Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel H. F. L. Melladew, Army Medical Department

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Bhootan (Aff.-Ast. Surgn. H. J. L. Melladew, H.Ms 12th Lancers), note initials; Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, undated reverse, 1 clasp, The Nile 1884-85 (Surgn. Maj. H. F. L. Melladew, M.D., Rl. H. Gds.); Khedive’s Star 1884-6, heavy contact wear, thus fine or better (3) £600-800

Heinrich Friederich Lawaetz Melladew was born in July 1842 and qualified in medicine in Edinburgh. Entering the Army Medical Department as an Assistant Surgeon in March 1864, he was embarked for India and was attached to the 12th Lancers during the Bhootan operations in the following year (Medal & clasp).

Having then been employed with the British Ambulance in France during the Franco-Prussian War 1870-71, he was advanced to Surgeon in March 1873. Three years later, he was posted to the Royal Horse Guards and remained similarly employed until placed on the Retired List as a Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel in July 1897. During the course of his long career with “The Blues”, Melladew served with the desert force in the Nile Campaign in 1884-85, including the action at Korti (Medal & clasp; Khedive’s Star), and was a member of a delegation sent to Matabeleland in late 1889, where he visited Chief Lobengula’s kraal at Bulawayo; he received an appreciation of his services from H.R.H. the C.-in-C. on his return home in May 1890.

In 1881, Melladew published Notes on Antiseptic Surgery in War (Ranken & Co., London), in which he stated his observations had been gathered during the course of visits ‘to Berlin, Dresden, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vienna, Munich, Paris, and other cities during my winter leave. The journey was undertaken to obtain information concerning foreign military hospitals, and to gather hints about Antiseptic Surgery as applied to service in the field. I was most hospitably received and most kindly assisted in my object by everyone I had the pleasure to meet.’