TOPIC:

Frederick Miles

Private, 20th Hussars – The Nile Campaign
Sergeant, Kitchener’s Horse - Anglo Boer War
Private, 1st South Africa Infantry – WWI

- Egypt Medal with The Nile 1884 – 85 clasp to 2391 Pte. F. Miles, 20th Husrs.
- Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal to 9753 Serjt. F. Miles, Kitchener’s Horse
- British War Medal to Pte. F. Miles, 1st S.A.I.
- Khedives Star 1884 – 1886 punched on the reverse to 20H, 2391

Fred Miles was born in Islington, Middlesex in 1867 the son of Police Officer James Miles and his wife Eliza. According to the 1871 England census the family lived at 40 Ellington Street, St Clement, Islington. Aside from a 4 year old Fred, other children in the house were James (14), John (12), Charles (10), Henry (7) and younger brother William (1). Mrs Miles must have felt hopelessly outnumbered being the only one of the fairer sex among all the boys.

Ten years later, at the time of the 1881 England census, the family had moved to 72 Pooles Park in Islington. Fred was now a strapping lad of 14. His 51 year old father was now a Watchman by occupation and of most of the children there was no sign. Charles and William were the only ones at home, with visitors Augusta Mayell, Ellen Bennett and Ann Hayzell filling the void.

Four years later, at the age of 18 and 9 months, Miles completed the Attestation papers for Short Service with the Colours at Hounslow on 15 July 1884. A Letter Carrier (Postman) by occupation he claimed to have been a Militia member of the 5th Royal Fusiliers. Five days later he attested for service with the 20th Hussars at Ballincollig in County Cork, Ireland and was assigned the rank of Private with no. 2391.

Physically he was 5 feet 7 inches in height, weighed 125 pounds and had a fresh complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. By way of distinctive marks about his person he had Indian ink dots on his left forearm and an Acatrix (scar) on the inside of his right thigh.

Miles had almost a year to wait before he was to be near any action – when it came it was to help try and rescue and extract Major-General Charles George Gordon, under siege at Khartoum in the Sudan. Gordon had been sent to the Sudan to help Egyptians evacuate from that territory after Britain decided to abandon the country in the face of a rebellion led by self-proclaimed Mahdi, Mohammed Ahmed.

On the 2nd June 1885 the headquarters and one squadron of the 20th Hussars, comprising six officers and 129 non-commissioned officers and men, who were stationed at Aldershot, left by special train for Portsmouth where they embarked in the “Oregon” for Alexandria. The men were played to the station by the bands of the cavalry brigade. A large crown witnessed there departure. The 20th Hussars were to relieve the 19th Hussars who were returning to England.

The attempted relief was unsuccessful & the Mahdi’s forces took the city and proceeded to massacre almost all of the British subjects therein including General Gordon. The Mahdi remained undefeated which meant that the Nile campaign continued into 1885, operating out of the port city of Suakin.

The expedition under Sir Garnet Wolseley was split into two main sub divisions, the River Column and the Desert Column. The latter column was made up of camel mounted troops which were divided into 3 regiments made up from detachments from various units. The Light Camel Regiment consisted of men from the 3rd, 4th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 15th, 18th, 20th and 21st Hussars. The 20th supplied 2 officers and 43 men but they and the other hussar detachments were disappointed when they were informed that they had to remain at Korti to guard the supplies. Thus the Light Camel Regiment took no part in the desert crossing and the battle at Abu Klea.

Having concentrated at Cairo, the 20th Hussars moved up the Nile to Wadi Halfa to join General Sir Frederick Stephenson's Frontier Field Force of British and Egyptian troops. The Dervishes, led by the Mahdi's successor, Khalifa Abdullahi ibn Muhammad, were preparing for an invasion of Egypt so in December the Field Force marched out to do battle. The confrontation occurred at Ginnis on 30 December 1885 – this was the last time troops fought in red uniforms, although this only applied to some of the units. The main fighting was carried out by the infantry in the streets of the town and in the Dervish camp but when the enemy retreated to the Atab Defile the cavalry under Colonel Benjamin Blake, CO of the 20th, attacked and pursued them. One detachment of 50 men and one officer chased them for 50 miles upstream as far as Absarat. The 20th were dressed in khaki for this battle.

