A Collection of Medals formed by the Reverend Canon Nigel Nicholson, OStJ, DL

Three: Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals B. Nicholson, Army Medical Department

South Africa 1834-53 (Asst. Surgn. B. Nicholson, M.D., 2nd. Bn. 60th. Rifles.); China 1857-60, no clasp (Staff Surgn. B. Nicholson.); New Zealand 1845-66, reverse undated but contemporarily impressed ‘1860 to 1864’, naming erased on last, heavy contact marks, nearly very fine (3) £700-£900

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals formed by the Reverend Canon Nigel Nicholson, OStJ, DL.

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Provenance: Sotheby’s, December 1991.

Brinsley Nicholson was born at Fort George, Scotland, in 1824, the eldest son of B. W. H. Nicholson, Army Medical Staff. Educated at Edinburgh University, he joined the Army Medical Department as an Assistant Surgeon on the Staff on 25 September 1856, and served in South Africa in the Kaffir Wars of 1846-47, and 1850-53, latterly attached to the 60th Foot. His careful observations and studies of the native tribes were subsequently published in ‘Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs’ in 1858. Promoted Surgeon on 27 October 1857, he served as Staff Surgeon in North China in 1860 in charge of two General Field Hospitals, and was present during the loot of the Summer Palace at Pekin; and then saw further service in New Zealand during the Maori Wars. Appointed Honorary Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals, he retired from the Army in November 1871, and subsequently devoted himself to Elizabethan literature. He died on 14 September 1892.