Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare and impressive Sudan 1897-98 operations D.S.O. group of ten awarded to Colonel H. A. Micklem, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., Royal Engineers, who was wounded in the foot at the battle of Omdurman while serving as a “galloper” to Collinson’s 4th Egyptian Brigade: on receiving another foot wound in the Boer War, he was signalled by his old friend, General Maxwell, V.C., ‘Your feet are altogether too big for military purposes’ - fortuitously, however, said feet avoided enemy fire during his subsequent service in the Royal Naval Division in 1914

Distinguished Service Order, V.R., silver-gilt and enamels; Queen’s Sudan 1896-98 (Bimb., Staff), surname spelt ‘Micklim’; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Capt., D.S.O., R.E.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Maj., D.S.O., R.E.); 1914 Star (Major, D.S.O., R.E., D.A.Q.M.G., Attd. R.N.D.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Maj., R.E., Attd. R.N.D.); Turkish Order of the Medjidie, 4th class breast badge, silver, gold and enamel centre; Belgian Order of Leopold I, 4th class breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel; Khedive’s Sudan 1896-1908, 2 clasps, Sudan 1897, Khartoum (Lieut., R.E.), the third with officially corrected rank, enamel work slightly chipped in places, particularly on the Belgian breast badge, otherwise generally good very fine (10)
£4000-5000

D.S.O. London Gazette 15 November 1898: ‘In recognition of the recent operations in Egypt and the Sudan, including the Battle of Khartoum.’

Henry Andrew Micklem was born at Farnborough in June 1872, the son of Major-General Edward Micklem, and was educated at Winchester. Commissioned into the Royal Engineers in August 1891, he was advanced to Lieutenant in August 1894 and was posted to Egypt in May 1897.

Micklem subsequently witnessed active service in the Nile campaigns, when he was employed as a Bimbashi in the Egyptian Army from June 1897 until October 1899, and was onetime employed on railway construction duties. He was wounded at the Battle of Omdurman while employed as a “galloper” to Collinson’s 4th Egyptian Brigade, the relevant despatch stating, ‘Gunshot, toes, slight’; of his work on railways and bridges due acknowledgment is to be found in The Royal Engineers in Egypt and the Sudan, by Colonel F. W. C. Sandes, not least for his leadership of the R.E. party that constructed the Atbara Bridge, which was formally opened by Lord Kitchener on 26 August 1899. According to Sandes, writing in the 1930s, it still remained ‘one of the finest engineering structures in the Sudan.’ Micklem was awarded the D.S.O., which was presented to him by the Duke of Connaught at Atbara on 24 February 1899, the 4th class of the Turkish Order of Medjidie (London Gazette 10 July 1898), and was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 30 September 1898).

In the Boer War, he served with the railway troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Percy Girouard, R.E., Director of Railways, and constructed a temporary bridge over the Orange River, which was completed on 27 March 1900. But at Leeustruit on 14 June, he again received a foot wound, this time of a severe nature, a misfortune that prompted his old friend, General Maxwell, V.C., to telegram him: ‘Your feet are altogether too big for military purposes.’

On rejoining his unit, he went on to serve in further operations in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, up until May 1902, and was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 10 September 1901), in addition to being given the Brevet of Major in August 1902.

Micklem was next engaged on the Central South African Railways until April 1904, following which he was employed by the Chinese Mining and Engineering Company at Tientsin from June of the latter year until June 1909, when he was placed on the Retired List.

On the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, Micklem was appointed Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quarter-Master General to the Royal Naval Division, and served on the Brigade and Divisional Staff at Antwerp later that year. Afterwards employed by the Directorate of Railways, Light Railways and Roads at the War Office, he was responsible for purchasing railway and road materials for all theatres of war, important work that was rewarded by his appointment to C.M.G. in 1918 and to C.B. in the following year, in addition to the 4th class of the Belgian Order of Leopold I. He was also given the Brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel and mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 12 February 1918).

After the War, Micklem ‘followed his father into the City becoming Director, and in several cases Chairman, of Investment Trust and other companies’. A soldier of ‘great ability, equable temperament and unnassuming spirit of service’, he died in March 1963.