We know from Miles’ medical records that he was at Abbassiyah, a section of Cairo, on 14 June 1885 where he spent 8 days in hospital with Diarrhoea. No doubt as a result of the change of diet. He was back in Abbassiyah on 5 February 1887 where he was, once more, hospitalised. This time with Fever which had him bed-ridden for 9 days. Almost immediately this was followed by a stay of 49 days with an Ulcer.

Miles continued on in the Sudan until, on 18 November 1887, he and his comrades returned to England. He had endured the dust, sand and intense heat of the desert for 2 years and 170 days.

For his efforts he was awarded the Egypt Medal with The Nile clasp and the Khedives Bronze Star with dates 1884-1886.

Once more on home soil he settled down to barrack life. This was not without incident, on 24 December 1887 he was Absent without Leave for a period of 6 days, re-joining on 30 December. As punishment he forfeited his Good Conduct Pay. On 28 October 1888 he fractured the point of his elbow whilst on duty. This led to a lengthy period of hospitalisation - 88 days in total. The record indicates that he “Fell from his horse on duty. Broken again in hospital from a fall, severe. Made a good recovery with a useful arm nearly straight with splinter and strapping.”

On 15 July 1891 he was transferred to the Army Reserve and finally discharged at Canterbury as a Private on 14 July 1896 at the age of 29. There had been time for romance as well – in 1894 he wed Alice Anne Moore in Orsett, Essex.

Out of uniform and a man now free of any military obligations, Miles probably scouted around for something with which to occupy himself. Late Victorian England was a place where the flame of Empire was burning strongly. Many able men were seeking their fortunes in one or other of the Colonies that spanned the globe in every conceivable direction. Deciding that his future lay in South Africa he set sail for that country.

Arriving in Cape Town he secured for himself a position as a Police Constable – as if to prove that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Whilst resident in Church Street, Wynberg, his wife gave birth to a daughter, Eva Eliza, on 28 October 1899. The date is significant in that, 17 days earlier, the Anglo Boer War had erupted on the international stage. This conflict, a battle between the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State and the might of the British Empire, had no immediate impact on those in far-away Cape Town. The conflict was, after all, confined to the Transvaal, Natal and Northern Cape. This soon changed with the commencement of the guerrilla phase of the war where small, highly mobile Boer Commandos infiltrated deep into the Eastern and Southern Cape in search of supplies and fresh recruits to their cause.

Miles, biding his time, enlisted for service with Kitchener’s Horse on 21 August 1900. His attestation papers recorded that his trade was that of Policeman and that he was 34 years old. Assigned no. 9753 he was attached to the Reserve Squadron with the rank of Sergeant. It must have been an eerie feeling to be back in uniform and the saddle after the passage of five years, even more so in a regiment named after Lord Kitchener, his Commander in Chief in the Nile Campaign.

Kitchener's Horse had played a very active role in the early engagements of the war but, by the time Miles joined, had crossed to the north of the Vaal River and was operating under Ridley, Hart, Clements, and other commanders in the district west of Johannesburg and Pretoria. 250 men of Kitchener's Horse from Kroonstad took part in the pursuit of De Wet on the south side of the Vaal and other operations under General C Knox in the Kroonstad district during September, October, and November 1900, and were present on 27th October when 2 guns were captured at Rensburg, and in the very successful action of Bothaville on 6th November when 6 guns, a pom-pom, a maxim, and 130 prisoners were taken.

Another portion of the corps was employed in the Eastern Transvaal, and frequently had odd casualties about Brugspruit in September and the first half of October. They took part in French's march from the Delagoa Railway to Heidelberg in October 1900,—a march which only a great leader could have brought off successfully, having regard to the strength of the enemy in the district at the time. The fighting was continuous and the strain on all most severe. A detachment which had remained in the Gatsrand and Krugersdorp district on the north side of the Vaal operated throughout September with Clements and Ridley, and had sharp fighting under General Hart on 23rd and 24th November 1900, when they lost 2 men killed. It is difficult to determine which section Miles fought with.

