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Auction: 21001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals (conducted behind closed doors)
Lot: 391

'We thought it best that I should come and do my share. Every man is needed if we are ever to lick these f----- swine, as they are usually called in England!'

Major Oxenham on answering the call of duty in The Queenslander

An interesting Great War M.C. group of three awarded to Major H. A. Oxenham, Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force, late Trooper, Transvaal Mounted Rifles

A skilled Australian-born wireless operator who saw the world with his work, he had been on a Wireless Station off Honolulu at the outbreak of the Great War and became the first Queenslander to be commissioned into the Royal Flying Corps

The first Commandant at the Joint School, Brooklands, Oxenham won himself an M.C. and also managed to 'borrow a rifle and bayonet' in order to go over the top on the First Day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 whilst visiting an Advanced Battery before the end of the Great War

Military Cross, G.V.R., the reverse contemporarily engraved 'Major H. A. Oxenham R.A.F. 1916'; British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Major H. A. Oxenham. R.A.F.), mounted court-style for display by Spink & Son, St James's, London, very fine (3)

M.C. London Gazette 1 January 1917.

Herbert Anselm Oxenham was born on 7 April 1876 at Warwick, Queensland, Australia. The Queenslander, 2 October 1915, gives further background:

'For some time he was in the telegraph office, Roma Street, then Rockhampton, and later took part in the Boer War [sic], afterwards taking up telegraph work in Durban and Johannesburg and Canada. He travelled as wireless operator for two years from the West Indies to England on the Oruba, and being skilled in wireless was appointed to a wireless station off Honolulu, which position he held with credit till lately, when he left for England, via New York, to offer his services to his country, and was given a commission as above. He is the first Queenslander to gain this distinction with the Royal Flying Corps.'

Oxenham had previously served with the South African Light Horse and the Transvaal Mounted Rifles (Natal 1906 Medal) and first went to France in July 1915 with 3 Wing, Royal Flying Corps as a 2nd Lieutenant (1914-15 Star). He continues:

'Brooklands, Surrey, England.

Am off to the Front. Wife stayed behind in New York. It was pretty hard parting for both of us; however, we thought it best that I should come and do my share. Every man is needed if we are ever to lick these f----- swine, as they are usually called in England. We had a long tedious trip from Honolulu to New York, especially across Canada, owing to delays caused by the war, and an exciting time crossing to England dodging submarines. Everybody stayed up on all the last nights with life belts on, in case of accidents.

After a week or so hunting around I got the offer of this job from the War Office, and think it will pan all right when I get settled down to it, and somewhere near the Front. I am Lieutenant Wireless Equipment Officer, and have had quite a number of flights in the speedy aeroplanes, 6000ft or 7000ft up. I was a bit shaky on it the first time, but don't mind a bit now. My work doesn't call for flying but I have to go up occasionally, so may as well get used to it. Hope Leo is on the mend; the fighting is pretty hot in the Dardanelles. Only for this war I would have managed a trip home in a few months. Still, no use grumbling. I felt it was my duty to enlist, and put my little bit towards it. Have any of our young friends gone to the Front, or are they all hanging back, letting someone else fight for them?

God knows there are plenty of single men here who should enlist before we old married men, but they lack the nerve, or don't care whether we are under the Germans or whom!

Give my love to mother and dad, tell mother to cheer up. I'll be home one of these days and bring her an Iron Cross maybe. I have been here a month, and am getting well into the routine of this crack regiment.'

Oxenham clearly made the front before long, as he earned a 'mention' (London Gazette 15 June 1916, refers) and his exploits on 1 July 1916 were noted by A. J. Insall in Observer - Memoirs of the R.F.C. 1915-18:

'H. A. Oxenham, of, I believe, Canadian origin [sic], who looked after the wireless work of our Squadrons, and who, the day the Fourth Army launched the Somme Offensive (1st July), would actually succeed in borrowing a rifle and bayonet from the Advanced Battery he was legitimately visiting, and join one of our Regiments on its way into the enemy's position.'

His appointment as Commandant - graded as Park Commander - at the Wireless and Observer's School came with his advancement to Temporary Major (London Gazette 8 October 1916, refers). He was confirmed in the rank on 1 April 1918 (Technical Officer) and applied for his Medals whilst living in San Mateo, California in 1924.

Oxenham became a naturalised citizen of the United States of America in Hawaii on 29 August 1925 and died at Bay Street, Louis Hancock County, Mississippi on 16 August 1957, aged 81; sold together with related miniature group of three and copied research.

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Sold for
£1,400

Starting price
£1100