NICKERSON, WILLIAM HENRY SNYDER, Lieutenant, was born 27 March,
1875, at New Brunswick, Canada, son of the Reverend D Nickerson, MA,
Chaplain to HM's Forces, and Catherine Snyder, daughter of Reverend W H
Snyder, MA. He was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School, and at Owens
College, Manchester University (MB, ChB, 1896), and entered the Royal Army
Medical Corps on 27 July, 1898; serving in South Africa during every day of
the Boer War from 11 August 1899, to 31 May, 1902, attached to the Mounted
Infantry. Brigadier General Sitwell says that one of the two Victoria
Crosses won the day he seized Bwab's
Hill, near Dewetsdorp, was that "awarded to Lieutenant Nickerson, RAMC, for
going out under shell and rifle fire and stitching up a man's stomach whose
entrails were protruding, thereby saving his life. The man belonged to the
Worcestershire Regiment and was lying in the open, and the enemy were
concentrating their fire on this spot to prevent reinforcements from coming
up to support the Mounted Infantry, who had been busily engaged all day.
The man could not be moved and stretcher-bearers could not reach him until
the fire slackened". For his services in the South African War Lieutenant
Nickerson was mentioned in Despatches April, 1901; promoted Captain, and
awarded the Victoria Cross [London Gazette, 12 February 1901]: "William
Henry Snyder Nickerson, Lieutenant, Royal Army Medical Corps. At
Wakkerstroom on the evening of the 20th April, 1900, during the advance of
the infantry to support the mounted troops, Lieutenant Nickerson went in a
most gallant manner, under a heavy shell and rifle fire, to attend a wounded
man, dressed his wounds, and remained with him until he had him conveyed a
place of safety". He became Major 25 July 1909. Major Nickerson served in
the European War from 1914, with Cavalry during the retreat from Antwerp,
first and second battles of Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, in the trenches at Ypres,
and on other occasions; on the Somme from September to November 1915, and in
Salonika from December 1915. During the latter part of the war he held the
appointment of ADMS, 2nd Division. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel,
1st March, 1915, and was created a CMG in 1916; was three times mentioned in
Despatches: 16 February 1915; 1 January 1916, and October 1916.
