Distinguished Service Order : Major A E Perkins, New South Wales Medical Corps Accession Number: REL/18064.001

Description

Distinguished Service Order. Unnamed as issued.

Contextual Description

Awarded to Major Alfred Edward Perkins of the New South Wales Medical Corps. Perkins was born in Penrith in 1863 and studied medicine at the University of Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine in 1888. In 1895 Perkins was made an honorary Surgeon Lieutenant in the New South Wales Medical Staff Corps. Perkins was promoted to captain and chosen to serve in the first contingent of the New South Wales Medical Corps sent to South Africa, as second in command of the half bearer company being sent.

Arriving in South Africa in late November 1899, Perkins saw action in some of the early stage of the war's key battles, such as Paardeberg, Poplar Grove and Diamond Hill. At Doornkop on the night of 28/29 May 1900 Perkins worked tirelessly bringing in the wounded from the battle that occured there on the way to capturing Johannesburg.

On 9 September Perkins departed Skeerpoort, forty miles west of Pretoria, commanding a group of seven men of the New South Wales Medical Corps, six native drivers and three wagons. The following day the group was attacked and captured at Bull Hoek. They were taken to Rustenberg where Perkins pleeded with their captors to release them on the grounds they are non-combatants and protected by the Geneva Convention. Eventually he would speak to Boer General's Koos de la Rey and Jan Smuts, who agreed to release them after just under a week of captivity.

For his service in South Africa Perkins was promoted to Major and awarded the Distinguished Service Order and a Mention in Despatches. After the war he continued to serve in the Australian Army Medical Corps reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Perkins still worked as a doctor and in 1903 was made a Serving Brother (Member) of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.