Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An interesting Second War O.B.E. group of five awarded to Mr Otway H. Little, Director of the Geological Survey of Egypt, late Lieutenant, 7th Field Survey Company, Royal Engineers, who was taken prisoner by the Turks in April 1916 and imprisoned at Yozgad, where he featured as one of the characters in E. H. Jones’ book The Road to En-dor, widely regarded as one of the most remarkable prisoner-of-war escape stories ever

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt, in its Royal Mint case of issue; 1914-15 Star (Lieut. O. H. Little. R.E.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. O. H. Little.); Egypt, Kingdom, Order of Ismail, Officer’s breast badge, 75mm including crown suspension x 56mm, gold and enamels, reverse with Egyptian maker’s mark, and stamped with gold and silver marks, each with date letter ‘A’, suspension pin replaced with pin brooch to reverse of crown suspension, some minor enamel chips to the last, otherwise nearly extremely fine (5) £1,200-£1,500

O.B.E. (Civil) London Gazette 3 March 1944:
‘For services to the Forces and in connection with Military operations [all awards for Egypt]:- Otway Henry Little, Director of the Geological Survey, Egyptian Ministry of Finance. For scientific services.’

Order of Ismail, 4th Class, permission to wear London Gazette 29 July 1949:
‘For valuable services rendered by him in the capacity of Director of the Geological Section of the Egyptian Mines Department.’

Otway Henry Little, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, joined the Geological Survey of Egypt in November 1912. His first two field seasons were spent with the late John Ball in west-central Sinai on the last of those great expeditions of the Egyptian Survey which produced such valuable monographs on the geology of the desert. Then came the 1914-18 war and Little, who had joined the 7th Field Survey Company, Royal Engineers, was taken prisoner by the Turks in their successful raid on Qatia and Oghratina in April, 1916. Little was imprisoned at Yozgad and readers of that lively book The Road to En-dor will find mention of him in its pages. After his release, Little’s first mission was to southern Arabia 1919-20 and he reported on this in The Geography and Geology of Makalla, published in 1925.

Returning to Cairo, Little found the Geological Survey greatly curtailed in scope and power. “Petroleum research” had been assigned to an independent department; the mapping of the desert to another. Field work was almost at a standstill, while, in the office, his chief’s attention was largely absorbed in amassing material for a work on The Geology of Egypt, which was never finished. Little had to abandon research and concentrate on the administrative task of keeping the Survey in being and, when time permitted, in compiling the 1:1,000,000 geological map of Egypt. From time to time he escaped from his office to investigate the water supplies of the oases, and A Preliminary Report on the Water Supply of Dakhla Oasis and (with M. Attia) The Deep Bores in Kharga and Dakhla contained valuable recommendations on the control of drilling new wells, to which the Egyptian Government paid little heed. In 1928, Little succeeded W. F. Hume as Director of the Geological Survey.

In 1934, with Dr L. J. Spencer of the Natural History Museum, he took part in the field investigation of a remarkable find by Mr. (now Colonel) P. A. Clayton of the natural silica glass in the Sand Sea near the Egyptian-Libyan border. Many specimens, including some beautiful glass artefacts of the Acheulean type, were brought back but no satisfactory explanation of the occurrence was forthcoming.

During the Second World War, Little placed his great experience of desert water supply at the service of the chief engineer, M.E.F., and was later awarded the O.B.E. In 1949, he retired and settled in South Africa, where his latter years were clouded by ill-health. He died near Stellenbosch, Cape Province, in October 1956.

Little took life philosophically and with great good humour so that he made no enemies. In Cairo, he was always ready to welcome visitors to his museum and library and to help, when needed, with information and advice based on his own researches. Incapable of malice or spite, he was loved by his Egyptian colleagues and subordinates. As the head of an allied section of the Survey of Egypt, I always found Little a loyal colleague in the joint approaches we had often to make to the powers over us. Little was a valued member of the oldest scientific body in Egypt, the Institut d’Egypte, and served a term as its Vice-President.’ (Obituary by G. W. Murray from Proceedings of the Geological Society of London (1957) refers).

Sold with mounted group of miniatures of the first four, silver medal of the ‘Institut Egyptien’, bronze medal of ‘Congres International de Geographie Le Caire 1925, and four enamelled badges for Geological Conventions for 1922 (2), 1929 and 1948, the last with name tag ‘Mrs D. Little’, together with comprehensive research.