Beschreibung:

The Allan and Janet Woodliffe Collection of Medals relating to the Reconquest and Pacification of The Sudan 1896-1956 The rare and impressive inter-war C.B., Great War C.M.G., Sudan D.S.O. group of sixteen awarded to Major-General H. L. Pritchard, Royal Engineers, a veteran of the Ashanti campaign who was one Kitchener’s “Band of Boys”, helping to build the desert railway during the reconquest of the Sudan and winning a D.S.O. for the Atbara and Omdurman - in the latter engagement he conveyed vital messages under fire as “Fighting Mac’s” galloper: afterwards writing an important first hand history of the expedition under the pseudonym ‘An Officer’, he became Chief Engineer of an Army Corps in Salonika, until severely wounded, and Colonel Commandant R.E. 1932-41 The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s breast badge converted for neck wear; Distinguished Service Order, V.R., silver-gilt and enamels, minor chip to one reverse arm; Ashanti Star 1896, unnamed; Queen’s Sudan 1896-98 (Lieut. H. L. Pritchard, R.E.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Orange Free State, Transvaal, Belmont, Modder River (Capt: H. L. Pritchard, D.S.O., R.E.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Capt. H. L. Pritchard, D.S.O., R.E.); 1914 Star, with clasp (Major H. L. Pritchard, D.S.O., R.E.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Brig. Gen. H. L. Pritchard); Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; Greek Medal for Military Merit, 2nd Class; Order of the Medjidie, 4th Class, silver, gold and enamel; Khedive’s Sudan 1896-1908, 3 clasps, Hafir, Sudan 1897, Khartoum, unnamed as issued, these last 13 on an old court mounting as worn; Order of the Redeemer, 3rd Class neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels, the last damaged at several points, otherwise very fine or better (16) £7000-8000 Footnote D.S.O. London Gazette 15 November 1898: ‘In recognition of services in Egypt and the Soudan, including the battles of Atbara and Khartoum’. C.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1917. C.B. London Gazette 1 January 1923. M.I.D. London Gazette 1896 (Ashanti); 2 November 1896 (Dongola); 30 September 1898 (Omdurman); 29 July 1902 (South Africa - Railways); 19 October 1914 (France); 17 February 1915 (France); 6 December 1916 (Greece - Salonika); 28 November 1917 (Greece - Salonika). Order of the Medjidie, 4th Class London Gazette 2 March 1897: ‘In recognition of active and distinguished service before the enemy during the recent expedition to Dongola.’ Order of the Redeemer, 3rd Class London Gazette 9 November 1918. Harry Lionel Pritchard was born on 16 November 1871, son of Colonel Hurlock Pritchard, and was educated at Charterhouse. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in February 1891, he was advanced to Lieutenant in February 1894 and witnessed active service in the Ashanti Expedition 1895-96, for which he was honourably mentioned. Transferring to the Egyptian Army in October 1896, he served in the expedition to Dongola, being present at the operations of 19 September 1896 (despatches, Medjidie 4th Class), and in the Nile Expedition 1897, including the battle of Omdurman, for which he was awarded the D.S.O. and a brace of “mentions”. As stated above, he also wrote and important first hand account of the reconquest of the Sudan, not least in respect of the progress of the railway line that saved the campaign, in which project he served on the Railway Staff but, with typical modesty, omits mention of his crucial part in conveying messages in the battle of Omdurman, an omission duly corrected by Henry Keown-Boyd in his excellent account of the Sudan campaign, A Good Dusting: ‘The sequence of orders and counter-orders during this stage of the battle is confused and contradictory, as, no doubt, were the orders themselves. It would seem the Sirdar, riding with the British D