In Catania War Cemetery, Sicily is the Commonwealth War Grave of 4463695 Private Harry Thompson Miles, serving with the 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry who died 08/08/1943.
William Kirby and Brenda McMahon have submitted the following:-
Harry was born 18th October 1912, the son of Edward Thompson Miles and Mary (nee Kell) at Morpeth. The couple had married at Morpeth in 1892 and went on to have 8 children together, sadly 2 died. His siblings were Edward, John (b/d 1893), Albert, Bessie, May Pretoria, Minnie and Ethel.
His father was a coal miner by trade. In 1911 the family were living at 4 Mersey Terrace, Hirst, Ashington.
The 1939 register shows Harry working as a bus conductor. He still lived at home with his parents at 5 Third Avenue Ashington.
When the war started he enlisted and joined the Durham Light Infantry.
On the 10th July 1943, following the successful conclusion of the North African campaign in mid-May, a combined allied force of 160,000 Commonwealth and American troops invaded Sicily as a prelude to the assault on mainland Italy. The Italians, who would shortly make peace with the Allies and re-enter the war on their side, offered little determined resistance but German opposition was vigorous and stubborn. The campaign in Sicily came to an end on 17th August when the two allied forces came together at Messina, but failed to cut off the retreating Axis lines. Catania War Cemetery contains burials from the later stages of the campaign, from Lentini northwards. Many died in the heavy fighting just short of Catania (the town was taken on the 5th August) and in the battle for the Simeto river bridgehead. Catania War Cemetery contains 2,135 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 112 of them unidentified.
Harry died 8th of August 1943. His headstone shows the following inscription : At Rest
Harry’s brother, Edward died in the Great War.
Harry Thompson Miles is remembered at Ashington on A17.01 (A11.27) and A17.43, at Hirst in H62.02 and H62.04, also at Durham in the 1939-1945 D.L.I. Book of Remembrance, page 62.