This portion of the regiment was with General Clements when he was attacked and met with disaster at Nooitgedacht in the Magaliesberg on 13th December 1900. A high hill commanding the camp, and which was garrisoned by 4 companies of the 2nd Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, was assaulted by the enemy in great force and was captured. Kitchener's Horse and the 2nd Battalion Mounted Infantry were on the west or left front of the camp; the enemy attacked upon this side in the most determined manner, and although some pickets were captured or wiped out entirely, the attack on the west was driven off, the enemy losing very heavily in his endeavour to push into the camp from that direction. When, however, it was seen that the high hill commanding the camp had been captured by the enemy, the General decided to retire.

With difficulty Clements got away his guns and most of his ammunition, but the camp was left standing and some stores were lost. The losses of Kitchener's Horse were severe: Lieutenant Skene and 8 men were killed, and Captain Stevenson and about 12 men wounded and about 40 taken prisoners. Some of the latter were wounded. The regiment, sadly reduced in numbers, operated in the second phase of the war chiefly in the Western Transvaal, and had a few casualties on various occasions.

Miles, after 296 days service took his discharge, time expired, at Cape Town on 12 June 1901. His Character was rated as Very Good and, having been paid £55. 8 shillings, he had money jingling in his pockets as he worked his way home. For his efforts he was awarded the Queens Medal with clasps Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal – indicating that he had seen service in all three territories.

Returning to civilian life, he moved up the coast of South Africa, settling in East London, a thriving little port in the Eastern Cape. It was whilst he was living here that the Great War broke out on 4 August 1914. Initially unperturbed by this event Miles, succumbing to the lure of adventure, donned a uniform for the third and last time. This was on 6 December 1915 when, at Potchefstroom, he attested for service with the 1st South African Infantry battalion, destined for the Western Front.

Confirming that he was 45 years of age (we know him to have been 48) his address was 2 Chambers Street, Quigney, East London. By occupation he was an Outdoor Customs Officer and had no dependent children at home. He also confirmed that he had spent 12 years with the 20th Hussars and 10 months with Kitchener’s Horse in the Boer War.

Physically he was now 5 feet 9 inches in height with a fresh complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. Of the distinctive marks he previously had about his person there was no sign – possibly they had faded with time.

Having been passed Fit by the Doctor, Miles was assigned no. 7988 and the rank of Private. On 15 January 1916 he departed South Africa’s shores bound for England aboard the “Llanstephen Castle”. On arrival he was posted to “B” Company, Reserve Battalion. His war was to be an uninteresting one – due in large measure to failing health, he never made it to the Front but was anchored instead to the Convalescent Depot at Perham Downs. Mustered as the Regimental Shoe Maker (a strange deployment given his background),

Miles spent a considerable time in and out of hospital for what seemed to be a recurring severe Bronchial – Pneumonia complaint, commencing with his first admittance on 24 December 1916 and ending with his discharge on 20 March 1917.

On 5 April 1919 he disembarked at Cape Town ex H.M.T. “Orita” and was discharged at Maitland on 7 May of that year. His forwarding address was 12 Fitzgerald Street, Beach, East London. The Proceedings on Discharge form completed in respect of himself recorded a Military Character of Very Good and he was credited with 3 years and 153 days service, of which none were punctuated by actual active frontline service.

For his efforts Miles was awarded the British War Medal – his only WWI entitlement.

Back in East London he resumed employment with the Department of Customs and Excise as a Customs Officer, retiring in that role many years later. He passed away at his residence, 73 Moor Street, East London, on 11 June 1934 at the age of 68 years 9 months and was survived by his wife and two daughters, Ethel Minnie Myburgh and Eva Elizabeth (who never married). It would seem that he liked his tipple – cause of death being Cirrhosis of the Liver and Cardiac Failure.

Good Morning Rory.....

Another great piece of research..... Must have been interesting to go from high spirited horses to high spirited but plodding camels..... You can see the pitting on the Egypt medal that shows he must have worn that pair on a number of occasions..... Thanks Again...…

Mike