John Campbell Miles (1883 - 1965)

Born 5 May 1883 in Melbourne, Colony of Victoria

Ancestors

Died 4 Dec 1965 at age 82 in Ringwood, Victoria, Australia

Discovered the Mount Isa Mines field.

Biography

John Miles was born in the Colony of Victoria (1851-1900)

John Miles was an Australian explorer.

John Miles is Notable.

John Campbell Miles was born at Richmont, Melbourne, Colony of Victoria, on the 5th of May 1883, the fifth child and second son of Thomas Miles, a compositor, and his wife, Fanny Louisa Chancellor.^[1]

His parents were married in 1877, and he had two brothers and six sisters.

Always a wonderer and an adventurer, Miles ran away from home while still at school. He had a succession of jobs, including ploughman, miner, carter, railway navvy, wild-pig hunter and windmill repairer.

In 1907, Miles rode his bicycle 1500 miles, to the Kidston Mine in North Queensland. He didn't stay long, and spent the next ten years drifting from station to station.

In 1921, Miles decided to take six horses and go prospecting in the Northern Territory, however, after an assay on rocks found in the vicinity of the now Mount Isa Mines field, showed Lead and Silver, he and his partner William Simpson, pegged out 42 acres. Miles named his lease Mount Isa and sold it in 1924 for shares in Mount Isa Mines Ltd. He used the money from his shares to go prospecting at Lawn Hill in Queensland, the Nothern Territory and Victoria, over the next twelve years. Miles then drifted around under the radar, until he revisited Mount Isa in 1957.^[2][3]

John Campbell Miles never married, and passed away at Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on the 4th of December 1965.^[4]

In 1968, His ashes were interred under the Memorial Clock in Miles Street, Mount Isa.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Victoria BMD Birth Index: Name: MILES, John Campbell; Birth; Mother: Fanny Louisa, CHANCELLOR; Father: Thomas; Place: RICH; Year: 1883; Ref: 11831/1883.
2. ↑ "Biography - John Campbell Miles - Australian Dictionary Of Biography". 2022. Adb.Anu.Edu.Au. ADB, John Campbell Miles
3. ↑ "Australian Prospectors And Miners Hall Of Fame Historical Profile – John Campbell Miles". 2008. Republic Of Mining. John Miles
4. ↑ Victoria BMD Death Index: Name: MILES, John Campbell; Death; Mother: Fanny, CHANCELLOR; Father: MILES Thomas; Birthplace: Richmond; Deathplace: Ringwood; Age: 82; Year: 1965; Ref: 26729/1965
5. ↑ Design, UBC. 2022. "John Campbell Miles | Monument Australia". Monumentaustralia.Org.Au. MIM Memorial, John Campbell Miles

See Also:

• Mount Isa
• John Campbell Miles