W Maurice Miles was born in Erith, Kent on March 25th, 1883 in Erith, Kent and baptised in Christchurch May 13th 1883. He studied at Royal Academy of Music 1901 1905 (a direct contemporary of Arnold Bax) winning a silver medal engraved on reverse: "WM. MAURICE / MILES / HARMONY / 1903".

He emigrated to Canada in 1905 and played as a cellist in the theatre orchestra in Winnipeg, moving to Vancouver in 1923, where he was principal cello of the Vancouver Symphony by the 1930s. He died on September 9th, 1958 and is buried in Masonic Cemetery, Burnaby, British Columbia.

W Maurice Miles composed 55 chamber and orchestral works, two of which were written for horns. The Horn Sonata in G minor was composed in 1929 and seems to have been the only work Maurice composed that year. The Trio in F for 3 horns dates from 1924. It is not known for whom they were written; it's unlikely to have been any British horn player with Maurice being firmly ensconced in Canada. As well as being a cellist he also worked as a conductor so obviously he knew many of people!

Horn player Adolf Borsdorf was involved in the first performance at the RAM of Maurice's brother Percy Hilder Miles’ Septet for wind and strings in 1897, alongside other notable London principal players - quite something for a 19 year-old composer!

Who knows - maybe further research will discover whether these works by Maurice Miles were known in the UK by players of the time like Borsdorf or Aubrey Brain.