Orders, Decorations and Medals

The campaign group of six to Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Pinches, Royal Army Medical Corps, Surgeon of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, who had his horse ‘shot from under him’ during the famous charge

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Hazara 1891 (Surgn., Army Medl. Staff); Queen’s Sudan 1896-98 (Maj., R.A.M.C.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg (Major, R.A.M.C.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps (Maj., R.A.M.C.); Turkey, Order of Medjidie, 4th Class breast badge, silver, gold and enamel, reverse embossed and stamped in Turkish script; Khedive’s Sudan 1896-1908, 2 clasps, Hafir, Khartoum, unnamed as issued, mounted for wear, good very fine and better (6) £6000-8000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Medical Services formed by Colonel D.G.B. Riddick.

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William Hooper Pinches was born in Kennington on 10 August 1861. He took the L.R.C.P. (Edinburgh) and L.M. in 1884 and M.R.C.S. (St. Barts.). He entered the Army as a Surgeon on 1 August 1885 and served as Medical Officer to the 1st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers in the Hazara campaign of 1891. During the expedition to Dongola in 1896, Surgeon Captain Pinches was one of four Medical Officers attached to the North Staffordshire Regiment. For his services he was awarded the Order of Medjidie 4th Class (London Gazette 2 March 1897). He was promoted to Surgeon Major in August 1897. The following year he was a Medical Officer attached to the 21st Lancers and rode with them in the famous charge at Omdurman, his horse being shot from under him as he reached the bank of the khor. The action is recounted in The Egyptian Soudan - Its Loss and Recovery, by H. S. Alford & W. Sword:

‘The Dervishes adopted their old tactics of first ham-stringing the horses, and then cutting their riders to pieces. Every man who was unhorsed - with the single exception of Major Pinches (Royal Army Medical Corps) - was instantly killed. Pinches was saved by the great daring of Sergeant-Major Brennan, who galloped to the rescue, and, after a tough fight, in the course of which Brennan killed several Dervishes, he got the officer on to his own horse and carried him out of danger’.

For his services in connection with the battle Pinches was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 30 September 1898). During the Boer War, Surgeon-Major Pinches was Medical Officer to the 2nd Battalion Cheshire Regiment and the ill-fated Colonel Benson Column. On 31 October 1900, the column commanded by Colonel George Elliott Benson was attacked in mist and heavy rain. The Boers under Louis Botha swept down on the rearguard of the column and cut down 123 out of the 160 men. Benson was mortally wounded but continued to command and extricate the main body of his column. Pinches was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in August 1905 and was placed on the Retired List in August 1906. During the Great War he was re-employed as an Examining Medical Officer for recruits in the U.K. from August 1915. He died after a short illness at his home in Kensington Gardens, London on 9 April 1935. Sold with a folder containing a quantity of copied research details.

For Sergeant-Major Brennan’s medals, see lot 851.