Hero’s medals among museum’s ‘most significant’ donations

A highly decorated New Zealand war hero’s medals have been donated to the National Army Museum.

The family of Brigadier Reginald Miles, a New Zealand Army artillery officer who received 15 decorations while serving in both world wars, has donated his medals to the museum, in Waiouru.

	Peter Thorne-George (left), a great grandson of Brig Miles, presents the medals to Major General Rhys Jones at the National Army Museum

A presentation ceremony in August marked the end of a 20-year quest by his family to locate, replace and preserve his medals. The collection is one of the most significant to be donated to the museum.

Members of the Miles family were at the ceremony, including Brig Miles’s great-great-grandson, who is in the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

Brig Miles’s great-grandson, Peter Thorne-George, says the family wanted to have all the medals collated and on display for people to acknowledge the man, and his service to his country.

“Brig Miles was known to be a great leader and soldier by all servicemen he served with,” adds New Zealand Army chief Major General Rhys Jones.

“Having the medals on display will allow all New Zealanders to recognise and celebrate the military career of a gallant senior army officer.”

Brig Miles was nominated for the Victoria Cross and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his role in defending his artillery battery when the enemy was within 500 yards. During the action he made a dangerous reconnaissance mission, and was wounded by sniper fire. He was also awarded the Military Cross.

During World War 1, he served with the NZ Field Artillery in Egypt, at Gallipoli and in France, and was twice wounded in action. In World War 2, he was appointed the first commander of the Royal Artillery and served in Europe.

In December 1941 Brig Miles was interned in a high-security, prisoner-of-war camp for senior Allied officers in a mountain fortress near Florence, Italy. In March 1943, after five months of tunnelling under the castle walls with a kitchen knife and iron bars, he and another New Zealand brigadier, James Hargest, made a dramatic escape. With help from the French Resistance, he traversed half of Europe to reach Spain in October 1943. Brig Miles received his second DSO for this daring escape.

He died in his hotel room at Figueras, near Barcelona, on October 20, 1943 while awaiting his evacuation to the United Kingdom.