Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Major General

Unit : 1st Bn

Biography :

Joined the Regiment in 1886 from 4th Bn The Gloucestershire Regiment. Commissioned Lieutenant 28.4.1886 and Captain 5.2.1894. Served as Captain with the 1st Bn at the Siege of Ladysmith, Boer War and granted Brevet Major. Promoted Major in 1904. Promoted Lieutenant Colonel 11.11.1910 and commanded 1st Bn 12.11.1910-20.3.1915, and went with it in the BEF to France and was wounded in 1914. In 1915 he was awarded C.B. On 21.3.1915 he was appointed Brigadier in command of 81st Infantry Brigade in France and later GOC 28th Division in the British Salonika Force. Awarded C.M.G. in 1917. Promoted Maj-Gen on 1.1.1919. He was Mentioned in Dispatches nine times (three for service in the Boer War, two for WW1 service in France and four for WW1 service in Salonika). Retired from the Army in 1923. Awarded the K.C.B. on 3.7.1926. Died at home on 20.8.1938.
He was the grandson of Lt Col William Croker CB who commanded the 17th Regiment from 1836-47, including at the storming Khelat in 1839; the son of Captain Edward Croker of The Leicestershire Regiment; and father of Lt Col Edward James O‘Brien Croker OBE MC of The Royal Leicestershire Regiment. There is a brass memorial plaque to his memory in the Regimental Chapel in Leicester Cathedral.

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Medals Auctioned, 19 June 2024 : Final hammer price £28,000

Sir Henry Leycester Croker was born in Cheltenham on 17 October 1864, the son of Captain Edward Croker, 17th (Leicestershire) Regiment of Foot, and the grandson of Lieutenant-Colonel William Croker, 17th (Leicestershire) Regiment of Foot, and was educated at Cheltenham College. He was commissioned Lieutenant in the 4th (Militia) Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, on 30 January 1884, and transferred to the Regular Army as a Lieutenant in his family Regiment, the Leicestershire Regiment, on 28 April 1886. He served with the 1st Battalion in the West Indies and North America during the 1890s, and was promoted Captain on 5 February 1894.

Appointed Adjutant of the 1st Battalion on 25 November 1899, Croker served with the Regiment in South Africa during the Boer War, and took part in the operations in Natal in 1899-1900, including the action at Talana, the march from Dundee to Ladysmith, the engagement at Lombard’s Kop, and the Defence of Ladysmith, and is one of those officers who was depicted in Dickinson’s and Foster’s famous painting The Defenders of Ladysmith. Present at the action at Laing’s Nek from 6 to 9 June 1900, in the subsequent advance under Sir Redvers Buller through Northern Natal into the Transvaal he took part in the engagements at Armesfoort, Ermelo, Geluk’s Farm, Bergendal, and Badfontein, and was present at the actions at Belfast on 26-27 August 1900, and at Lydenberg from 5 to 8 September 1900. He saw further service in the operations under Sir John French in the Eastern Transvaal and on the Swaziland border, and under Major General W. Kitchener at Blood River Valley, South Eastern Transvaal, and Ilangapies. For his services in South Africa he was three times Mentioned in Despatches, awarded both the Queen’s South Africa Medal with the usual four clasps awarded to the Leicestershire Regiment and the King’s South Africa Medal, and was promoted Brevet Major on 22 August 1902.

Confirmed in the rank of Major on 31 May 1904, Croker was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel on 1 November 1910, and served during the Great War in command of the 1st Battalion on the Western Front from 7 September 1914 to 18 March 1915. Promoted Major-General, he commanded the 81st Infantry Brigade in France from 21 March 1915 to 20 May 1916, and the 28th Division in Salonika from 21 May 1916 to the cessation of hostilities. Wounded, for his services during the Great War he appointed a Companion of both the Orders of the Bath and of St. Michael and St. George; was six times Mentioned in Despatches; and was honoured by the Governments of Greece, Serbia, and France.

Croker married Mabel Tedlie in London on 1 June 1897, and together they had two daughters, including Phyllis Marian Croker. He retired with the rank of Major-General in 1923, and was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1926. He died in Kensington on 20 August 1938, and is buried in Leicester Cathedral. His obituary in the Regimental Journal gave the following personal tribute:
‘Croker was a man who inspired in both his superiors and subordinates feelings of affection, respect, and admiration. He was essentially a regimental officer who identified himself in every way with the Regiment, whose welfare and prestige were very near his heart. One can understand his feelings of loyalty and love of the Regiment when one realises what a long connection his family maintained with the 17th Foot. Not only was his father in the Regiment, but his grandfather commanded it with great distinction at the storming of Khelat in India in 1839. Every officer and man who served with him will mourn his loss.’

Sold with two portrait photographs of the recipient; four bound photograph albums, the first from the West Indies and North America; the second from South Africa; and the last two from Turkey, Greece, and Salonika; and other ephemera.

Date of Birth : 17.10.1864

Place of Birth : Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Date of Death : 20.8.1938

Place of Death : London

Period of Service : 1886-1923

Conflicts : Boer War, WW1

Places Served : South Africa, France, Salonika