Miles and beryl smeeton biography of alberta

Miles Smeeton was born in Hovingham, Yorkshire on March 5, 1906. He attended Wellington College and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as an officer. He joined the British army with the Green Howards (a Yorkshire regiment), saw action in Africa and the Middle East where he received the Military Cross (MC) and then transferred to the Hobson's Horse regiment with the Indian Cavalry. During World War II he went to Burma with the Burma Theater and obtained the rank of brigadier. Smeeton's brigade was in contact with the Japanese when they officially surrendered and one of the General's handed him his sword. When Smeeton left Burma, the sword went along with him, rolled up in his bedding. For this campaign Smeeton was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). Twenty years later while back in Tokyo, Miles found that the colonel, who was writing the history of the war in Burma and told him of his mission: to return the sword of surrender to a general whose name he could not remember, but who was chief of staff of the Japanese Thirty-third Corps. "Ah," said the colonel, "that would be General Sawamoto. You have good fortune, for he has only come up to Tokyo today. He is at the officers' club now. I will ring up the club and tell him you have brought his sword." In an emotional cermeony Smeeton was able to return the sword to the General.

In 1938 he married solo explorer Beryl Boxer and in 1939 they attempted to climb Tirich Mir in the Hindu Kush with Tenzing Norgay, at which time she reached the greatest height ever climbed by a woman (7,000m). After WWII they tried operating a small farm on Saltspring Island, purchasing land there (1943) sight unseen near Musgrave Landing and farming from 1946 to 1950. Unable to transfer some of their money from England, they returned to Britain in 1951 where they found a sailboat yacht called Tzu Hang. They taught themselves how to sail on their way to Spain, proceeding to the Canary Islands, through the Pan

Born in Hovingham, Yorkshire on March 5, 1906, Miles Smeeton attended Wellington College, joined the British army and transferred to the Indian Cavalry. In 1930 he married solo explorer Beryl Boxer, born in Tolpuddle, England on September 21, 1905. They attempted to climb Tirich Mir in the Himalayas, at which time she reached the greatest height ever climbed by a woman (7,000 metres). After World War II they tried operating a small farm on Saltspring Island, purchasing land there sight unseen near Musgrave Landing and farming from 1946 to 1950, then from 1952 to 1955. Unable to transfer some of their money from England, they visited Britain where they found a sailboat yacht called Tzu Hang. They taught themselves how to sail on their way to Spain, proceeding to the Canary Islands, through the Panama Canal and back to Vancouver Island. For 20 years they sailed around the world and wrote about their adventures, recalling their first maritime adventures in The Sea Was Our Village (Gray's Publishing, 1973). Previous titles by Miles Smeeton were Once is Enough, Because the Horn is There, The Misty Isles, Sunrise to Windward, A Taste of the Hills and A Change of Jungle. Smeeton's oft-reprinted description of trying to round Cape Hope in their small boat, Once is Enough (1959), is considered a sailing classic although the couple have been criticized by seasoned sailors for their prideful foolishness at sea. He also wrote some whimsical titles for children, Moose Magic and Alligator Tales, plus Competely Foxed. Beryl Smeeton wrote two books, The Stars my Blanket and Winter Shoes in Springtime. The former describes some of her remarkable pre-war adventures that included a thousand-mile trek on horseback in the eastern foothills of the Andes and and a hike through the jungles of Burma and Thailand.

The Smeetons raised their only daughter Clio aboard their boat, then eventually settled near Calgary in 1969. There the Smeetons founded the Cochr

A reflection by Nicholas Grainger, author of The Voyage of The Aegre

Miles Smeeton’s account of the 46ft ketch Tzu Hang somersaulting (pitch-poling)in the Southern Ocean in 1956 was a seminal text for both ocean voyagers and armchair adventurers of my generation in the 1960s-70

It was mandatory reading. Published in 1960, I’d read it, of course, well before setting out on The Aegre. A copy has been on my bookshelf for years since, but I just picked it out to refresh my memory, thinking that perhaps some of today’s readers may not be aware of it, and I should give it a plug.

Tzu Hang, a 46ft, H S ‘Uncle’ Rouse-designed ketch, was built in Hong Kong for  Col. Denis Swinburne and shipped to the UK in 1939, where she was laid up at Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex during World War II. After the war, Swinburne cruised her to Northern Ireland and the West Coast of Scotland before selling her to the Smeetons in 1951.

In about 1952, Miles and Beryl Smeeton, after just one North Sea passage to Holland and back, set out across the Atlantic aboard Tsu Hang with their eleven-year-old daughter Clio. The West Indies, the Panama Canal, and then north to Vancouver. Three years later, they sailed south across the Pacific to New Zealand, and then Australia. With no self-steering in those days, Miles and Beryl largely steered watch on watch all the way. In case you haven’t realised, these were not ordinary people.

Now it was 1956, Clio was sent back to England to attend boarding school, while Miles and Beryl were to sail Tzu Hang back to the UK. They were not a couple to pass up a bit of adventure and decided to go via the westerlies of the Southern Ocean and Cape Horn, a course rarely followed by yachts in those days.

Thinking another hand might be helpful, they took on their good friend John Guzzwell, whom they had met in Canada, where he built a wonderful small yacht, Trekka. The two vessels had sailed in company to NZ. Now, Guzzwell grabb

Miles Smeeton (1906–1988) and Beryl Smeeton (1905–1979) were an outstanding couple of travellers, pioneers, explorers, mountaineers, cruising sailors, recipients of numerous sailing awards, farmers, prolific authors, wildlife conservationists and founders of the Cochrane Ecological Institute, a Canadian non-profit charity responsible for successfully reintroducing the swift fox to Canada.

Biography

Brigadier Miles Richard Smeeton, DSO, MBE, MC was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1906, and was educated at Wellington and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Green Howards in 1925 but transferred to the Indian Army in 1936, joining Hodson's Horse. During the Second World War he served with the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade in the Western Desert and commanded Probyn's Horse in action against the Japanese in Burma in 1945. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry at Bir Hacheim on 27 May 1942 and the Distinguished Service Order for successful leadership during skirmishes at Shande and Ywadan on 3 and 5 March 1945, respectively. In early 1947 he retired from the Indian Army, having commanded the 63rd Brigade from May 1945 onwards.

Beryl, born in 1905, was raised in a family of British soldiers and travelled widely throughout the world, some of which is described in her book Winter Shoes in Springtime, written under the name Beryl Smeeton. Charles R. Boxer, the distinguished historian and soldier, was one of her brothers.

In 1938 Miles and Beryl married. In 1939, the two attempted to climb 25,263-foot Tirich Mir, in the Himalaya, with Tenzing Norgay. Although they failed, Beryl achieved renown as one of the first women to climb so high. After the war, the couple settled on a farm on Salt Spring Island, BC, with their daughter, Clio. Beryl had bought the farm during the war; anticipation of a happy life there when peace came helped sustain both Miles and Beryl during the years of separation while Mi