William Miles Webster Thomas, Baron Thomas of Remenham, DFC (2 March 1897 – 8 February 1980) known as Sir Miles Thomas, or Lord Thomas, was Managing Director of the Morris Motors from 1940 to 1947, Chairman of the British Overseas Airways Corporation from 1949 to 1956, Chairman of the merger broker Chesham Amalgamations and President and Chairman of the National Savings Committee.
Born in Cefn Mawr in 1897 he attended Acrefair Primary School and then Ruabon Grammar School until he was fourteen when he transferred to Bromsgrove School.
On leaving school, he joined an Armoured Car Squadron, and after fighting through the German East African Campaign he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, qualifying for his wings in Egypt. He subsequently served with an operational squadron in Mesopotamia, Persia and south Russia, being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for aerial combat and low ground strafing.
After the First World War, he became associated with William Morris, later Lord Nuffield, and in 1941 became Chairman of the Cruiser Tank Production Group and a member of the Government’s Advisory Committee. He was knighted in 1943.
He was chairman of BOAC during the de Havilland Comet crashes of 1954 but he resigned in 1956 after a row with Harold Watkinson – then Minister of Transport. Thomas was elected as chairman of the board of Monsanto Chemical Ltd in 1956 and he later took other board appointments including one with Britannia Airways.
His autobiography, Out on a Wing, was published in 1964.
On 29 January 1971, Thomas was created a life peer as Baron Thomas of Remenham in the Royal County of Berkshire.