Lieut.-Colonel Orbell Henry OAKES
Commanded the 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment from March 1899 to March 1903.
Orbell Henry Oakes was born on the 19th June 1851, Hawkedon, Suffolk. His father was Reverend Orbell Plampin Oakes (Rector of Hawkedon) and Julia Evans. He was commissioned in to the 29th Foot as a Sub-Lieutenant on the 10th January 1872. On the 22nd November 1877 he married Laura Elizabeth Josephine Clifton, daughter of George Clifton, Governor of Portland Convict Prison. Promoted to Captain in the 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment on the 17th December 1881, serving with them in India (Mhow and Rajputana). In November 1982 he transferred to the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment stationed at Curragh Camp, Ireland. In July 1883 he was appointed Superintendent of Gymnasia, Dublin District. On the 8th November 1886, he was appointed Adjutant of the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteer Corps., at Pollokshields, Glasgow, a position he held until 1891. He then rejoined the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment and later moved to the 1st Battalion. Promoted to Major on the 9th October 1889. On the 2nd March 1899, promoted to Lieut.-Colonel and took command of the 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment which he commanded for the duration of the Boer War 1899-1902. Took part in operations in Orange River Colony, including the action at Wittebergen. He was placed on retired pay from the army on the 2nd March 1903. Lieut.-Colonel Orbell Henry Oakes died in 1939 (age 87) at Nowton Court, Bury St. Edmunds. Lieut.-Colonel Orbell Henry Oakes and Laura had 8 children; Henry James Lionel (b. 1879), Orbell (b. 1880), Marion (b. 1882), Laura Eva (b. 1883), Gladys Mary (b. 1887), George Clifton (b. 1889), Vera Albinia (b. 1892) and Beryl Mignon (b. 1895). |
Lieut.-Colonel O. H. Oakes |
His elest son Henry James Lionel served with the 1st Battalion Duke of Wellington, as a Lieutenant, in the Boer War and was wounded. His second son Orbell was commissioned as a Lieutenant into the 6th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment in 1900 and with the 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment in WW1, killed in action on the 13th March 1915.