The Irish Bomfords

Obituary (Daily Telegraph?) ...mber 20 1957

MAJ.-GEN. H.H.A. EMERSON

THE R.A.M.C. AT HOME AND ABROAD

Major-General H. H .A. Emerson C.B., DSO.? who died on Sunday at the age of 76, was Director of Hygiene, War Office, from 1935 to 1939. The son of R. H. M. Emerson, Henry Horace Andrews Emerson was born on September 14 1881, and was educated at Rathmines School, Dublin, where he became captain of the School. Crossing over the road to Trinity College, he graduated in Arts and Medicine and was elected captain of the University Boat Club. At Trinity he gained the Stewart Scholarship in Anatomy and Physiology.

Gazetted to a commission in the R. A. M. C., Emerson was placed on the roster for foreign service, and in due course embarked for the East, but returned home in time for the Great War of 1914-18. In 1915 he left for the Western Front, serving in Flanders and France in command of a casualty clearing station; he commanded it with outstanding merit and success, and was rewarded with the D.S.O. and Croix de Guerre. He was three times mentioned in dispatches.

In 1928 Emerson left for India on appointment to a Deputy Directorship of Hygiene and Pathology at Army Headquarters. He had recently been made a brevet lieutenant-colonel, an advancement which ensured his reaching the higher ranks in the medical service. He was promoted to substantive colonel in 1934 and became Director of Hygiene, War Office, in the following year. He retired in 1939, in which year he was appointed C.B.

Emerson possessed many sterling qualities of heart and mind. Conscientious, trustful, hardworking and a "go-getter" himself, he expected like qualities in others. He was quick in sizing up the character and capabilities of his officers, and recognized merit where it was due, and so created contentment and received loyalty in return." 

(Richard Emerson email 3 June 2008)