Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War ‘Western Front’ D.S.O., M.C. and Second World War O.B.E. group of eight awarded to Major H. D. Denison-Pender, 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys)

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, complete with top bar; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914 Star, with clasp (Lieut., 2/Dns.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Bt-Major), War Medal with minor correction to surname; Jubilee 1935, unnamed; Coronation 1953, unnamed, mounted court style as worn, in fitted wooden glass-fronted case good very fine (8) £2800-3200

D.S.O. London Gazette 1 January 1918.

O.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1942. ‘Major, D.S.O., M.C., J.P.’ ‘Deputy Chief Censor, Telegraph Censorship Branch, Ministry of Information’.

M.C. London Gazette 18 February 1915. ‘Lieutenant (temporary Captain), 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys)’.

M.I.D. London Gazette 17 February 1915; 4 January 1917; 11 December 1917.

Henry Denison Denison-Pender was born on 2 April 1884, the 2nd son of Sir John Denison-Pender, G.B.E., K.C.M.G. He was educated at Eton and was commissioned into the 15th Hussars in May 1907, transferring to the Royal Scots Greys in June the same year. Promoted to Lieutenant in April 1911, he served in the Scottish Cavalry Depot at Dunbar, 1913-14. During the Great War he served in France/Flanders, August-November 1914 and May 1915-March 1918. Appointed a Temporary Captain in November 1914, he was promoted to that rank in May 1915. Denison-Pender was appointed G.S.O.3 with the 6th Division in December 1915; Brigade Major with the 6th Infantry Brigade in June 1916; G.S.O.2 with the 33rd Division in July 1917, and G.S.O.2 with the 51st Division in January 1919. For his wartime services he was three times mentioned in despatches, was awarded the D.S.O. and M.C., and in November 1917 was granted the brevet of Major. He retired from the Army in 1919 (London Gazette 1 July 1919). Postwar he was Director of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Co. Ltd., 1921-59. He was appointed J.P. for Dorset in 1929 and High Sheriff of Dorsetshire in 1935. During the Second World War he was employed as Deputy Chief Telegraph Censor at the Central Telegraph Office, 1939-42, for which he was awarded the O.B.E. He was in addition, Chairman of the Sturminster Rural District Council, 1949-53; Member of Council of the Bath and West Agricultural Society, 1929-50; Member of Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, 1943-53; President of the Yeovil Agricultural Society, 1936-37; Life Honorary Member of the Hunters Improvement and Light Horse Breeding Society, 1953; and Master of the Portman Hunt. He was married in 1913 to Doris Louise Sydney, the eldest daughter of Sydney Fisher of Amington Hall, Tamworth, Staffordshire, with whom he had three daughters. Latterly living at Hartletts in Hook, Hampshire; he died on 16 February 1967.