July 1918, dated 26 July 1918, pp.8752-3
In April 1918, during the German spring offensive near Ploegsteert Wood, the enemy came to within about 500 yards of Miles's howitzer battery. His ammunition had run out. He fought on, gathering stragglers from the infantry who had been pushed back and putting them into a fire trench alongside his gunners. He then went forward into the wood on reconnaissance and sent back valuable information about the enemy. While trying to free one of his guns from the thick mud he was shot at close range and wounded. His conduct was judged so exceptional that he was recommended for the Victoria Cross; it was reduced to the DSO, gazetted in July 1918. After recovering he returned in July as brigade major of the Divisional Field Artillery.
Wikipedia gives the gazette date as 23 July 1918; TracesOfWar and the Cenotaph give 26 July (the 23 July supplement carried the date 26 July). Wikipedia says the spring offensive; Te Ara says April 1918 at Ploegsteert Wood.
Counted in his gallantry totalSource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Miles
Foreign gallantry award
Greek War Cross 1940, 1st Class (Cross of Valour / 'Greek Military Cross')
Gazetted: London Gazette 35519, 4th supplement 7 April 1942, dated 10 April 1942 (permission to wear)
In March 1941 the 2nd New Zealand Division, with Miles as its artillery commander, went to Greece. He had to spread a thinly stretched artillery across the defences of the Olympus Pass, and then planned the withdrawal and evacuation as the Germans advanced. His guns were vital in covering the open high ground on the flanks of 6th Brigade at Thermopylae, letting the infantry hold in daylight and pull back at night. Te Ara credits his planning and the discipline he insisted on for keeping control and morale through the retreat. The Greek government recognised this with a first-class decoration, and he also earned a mention in despatches. Permission for him to wear it was gazetted in April 1942.
Sources disagree on the name: the Cenotaph and Wikipedia say 'Cross of Valour (Greece)'; Te Ara says 'Greek Military Cross (first class)'; TracesOfWar lists 'Polemikos Stauros 1940 - 1st Class' (Greek War Cross). Treated as ONE item. If it is a service rather than a bravery award, gallantry count falls to 3.
Counted in his gallantry totalSource: https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/44638/Miles-Reginald.htm
Bar: a second award
Bar to the Distinguished Service Order
29-30 March 1943 · Campo 12 (Vincigliata), Florence, Italy; Switzerland · Brigadier, HQ 2nd NZ Divisional Artillery (prisoner of war)
Gazetted: London Gazette 36198, supplement 5 Oct 1943, dated 7 Oct 1943; citation NZ Gazette 21 Sept 1944
After being wounded and captured near Belhamed on 1 December 1941, Miles was held in the castle prison camp for senior officers near Florence. He helped dig a tunnel that began in September 1942; the shaft ran from a sealed chapel and took until the end of February 1943. At 9 pm on 29 March 1943 he and Brigadier James Hargest, with four others, crawled out. The other four were recaptured. Dressed as workmen, Miles and Hargest took trains via Milan to Como, walked to the frontier near Chiasso, cut the wire at ground level, and crossed into Switzerland at about 2.20 am on 30 March. They gave themselves up to police at Mendrisio. Miles then made his way through France and reached Spain; both brigadiers received a bar to the DSO for the escape.
Cenotaph says the bar was in the London Gazette 21 Sept 1944; TracesOfWar gives LG 36198 (7 Oct 1943) and Wikipedia gives the NZ Gazette of 21 Sept 1944 for the citation. Gazetted just before his death on 20 October 1943, though often called posthumous.
Counted in his gallantry totalSource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Miles
Every other medal and honour (11)
1914-1915 Star1915 · GallipoliQualified by service at Gallipoli in 1915 (embarked 14 December 1914; wounded July 1915).British War Medal (1914-1920)1914-1918Great War service overseas.Victory Medal1914-1918Great War service in a theatre of war.King George V Silver Jubilee Medal1935 · AucklandAwarded in 1935 while he commanded artillery in Auckland.Coronation Medal 19371937Commemorative medal for the coronation of King George VI.New Zealand Long and Efficient Service MedalLong and efficient service in the New Zealand Military Forces.Efficiency Decoration (ED)Awarded to officers for long efficient service.Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)Oct 1943 · Middle EastAppointed CBE in October 1943 for gallant and distinguished service in the Middle East, a few days before his death. As Commander Royal Artillery of the 2nd New Zealand Division he organised the artillery in Greece…War Medal 1939-19451939-1945Full-time service in the Second World War.New Zealand War Service Medal1939-1945Issued to New Zealanders for Second World War service.Mentioned in DespatchesHaig despatch, Nov 1918 · Western FrontOne mention in Haig's despatch of November 1918; a second was earned for the Greek campaign in 1941. Counts as one item.
