Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The important O.B.E. group of six to the famous Rhodesian Pioneer, Major Percy Sidney Inskipp, acting Secretary to Dr. L. S. Jameson, later General Manager of the B. S. A. Company in Rhodesia and a Member of the Legislative Assembly

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, hallmarked London 1918; British South Africa Company Medal 1890-97, reverse undated, 2 clasps, Mashonaland 1890, Rhodesia 1896 (Tpr. Inskipp, P.S. - Pioneers); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Rhodesia, Transvaal (Lieut, P. Inskipp. Rhodesian F. Force); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Major P. S. Inskipp.); Italian War Cross, mounted as worn, light contact marks, otherwise toned, very fine (6) £4000-5000

Ex Upfill-Brown Collection, Buckland Dix & Wood, December 1991.

O.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1919: ‘For valuable services rendered in connection with military operations in Italy.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 6 January 1919 (Italy).

Italian War Cross London Gazette 17 May 1919.

Percy Sidney Inskipp was born in England in 1871 and joined the Pioneer Corps on 11 April 1890. He was appointed Staff Clerk with the rank of Sergeant but shortly afterwards reverted to the rank of Trooper at his own request. He was acting Secretary to the Administrator, Dr. Leander Starr Jameson in 1891; Secretary to the Administrator and Registrar of the High Court, 1893; Justice of the Peace, 1895; Under-Secretary to Sir William Milton, 1896-99; Member of the First Committee of Agriculture and Horticultural Society, 1896; Commercial Manager for the B. S. A. Company, London, 1899; Commercial representative for the B. S. A. Company in Rhodesia, 1903-14. He saw service in France and Flanders, and in Italy during the Great War, Major, Supplies and Transport (O.B.E., despatches, Italian War Cross). He was a Director of the B. S. A. Company, 1919-22 and 1929-39, and a Member of the Legislative Assembly from 1923 to 1928, one of only three members of the Pioneer Column to achieve this distinction. Percy Inskipp, as Under-Secretary of the B. S. A. Company in Salisbury, wrote the official report to London describing the rebellion of 1897. He died in France in March, 1941, and there is a plaque to his memory in the Cathedral Cloisters in Harare.