A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Miles, Alfred
MILES. (Commander, 1846. f-p., 18; h-p., 18.)
Alfred Miles was born 31 Dec. 1796.
This officer entered the Navy, 21 Sept. 1811, as Fst.-cl. Boy, on board the Ulysses 44, Capts. Henry Edw. Reginald Baker and Wm. Fothergill, flag-ship of the Prince d’Auvergne, on the Jersey station. Rejoining Capt. Baker, as Midshipman, in Sept. 1812, on board the Dannemark 74, he served for a time with the fleet in the North Sea, and afterwards escorted convoy to and from the Cape of Good Hope; on his return whence he became attached, in April, 1815, to the Impregnable 98, bearing the flag of Sir Josias Rowley in the Mediterranean. After a servitude of three years at Plymouth, in the Spencer 74, Capt. Wm. Robt. Broughton, and again in the Impregnable, under the flag of Lord Exmouth, he successively joined, in the capacities of Admiralty Midshipman and Mate – 9 Nov. 1818, the Severn Coast Blockade ship, Capt. Wm. McCulloch, by whom he was employed at Dungeness and in the neighbourhood of New Romney – 23 Feb. 1821 and 20 Dec. 1823, the Chanticleer 10, Capts. the Earl of Huntingdon, Henry Eden, and Burton Macnamara, and Adventure 6, Capt. Wm. Henry Smyth, both on the Mediterranean station, where, in the vessel last mentioned, he aided in surveying the coast of Sardinia – 17 Feb. 1825 (for a passage to the West Indies), the Ferret 10, Capt. Wm. Hobson – and 21 June, 1825, the Kangaroo, Master Commander Anthony De Mayne. Under the latter officer we find him for upwards of two years employed on Surveying service in the Crooked Passage, Bahamas, and on the coast of Cuba. In Sept. 1827, owing to his Commander having been accidentally left behind, Mr. Miles, who during the last three months had filled the post of Assistant-Surveyor, brought the Kangaroo home and paid her off. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 8 Nov. following; and was afterwards appointed, in the capacity of Assistant-Surveyor – 27 May, 1830, to the Aetna 6, Capt. Edw. Belcher, stationed on the west coast of Africa, whence he returned in Oct. 1831 – and 9 Jan. 1842, and 1 Jan. 1843, to the Fearless 1, and Tartarus 2, both commanded by Capt. Fred. Bullock, with whom he served on the river Thames until 11 Feb. in the latter year. He attained his present rank 15 Jan. 1846.
From Feb. 1833 until June, 1842, Commander Miles was employed as an Assistant in the Hydrographic Office at the Admiralty, to which he was reappointed 12 Feb. 1843. He married, 13 Aug. 1833, Sibilla Elizabeth, daughter of John Westby Hatfield, Esq., of Penzance, co. Cornwall, authoress of ‘The Wanderer of Scandinavia,’ and other poems, by whom he has issue. Agents – Burnett and Holmes.