His story
Duntroon cadet
One of the first New Zealand cadets at the Royal Military College, Duntroon; graduated as top New Zealand cadet in 1914.
Re-enlisted after a short illness kept him from the Main Body and sailed with the 2nd Reinforcements in the Empress of Canada, posted to the NZ Field Artillery.
With the enemy within 500 yards and his ammunition gone, he rallied stragglers, manned a trench, reconnoitred the wood and was wounded; recommended for the VC, awarded the DSO.
Commander Royal Artillery 2NZ Division; organised the artillery defence and withdrawal in Greece, MiD and a Greek decoration; missed Crete through exhaustion.
The ranks he held, and the badge a soldier of that rank wore. These are simplified illustrations.
LieutenantDec 1914 · embarkationShoulder strap: two pipsCaptain1915-1916Shoulder strap: three pipsMajorMay 1917Shoulder strap: crownLieutenant Colonel1931Shoulder strap: crown and one pipColonel1937Shoulder strap: crown and two pipsBrigadierJanuary 1940Shoulder strap: crown and three pips
His ships
Empress of Canada (HMNZT 13/14/15)Troopship, WW1Sailed 14 December 1914 with 2nd Reinforcements.
Afterwards
Miles stayed in the regular army after 1918, commanding Wellington's harbour defences, attending Camberley and the Imperial Defence College, and holding senior posts in Auckland and at Army Headquarters. He was Quartermaster-General when war broke out in 1939 and then commanded the divisional artillery of 2NZEF.
After his escape in 1943 he reached the Spanish frontier exhausted and depressed, and shot himself at Figueras on 20 October 1943. The CBE and the bar to the DSO had been gazetted days earlier. His son, a Fleet Air Arm pilot, had been lost in HMS Glorious in June 1940. His medals, gathered by the family over twenty years, were given to the National Army Museum at Waiouru in August 2009; the NZ Defence Force described them as 15 decorations.
Later awards, not counted here: Greek War Cross 1940, 1st Class (Cross of Valour); Bar to DSO; CBE; MiD (Greece); War Medal 1939-1945; NZ War Service Medal.
This is the Service Record sign as we would make it from his record: his rank, name, regiment, number and date of embarkation. The medals on the sign are worked out automatically, so the medals listed above are the ones to rely on.
The Service Record
Photograph
We haven’t hosted a photograph here
Rather than copy someone else’s image onto our own site, we’d rather send you to see it where it’s properly held: his full record at the Auckland War Memorial Museum’s Online Cenotaph.
The brief says he was killed on Crete in 1941; that is wrong. He missed the Battle of Crete (exhaustion), was captured at Belhamed on 1 Dec 1941, escaped in 1943 and died by suicide at Figueras, Spain, on 20 Oct 1943.
Cenotaph seed lists 'DSO and bar' AND 'DSO' separately: reconciled to DSO + bar = 2 items.
1914-1915 Star is NOT on the Cenotaph list; added because Gallipoli service in 1915 qualified him and the NZDF says his group held 15 decorations (14 documented + Star = 15). If excluded, total is 14.
Greek award name conflicts (Cross of Valour / Greek Military Cross 1st class / Polemikos Stauros 1940 1st Class). Counted once, as foreign gallantry. If not a gallantry award, gallantry count is 3.
Mentions in Despatches: two per Wikipedia/Te Ara (Nov 1918 WW1; Greece 1941), one per Cenotaph. Counted ONCE per the rule; if the WWI and WWII emblems are counted separately the total would be 16.
Possible unrecorded WWII medals (1939-45 Star, Africa Star, Defence Medal) are not on any source read and are not counted.
CBE and bar were gazetted 14 and 7 Oct 1943, before his death; the Cenotaph's 'posthumous 1944' is the NZ Gazette citation date.
MC gazette: Wikipedia cites 29 Dec 1916 supplement; the award is dated 1 Jan 1917.
Born in NZ, educated Rangiora; unambiguously a New Zealander of that war, although he served in the NZ regular forces post-war.
