Major-General Eric Grant Miles CB DSO MC (11 August 1891 – 3 November 1977) was a senior British Army officer who saw active service during both World War I and World War II, where he commanded the 126th Infantry Brigade in the Battle of France and the 56th (London) Infantry Division in the final stages of the campaign in Tunisia.

During a critical period in the attack on "Hill 60" and neighbouring trenches on May 1st, 1915, he succeeded in mending the telephone wire along the railway cutting under such heavy shell fire that messengers were unable to get through.

[4][2] Promoted to brevet major on 1 January 1919,[14] Miles continued to serve in a variety of staff positions, notably as a GSO2 with the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) from 1919 to 1920.

[2] His many fellow students there included a large number of future general officers; Frank Roberts, Merton Beckwith-Smith, James Gammell, Eric Costin, Francis Nosworthy, Edmund Osborne, Robert Naylor, John Priestman, Giffard Martel, Ernest Squires, Edward Alban, John Kennedy, Ralph Eastwood, Russell Gurney, Edwin Morris, Austin Miller and Ridley Pakenham-Walsh.

[15] Returning to England in 1930, he spent until early 1934 as a GSO2 at the War Office, during which time he was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel in July 1931,[16] before attending the Imperial Defence College, later in 1934.

[3][19] Still in Malaya when World War II broke out in September 1939, later in the year he returned to England where, promoted to acting brigadier,[4] Miles assumed command in January 1940 of the 126th Infantry Brigade, part of the 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division, a first-line Territorial Army (TA) formation, whose General Officer Commanding (GOC) was Major General William Holmes.

On 22 May the Germans attacked the 42nd Division heavily along its entire front, and by the end of the day, after several hours of confused fighting, was ordered to retreat to Dunkirk, where the rest of the BEF, now cut off from most of the French Army further south, was already converging.

[19] The brigade, during the fighting, had suffered heavy losses in both manpower and equipment, but had gained one of the first Victoria Crosses (VC) of the war, belonging to Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews of the 1st Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment.

[3] The division, like the 42nd, was a first-line TA formation, composed of the 167th, 168th and 169th Infantry Brigades and divisional troops, and was stationed in Kent under Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery's XII Corps, itself under South-Eastern Command, responsible for the defence of the Home Counties.