Orders, Decorations and Medals

The important campaign group of six awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel William Pinches, Royal Army Medical Corps, Medical Officer to the 21st Lancers who rode in their historic charge at Omdurman

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Hazara 1891 (Surgn., Army Medl. Staff); Queen’s Sudan 1896 (Maj., R.A.M.C.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg (Major, R.A.M.C.); King’s South Africa, 2 clasps (Maj., R.A.M.C.); Order of the Medjidie, 4th class breast badge in silver, gold and enamel, with rosette; Khedive’s Sudan 1896-1908, 2 clasps, Hafir, Khartoum, unnamed as issued, the group mounted as worn, some very light contact marks, otherwise toned, nearly extremely fine (6)

William Hooper Pinches was born at Kenington on 10 August 1861. He took the LRCP (Edinburgh) and LM in 1884, and MRCS (St Barts) 1884. He entered the Army as a Surgeon on 1 August 1885, serving as Medical Officer to the 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, in the Hazara Expedition of 1891 (Medal and clasp). He next served in the Expedition to Dongola in 1896, as one of four Medical Officers attached to the North Staffordshire Regiment, and took part in the operations of 19 September (Medjidie 4th Class London Gazette 2 March 1897; Khedive’s Medal with Hafir clasp).

Promoted to Surgeon Major on 1 August 1897, Pinches joined the Nile Expedition of 1898, attached to the 21st Lancers as their Medical Officer. That Pinches actually charged with the lancers at Omdurman is a matter of record, he having his horse shot from under him as he reached the bank of the khor.

‘The Dervishes adopted their old tactics of first ham-stringing the horses and then cutting their riders to pieces. Every man who was unhorsed - with the single exception of Major Pinches (Royal Army Medical Corps) - was instantly killed. Pinches was saved by the great daring of Sergeant-Major Brennan, who galloped to the rescue, and, after a tough fight, in the course of which Brennan killed several Dervishes, he got the officer on to his own horse and carried him out of danger. Pinches was mentioned in despatches for Omdurman London Gazette 30 September 1898 (Queen’s Medal, clasp for Khartoum).

During the Boer War Pinches was Medical Officer to the 2nd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, in Colonel George Benson’s Column. On 31 October 1900, the column was attacked during a deluge of mist and blinding rain. The Boers under Louis Botha swept down on the rearguard of Benson’s column, killing or wounding 123 out of 160 men that comprised the rearguard. Benson was mortally wounded but continued to command and hold out, thus saving the main body of the column (Queen’s Medal with 3 clasps, King’s Medal with 2 clasps). Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 1 August 1905, Pinches was placed on the retired list the following year. He was recalled during the Great War as an examining medical officer for recruits in the UK from 5 August 1915. Colonel Pinches died after a short illness at his home in London on 9 April 1935.