Geoffrey Audley Miles

Admiral Sir Geoffrey John Audley Miles, KCB, KCSI (2 May 1890 – 31 December 1986) was a senior Royal Navy admiral who served as Deputy Naval Commander, South East Asia Command under Lord Mountbatten during the Second World War, as the Senior British Representative on the Tripartite Naval Commission and as the last Commander-in-Chief, Indian Navy of the unified Royal Indian Navy.

He was educated at Bedford School, aboard HMS Britannia, and joined the Royal Navy in 1905 as a midshipman.

He then attended the Staff College at Greenwich, and worked in the Plans Division of the Admiralty from November 1929 to August 1931, receiving a promotion to captain in July 1931.

[1] In July 1939, Miles was appointed as commanding officer of the battleship HMS Nelson and as the flag captain, Home Fleet, in which capacity he served for the first half of the war.

He was appointed a CB in the 1942 Birthday Honours and headed the British Military Mission to the Soviet Union from June 1941 through March 1943.

In March 1944, Miles was promoted to vice-admiral, and in July 1944, was appointed flag officer, Western Mediterranean, (RN base, Taranto, Italy) where he concluded his wartime service.