Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Captain Sir Eric D. Pridie, K.C.M.G., D.S.O., O.B.E., Royal Lancashire Regiment, later Director of the Sudan Medical Service and Chief Medical Officer at the Colonial Office, who was torpedoed and sunk during the great War on his way to Mesopotamia, but surviving was subsequently awarded the D.S.O. for his gallantry at the Battle of Kut, where he captured an officer, 12 men, and a machine gun

1914-15 Star (Lieut. E. D. Pridie. R. Lanc. R.); British War Medal 1914-20 (Capt. E. D. Pridei.) good very fine (2) £100-£140

K.C.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1953: Eric Denholm Pridie, Esq., C.M.G., D.S.O., O.B.E., M.B., B.S., Chief Medical Officer, Colonial Office.

C.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1941: Eric Denholm Pridie, Esq., D.S.O., O.B.E., Director of the Sudan Medical Service.

D.S.O. London Gazette 15 October 1918: T./Capt. Eric Denholm Pridie, Royal Lancashire Regiment:
‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty, and initiative in action. When an attack was held up by a machine gun at close range he led forward a party of men across the open, under heavy fire, and by his most gallant action succeeded in capturing an officer, twelve men, and the machine gun. Later, with a revolver in each hand, he again advanced and killed and wounded several of the enemy, causing others to surrender. He behaved magnificently.’

O.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1931: Eric Denholm Pridie, Esq., D.S.O., Medical Inspector, Sudan Medical Service.

Egyptian Order of the Nile, Third Class London Gazette 3 August 1934.

Sir Eric Denholm Pridie was born at Chingford, Essex, on 10 January 1896, the son of John Francis Pridie, Esq. His father was then in medical practice there, though not long afterwards he moved to a practice in Liverpool. Pridie was educated at Holmwood Preparatory School, Formby, and St Bees School, Cumberland, and had begun his medical training just prior to the outbreak of the Great War. Volunteering for service he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 7th Battalion, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment on 16 November 1914, and served with them during the Great War on the Western Front in 1915-16, where he was wounded at the battle of Loos. He was later invalided to England with severe pneumonia. After recovery he was trained as a bombing officer and, in 1917, went out to Mesopotamia. In the Mediterranean the ship on which he was travelling was torpedoed and sunk, but after a time in the water he was rescued. For his gallantry at the Battle of Kut, where he led a party attacking the enemy lines and at close quarters killed with his revolver some six of the enemy, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order; was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 21 February 1919), and finished the War with the rank of Captain.

Demobilised in 1919, Pridie resumed his medical studies at Liverpool. After house appointments at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary, he joined the Sudan Medical Service in 1924. He worked, first, as a medical officer in the Kassala and Blue Nile Provinces, but in 1930 was promoted to be assistant director of medical services. Created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1931 Birthday Honours’ List, two years later he was appointed Director of the Service, and in 1934 he became a member of the Council which advised the Governor-General on all aspects of government in the Sudan. His influence on the Council was great and was not limited to medical matters. He foresaw that war was likely to break out in 1939, and ensured that all preparations possible in the Sudan were made; in particular he made certain that large stocks of medical and other supplies were built up, and these proved to be invaluable when war was declared.

During the Second World War Pridie became D.D.M.S. of the military command in the Sudan and held the rank of brigadier. The degree of integration of the civil and military medical services which he was able to bring about in the East African campaign was of great value in the conduct of the war. Pridie was himself present at the battle of Karen and for his services was twice Mentioned in Despatches.

In 1945 he was appointed health councillor at the British Embassy in Cairo, and had an important part to play in the many discussions concerning reorganisation in the Middle East following the war. Four years later, in 1949, he was appointed Chief Medical Officer at the Colonial Office. His selection to this post was described as a remarkable tribute to him, for he had never been a member of the Colonial Medical Service; the Sudan Medical Service, like the Indian Medical Service, was quite outside the Colonial Medical Service. He was knighted in 1953.

After his retirement from the Colonial Office he undertook for the World Health Organisation a number of short term consultancies in Turkey, Taiwan, the Philippines and Afghanistan. For a while too he was an adviser to the Government of Bahrein. His travels became legendary; he occupied the greater part of each year with them and took delight in reaching the most remote parts of the world. Just before his eightieth birthday he announced with pride that he had then visited every country in the world; he had set foot on the Antarctic Continent and on the Arctic ice and such remoter places as Tierra del Fuego, Outer Mongolia, Red China, the Falkland Islands and the smallest countries in Central America and Africa. He died on 3 September 1978.