Miles Graham

Major-General Sir Miles William Arthur Peel Graham, (14 August 1895 – 8 February 1976) was a general officer in the British Army. During the Second World War he was the chief administrative officer of the Eighth Army in the North African Campaign and the Italian Campaign, and of the 21st Army Group in the North-West Europe Campaign of 1944–45. Early life Miles William Arthur Peel Graham was born in Colchester, Essex, on 14 August 1895, the son of Major Henry Graham and his wife Ellen Peel, the great-niece of Sir Robert Peel. His mother later became Baroness Askwith through her second marriage to George Askwith, 1st Baron Askwith. He had a younger brother, Henry Archibald Roger Graham. He was educated at Eton and the University of Cambridge. Great War Graham was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Scottish Horse, a yeomanry regiment of the Territorial Force (TF), on 1 June 1914. On the outbreak of the Great War just a few weeks later, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards on 25 August 1914. He served on the Western Front, where he was twice wounded. He was promoted to temporary lieutenant on 9 November 1914, the substantive rank of lieutenant on 12 January 1915, and acting captain on 10 May 1918. He was discharged as a captain on 5 March 1919, but was placed on the Regular Army Reserve of Officers (RARO). For his services, he was mentioned in despatches, and was awarded the Military Cross. On 17 June 1918, Graham married Lady Evelyn Catherine King, the daughter of Lady Edith Anson, the daughter of Thomas Anson, 2nd Earl of Lichfield, and Major Lionel Fortescue King, 3rd Earl of Lovelace. They divorced in 1930. They had two children; a daughter, Sheila Valerie Graham, and a son, Clyde Euan Miles Graham, who was killed in action in the Second World War on 23 September 1944. Between the wars, Graham was a successful businessman.