Lieutenant Nevill Miroy RNR (Royal Navy Reserve) is best known for his commitment and dedication to hockey. With his wife Barbara alongside him, the two were major figures within the English hockey community. Nevill, like many other men of his time, rarely spoke of his experience in the Second World War, but his heroic acts during the invasion of Normandy (D-Day) are slowly emerging. Nevill was a Royal Navy hockey player, an international umpire, and the skipper of a landing craft that delivered troops and supplies onto the beaches of Normandy.
Born in a house by the Thames, Miroy was naturally drawn to sports like punting and rowing in his youth, which he continued later in life to claim a Henley Royal Regatta win in 1947 and an Amateur Punting Championship in 1950. It is unknown when and where he first started playing hockey, but the earliest account of him is as a player in Bournemouth’s Easter Hockey Festival of 1937 where he is pictured with Staines HC as ‘The Llamas’. Hockey was a huge part of Nevill’s life and he would continue to play on during the war with the Navy. This wartime period was also when he married his wife Barbara Wagstaffe. Barbara was the daughter of Colonel Wagstaffe, the founder of the famous Folkestone Hockey Festival, which was where Barbara and Nevill would first meet. As both committed hockey enthusiasts, Colonel Wagstaffe gifted the Folkestone Festival to the newlyweds as a wedding present which they would then run together for the next four decades achieving international status.
Navy Career and D-Day
Nevill joined the Navy early in the War. Reports show that he was aboard the HMS Prince of Wales and had spent time in Cape Town before venturing on to the Far East. Luckily for Nevill, he was transferred off the Prince of Wales shortly before its demise in Singapore where it would be attacked by Japanese dive bombers and sunk with a great loss of life to those on board. After his transfer, he received training in landing craft command during the Sicily landings as part of the Allied campaign in Italy, which would prove key to his future involvement on D-Day. From then on, Nevill’s role in the Navy centred around landing craft command and he was responsible for the movement of landing craft from shipyards in the North and Scotland down to the South in preparation for the approaching Allied invasion of Normandy.
A restored photograph: the scene from Omaha beach, one of the US landing sites, Normandy in the days following D-Day, June 1944. It demonstrates the industrial might of the Allies. Public domain.
On the day of D-Day, Miroy commanded a landing craft that hit the beaches of Normandy between 8:00 and 9:00am. This experience must have been treacherous and full of uncertainty but he bravely pushed on to play his role in a pivotal part of the Second World War. He is said to have completed 16 runs up the beach in the days following D-Day before his landing craft was destroyed. He then promptly returned to Portsmouth to retrieve a replacement! This craft would survive until mid-July when it too was destroyed, after which he would then be in command of three more. These next boats would all vary in size and purpose but his new role involved carrying supplies, wounded men, and German prisoners of War across the Channel.
Post-war Hockey
Nevill and Barbara had a tremendous impact on the development of hockey in the post-war era with them running both the Folkestone Festival and organising international hockey matches at Lord’s Cricket Ground over many years. Nevill became a fundamental part of indoor hockey in England and would publish his first magazine Indoor Hockey News in 1973. Two years later this would later become Hockey Digest and finally Hockey Sport in 1996 under the editorial direction of Peter Luck. Nevill was editor of Indoor Hockey News and latterly Hockey Digest between September 1973 and August 1985. It was one of the principal hockey magazines of the twentieth century.
Umpire Nevill Miroy (left) during the Pre-Olympic Hockey Tournament in London in 1967.
“Nevill wrote Hockey Digest in a large shed in his garden, after his death the shed was donated to me by Barbara where it stood for many more years at my company Mercian Sports. We’d always affectionately refer to it as Nevill’s shed”. – Mike Smith, President of The Hockey Museum.
Nevill was an excellent hockey player and a feisty forward. His career spanned clubs including Staines and Hounslow, and he represented the county of Middlesex and the Royal Navy. Nevill also involved himself in other aspects of the game. The determination shown throughout his sporting career undoubtedly made him the perfect candidate for his future Naval career. On 2 October 1938 he was recorded in a programme as the Organising Secretary for the Staines Rookery Club Six-a-Side Mixed Tournament in Laleham. He played for the ‘Rooks 1’ (Staines) team and reached the final but lost 3-1 to the Rabbits. The following year, on 17 March 1939, the Rooks returned to Laleham to face the Rabbits again. Here the Rookery Club would score their 100th goal of the season and win the game an outstanding 6-1. Out of four goals scored before the interval, Nevill claimed one. After his playing career, Nevill took up umpiring and although he was renowned for his “controversial interpretations of the rules” (Mike Smith), he earned his FIH Class 1 International Badge and officiated 13 international matches.
Nevill was present throughout some significant events in both hockey and military history. He was a significant figure in the development of hockey after the war through his published work, organisation of events, and active involvement in the game. Barbara’s involvement in hockey would continue after the War too where she would become the Honorary Secretary of the Hockey Association. Nevill’s active participation on D-Day was significant in the eventual liberation of Europe from Nazi oppression. Although Nevill rarely spoke of his D-Day experience during his lifetime, the memory of his heroism lives on in those who had the pleasure of knowing him.
