Thomas Edgecumbe Hickman

Who was Thomas Edgecumbe Hickman?

Thomas Edgecumbe Hickman DSO was a British army officer and Conservative Party politician.

Hickman was one of sixteen children of Sir Alfred Hickman, industrialist and member of parliament for Wolverhampton West. Educated at Cheltenham School, in 1881 he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 36th Regiment of Foot, which became the 2nd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment in July of the same year. From 1884 to 1894 and again from 1896 to 1900 he was attached to the Egyptian Army, serving in the Camel Corps during the Mahdist War. He was awarded the Osminieh Order and Order of the Medjidie by the Khedive of Egypt, and made a companion of the Distinguished Service Order. He also served in the Second Anglo-Boer War, and he remained in South Africa until 1908. He was placed on half-pay on return to the United Kingdom, and officially retired from the army with the rank of brigadier-general in April 1914.

Hickman entered politics, and was elected as Conservative member of parliament for Wolverhampton South at the general election of January 1910. He held the seat until its abolition at the 1918 general election.