O'Dell | J | Lieutenant Colonel | Entered 1878; Lieutenant Colonel, AS Corps, August 1900. Staff service: Deputy Assistant Com. General, Com. and Trans. Staff, 1886-88; DAAG S District 1894-97. War service: Egyptian Expedition 1884 (medal with clasp; bronze star); Boer War, 1889-1900.
Source: List of CMG recipients. Various sources | Army Service Corps |
O'Meara | W A J | Major | Walter Alfred John O'Meara was born in Calcutta on 28 January 1863. He entered the Royal Military Academy Woolwich in 1880 and passed out in 1883. In March 1885 he joined the 5th Bengal Sappers and Miners and went with them to the war in Burma. His duty was clearing the lines of communication and his work was constantly hampered by parties of dacoits. On 2 January 1886 he chased off a band of dacoits but, pausing to reload his revolver, a group of them turned and ran back at him. He received fifteen cuts with their dahs. His hand was chopped off and jaw was broken. His native second in command dispersed the group thereby saving his life. After leaving hospital he was stationed in Portsmouth and helped in the construction of defences at Southsea. In 1890 he surveyed and supervised the building of the first telephone trench line in Kent. In 1894 he was posted to South Africa where, with Major Plumer, he investigated the Jameson Raid. In 1896 he entered the Staff College and, when he passed out, he went back to South Africa as one of ten special service officers. He cycled all over the Western Free State to gather intelligence. He was in Kimberley when war broke out. He became Kekewich's Intelligence Officer and Censor. He organised the system of native spies and runners. As part of his duties as censor, he clashed violently with both Rhodes and the Diamond Fields Advertiser about what could be published. He was mentioned in Despatches by Kekewich. After the siege, O'Meara joined the Staff of the Director of Military Intelligence and was present at Paardeberg for the final part of this battle. He was then attached to the Staff of the Cavalry Division and was present at the actions of Poplar Grove, Driefontein and Bloemfontein. He then joined the staff of the Military Governor of Bloemfontein, Major General Pretyman. Later, O'Meara became Chairman of the Johannesburg Town Council and worked to create the municipal laws. He was appointed to be the first mayor of Johannesburg on 21 Jun 1900. At the conclusion of the Boer War, O'Meara was again mentioned in despatched and given the CMG. On 28 April 1902, O'Meara became Engineer in Chief of the Johannesburg Post Office Telegraph Department where he stayed for ten years. On his return to England, he became a Barrister at Law. Despite being 52 when the Great War broke out, he re-joined as a Major and was given command of the 3rd Billetting Company in Chatham. In 1917 he was promoted brevet Lieutenant Colonel but this year also witnessed the death in the trenches in France of his only son who held a commission in the East Lancashire Regiment. After the War, O'Meara became Vice President of the Royal Engineers Widows Association and the Royal Engineers Charitable Institution. Between 1924 and 1926 he was Chairman of the Board of Studies in Electrical Engineering at the University of London. He died on 6 November 1939.
CMG (b/b), IGS 1854 (1) Burma 1885-7 (Lieut. Rl. Sappers and Miners), QSA (5) DofK Paar Drie Tr SA01 (Major C.M.G., R.E.), 1902 Coronation, Kimberley Star. Spink Dec 83.
Source: List of CMG recipients. Various sources | Royal Engineers |
Openshaw | Thomas Horrocks | | Borm March 1856. He travelled to South Africa to serve as surgeon to the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital. He was taken prisoner when Pretoria was captured, and held for two weeks, eventually freed as part of an exchange of prisoners. On his release, Openshaw became Principal Medical Officer at the Number Three Medical School Hospital, Pretoria. CB 1917.
Source: List of CMG recipients. Various sources | Civil Surgeon |
Orpen | R | Major | The fourth son of Francis H S Orpen, Surveyor General of Griqualand West and first member, with Rt Hon C J Rhodes, for Barkly West, in the Cape House of Assembly, and was born at Grahamstown, Cape Colony, on May 22, 1864. He was educated at the Barkly West High School and at St Andrew's College, Bloemfontein, farming at St Clair, near Douglas, Division of Herbert, Griqualand West, from 1884. Always interested in politics, and a strong opponent of the Afrikander Bond, he took an active part in the formation of the South African League in May, 1896. On the outbreak of the Boer War he joined Orpen's Horse, 350 strong (raised by his brother, Major Frank Orpen), as Captain and second in command, subsequently commanding the corps, with the rank of Major (upon his brother's retirement through ill health), from June, 1900, to November, 1901 (mentioned in dispatches, CMG, medal and clasp). Subsequently, after being on special service for three months, he commanded the Border Scouts, 800 strong, until the end of the war (KSA and clasps). At the general election in 1904 he was elected member for Prieska in the Cape House of Assembly, after having been defeated by eleven votes at the by-election in the previous year. In June, 1905, he took over the duties of General Secretary of the Soufh African Imperial Union, and Chief Organising Agent of the Progressive Party in the Cape Colony. He married, May 7, 1906, Dora. Agnes, daughter of Abraham Difford, of the Cape Government Railways. He died in 1940.
CMG, QSA (1) CC, KSA (2). Miniatures only DNW Sep 02 unsold.
Source: List of CMG recipients. Various sources | Orpen's Light Horse |
Parsons | Harold Daniel Edmund | Major | He was born in London and educated at Edinburgh Academy and Dulwich College. He joined the Royal West Surrey Regiment 1882 and served with the 2nd Battalion in India 1882-1890; Superintendent of Army Signalling, 3rd Brigade for the Burma Campaign 1886-88; transferred to the Army Ordnance Department 1890. He served in South Africa (MID 16 Apr 1901, CMG), and in the Great War (MID seven times, 17 February 1915, 1 January 1916, 4 January 1917, 11 December 1918, 12 December 1918, 17 December 1918, 20 December 1918; KCMG; CB); Major General Parsons was appointed Principal Ordnance Officer, 1920, and retired 1923; in October 1924, just before his death, he was appointed Colonel Commandant, Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
KCMG, CB, IGS 1854 (2) Burma 1885-87 Burma 1887-89 (Lieut. H D E Parsons 2nd. Bn. R.W.Surr R.), QSA (3) CC OFS Tr (Major H D E Parsons, CMG, AOD), KSA (2), 1914 Star (Col: AOD), BWM, VM & MID (Maj.Gen. Sir H.D.E. Parsons, US DSM, Belgium, Order of Leopold, Commander's neck Badge with Swords, Belgium, Croix de Guerre, Russia, Order of St Stanislaus, Second Class, with Swords, neck Badge by Eduard, St Petersburg, gold and enamel. Spinks Nov 03
Source: List of CMG recipients. Various sources | Army Ordnance Corps |
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