Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.C. group of three awarded to Captain H. Y. Hicking, 46th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, late Canadian Army Service Corps: on account of its high casualty rate, the 46th became known as the “Suicide Battalion”


Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt. H. Y. Hicking), good very fine (3) £600-700

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the Canadian Expeditonary Force 1914-1918.

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M.C. London Gazette 3 June 1919.

Harold Yeldersley Hicking, who was born in Nottingham in June 1886, served in the Leinster Regiment for three years prior to gaining appointment as a Lieutenant in the Army Service Corps. Having then settled in Canada as a farmer, he joined in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in July 1916.

Embarked for France in January 1917, he was briefly attached to the 10th Field Company, Canadian Engineers, and to 10th Infantry Brigade as a Transport Officer, but otherwise remained on the strength of the 46th Battalion until the War’s end, and was awarded the M.C. and twice mentioned in despatches (London Gazettes 28 May 1918 and 8 July 1919 refer).

Appointed an A.D.C. at 4th Canadian Divisional H.Q. in early 1919, Hicking ‘retired in the British Isles’ in October of the same year and died in October 1947; sold with copied service record.