IMPORTANT MEDALS AWARDED TO the ‘SAVIOUR’ OF THE BRITISH 1ST AIRBORNE DIVISION AT ARNHEM FETCH HAMMER PRICE OF £100,000 AT NOONANS

The extremely important and rare group of twelve awarded to Brigadier Sir Mark ‘Honker’ Henniker of the Royal Engineers - one of the founders of the 1st Airborne Division who were most famously known for Operation ‘Market Garden’ in the Second World War sold for a hammer price of £100,000 to a Private Collector of medals for significant historical events at Noonans Mayfair in their auction of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria today (Wednesday, February 14, 2024). It was being sold by his family and expected to fetch £60,000-80,000.

Following the sale Christopher Mellor-Hill, Head of Client Liaison at Noonans commented: “The price achieved for this amazing group of medals awarded to ‘Honker‘ Henniker reflects not only his outstanding leadership under fire while severely wounded capturing 90 Italian prisoners in the Sicily landings and as a key figure in the famous WW2 raids of Bruneval and Telemark but in the ultimate accolade of the immediate award of the DSO for his command and planning of the night time rescue and evacuation of some 2,400 men of the 1st Airborne Division trapped by the Germans west of Arnhem as a result of ’ Operation ‘Market Garden’ that was commemorated by the famous film ‘A Bridge Too Far’.” 

Henniker, who was born in Minehead in Somerset in 1906. He advanced to Lieutenant Colonel, and in the autumn of 1941 became one of the founder members, and part of the skeleton Divisional Staff, of the fledgling 1st Airborne Division. Henniker, flanked by others such as “Boy” Browning and Urquhart, was originally employed as SO RE. He subsequently advanced to Chief Royal Engineer (CRE), 1st Airborne Division, and was a member of ‘The Dungeon Party’. The latter was the term coined in later years by Browning, for the original command staff and the accommodation in which they were initially set up - two floors below ground level in a building in King Charles Street, Whitehall.

He honed his skills on the North West Frontier, and successfully escaped with his men from the beaches of Dunkirk in a rowing boat! As the first Chief Royal Engineer, 1st Airborne Division, Brigadier Sir Mark Henniker was integral to the planning of the famous Bruneval Raid, February 1942, and the attempted destruction of the Heavy Water Production Plant at Telemark, Norway in November of the same year. He once again helped plan the airborne element of the invasion of Sicily and took part in the airborne landings of Operation Husky, flying in by glider as part of HQ 1st Airlanding Brigade, in July 1943.

However, the pinnacle of his career was when serving as C.R.E., 43rd (Wessex Division) during Operation Market Garden. Henniker was responsible for the planning and execution of Operation Berlin - the iconic night-time evacuation of the remnants of the beleaguered 1st Airborne Division under Roy Urquhart; trapped in German-occupied territory north of the Lower Rhine and just West of Arnhem. On the night of 25/26 September 1944, Henniker executed his intricate plan and secured the rescue of some 2,400 men across the Lower Rhine, in all manner of boats and rafts - all under heavy fire, and all personally directed by him throughout the night from his position on the riverbank.

After a long military career, he died in October 1991, aged 85, and is buried in Saint Peter's Church, Llanwenarth Citra, Abergavenny.