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Lieutenant-Colonel H. D. Pearson, Royal Engineers: Very impressive and rare Great War Palestine
operations DSO group of twelve, Pearson who won a brace of "mentions" for the Boxer Rebellion, signed on
behalf of Great Britain the treaty concluding the work of the Anglo-Liberian Boundary Commission in 1903,
and afterwards embarked on a long and distinguished career as a Director of Surveys in the Sudan: but it was
for his services as a Liaison Officer to the Arab Forces at Jeddah in 1916-17, which post had earlier been
occupied by Lawrence of Arabia, that he was awarded the 2nd class of the Order of El Nahda, a rare
distinction for a British Officer, and his DSO. Distinguished Service Order, GVR., silver-gilt and enamels.
India General Service with bars Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Tirah 1897-98 (Lieut., R.E.), China 1900 with bar
Relief of Pekin (Lieut.., Bl. Sappers & Miners), 1915 Star (Major, R.E.), BWM and Victory Medal, M.I.D.
oak leaf (Lt. Col.), American Military Order of the Dragon, the reverse engraved, ‘Capt. Hugh D. Pearson,
Royal Engineers, No. 680’, Khedive’s Sudan 1910-21, 1 clasp, Sudan 1912, unnamed as issued. Turkish
Order of Osmanieh, 4th class breast badge, silver, silver-gilt and enamels, the latter chipped in paces. Order
of the Star of Ethiopia, 2nd class insignia of local manufacture, comprising neck badge and breast star, silver-
gilt; Egyptian Order of the Nile, 3rd class neck badge, silver, silver-gilt and enamel. Hedjaz, Order of El
Nahda, 2nd class set of insignia, comprising neck badge and breast star, silver, silver-gilt and enamels. DSO
London Gazette 1 January 1918.
Hugh Drummond Pearson was born Kensington, London, February 1917 and was educated at St.
Paul’s School, from which he passed direct into Woolwich. Commissioned into the Royal Engineers as a 2nd
Lieutenant in July 1892, he proceeded to India in 1894, was advanced to Lieutenant in the following year
and witnessed active service in the Tirah and Punjab Frontier operations of 1897-98. In July 1900, he was
attached to No. 4 Company, Bengal Sappers & Miners, and embarked for China, where he was present at
the relief of Pekin following a difficult journey in a convoy of 14 junks on the Peiho, and subjection to
occasional sniping. His Company was subsequently employed in improving communications and
accommodation about the Legation Quarter, Pearson himself leading a section employed in driving a tunnel
through the Great Wall of the Tartar City, which on completion was 50 feet high and 70 feet wide at its base.
Afterwards he was detached to the Temple of Heaven to construct winter quarters for the garrison and, in
January 1901, with a team of 70 sappers, laid three and a half miles of branch line from Fengtai to Likachao,
work that was hindered by the extreme cold, snow and blizzards. In May, Pearson was appointed Orderly
Officer to Brigadier-General Spratt Bowring, R.E., and remained behind in Peking to assist in the completion
of the new defences. He was twice Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 14 May 1901 and 13 December
1901).
Appointed to the Local Rank of Captain in December 1902, Pearson was the Senior British
representative on the Anglo-Liberian Boundary Commission set up in the following year, a physically
punishing role that took him through thick bush country in Sierra Leone and, on one occasion, a 30 mile
stretch of ‘impenetrable forest from Bariwalla to the river Mannah, where the sky was invisible owing to the
dense overhead growth’. His work complete, Pearson was just about fit enough to sign, on behalf of Great
Britain, the treaty at Mano Solija that July, and was ‘carried on board a steamer with little hope of reaching