Henry Parke Airey

"Henry Airey" redirects here. For the Anglican priest, see Henry Airay.

Henry Parke Airey
Colonel Henry Airey c. 1902
Born3 August 1842
Yorkshire, England
Died11 October 1911(1911-10-11) (aged 69)
Transvaal, South Africa
Allegiance United Kingdom
 Australia
Service / branchBritish Army
New South Wales Artillery
Years of service1859–1866
1877–1902
RankColonel
Battles / warsMahdist War
Second Boer War
AwardsCompanion of the Order of St Michael and St George
Distinguished Service Order
Mentioned in dispatches

Henry Parke Airey CMG, DSO (3 August 1842 – 9 October 1911) was an Australian colonial soldier.

Airey, the son of Captain Henry Cookson Airey of the East India Company and his wife Emily, was born in Kingthorpe, Yorkshire in 1842.[1] He was educated at Marlborough and East India Company College in 1858–59.[2]

Airey was of the New South Wales Artillery, was formerly in the 101st Foot; and having become attached to the New South Wales military forces, of which he became captain in March 1886, served in the Sudan Campaign with the colonial contingent, receiving a medal, with clasp, for the advance on Tamai. He served with the British army in Burma in 1886 and 1887, and having behaved with great gallantry and been severely wounded, was created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order in 1888[3]—and reputedly became the first Australian soldier to be so decorated—was mentioned in dispatches, and pensioned by the Government of India. In further recognition of his brilliant services in Burma, he was, in June 1887, appointed a brevet-major in the New South Wales forces by Lord Carrington, then Governor of that colony.[4]

Airey served as a colonel in the artillery in the Sudan,[5] and as a lieutenant colonel during the Boer War[6] where he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.[7]

Airey married Florence Ada McCulloch, daughter of A. H. McCulloch, in 1868, in Sydney, and they had issue.

  1. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  2. ^ "Entry to the military, medical and nursing services of the East India Company's Army (1753–1861) and the Indian Army — Airey, Henry Parke". Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  3. ^ "No. 25772". The London Gazette. 3 January 1888. p. 15.
  4. ^ Mennell, Philip (1892). "Airy, Major Henry Park" . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
  5. ^ "Sudan Nominal Roll - Henry Park Airey". Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  6. ^ "Boer War Nominal Roll - Henry Parke Airey". Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  7. ^ "No. 27306". The London Gazette. 19 April 1901. p. 2698.