Norman Tom Nickalls

Norman Tom Nickalls was the son of Tom Nickalls of Patterson Court, Redhill, Surrey. He was commissioned in the 17th Lancers from the Militia on 11 August 1886. He served in the South African War (1901-2), but by August 1914 a somewhat ordinary military career found him in the rank of full colonel commanding the York Brigade of Mounted Infantry.

On 31 August 1915 he was given command of a New Army formation, 63rd Brigade, 21st Division. At 51 he was elderly for a brigade commander. His command lasted only twenty-six days.

The ill-prepared and inexperienced 21st Division was thrown into the battle of Loos on 26 September in controversial and chaotic circumstances. Brigadier-General Nickalls appears to have been wounded near the Chalk Pit. He was posted missing and his body was never recovered.

He is commemorated on the Loos Memorial to the Missing. He was the tenth British general to be killed in action or to die of wounds on the Western Front.