Son of William Miles and of Mary Margaret Miles (nee Restell); husband of Aimee, and later Rosaline Georgette Miles

Married his first wife Aimée Zita Donnelly in Egypt on 26 February 1916. They had four daughters and a son. Aimée died in the late 1930s.

After returning to New Zealand in 1918, Miles took charge of the Wellington harbour defences.

Upon his return to NZ, Miles was appointed third military member of the Army Board in 1939.

Appointed Quartermaster General (QMG) in September 1939.

In January 1940, Miles was seconded to 2 NZ Expeditionary Force as Commander Royal Artillery (CRA) of the New Zealand Division with the rank of Brigadier.

Appointed Commander of 2NZEF section in the United Kingdom in May 1940.

Married Rosalind Georgette Bisset-Smith at Westminster, London on 31 May 1940.

Miles' son, Reginald Joseph Braithwaite Miles, was killed on 8-9 June 1940 when the HMS Glorious, on which he was serving as a pilot with the Fleet Air Arm, was sunk in the North Sea.

On 1 December 1941, Miles was involved in the defence of Tobruk, Libya. His unit was overrun and he was wounded and taken prisoner.

Miles escaped from Campo 12 in Florence, Italy in 1943 and made his way to Switzerland and eventually to Spain. His citation for his DSO bar has more details.

Sadly, in a state of depression and exhaustion, Miles committed suicide in Figueras, Spain, on 20 October 1943. According to Haigh and Polaschek (1993) in the DSO book, Miles died on active service in Spain "attempting to reach Gibraltar".

His family spent 20 years collating the medal group and in a special ceremony at Waiouru the medals were donated to the National Army Museum, 13 August 2009. AWMM