Nicoll was involved in numerous areas of public life, and he was awarded for being so. He was the Sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1849, and became captain of the 29th North Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps in 1864. He was appointed Commissioner for the City of London to the 1867 Paris Exhibition, receiving a medal and an honourable mention for an exhibit showing the properties of bitumen as an insulating material. The 1872 Moscow Exhibition and 1873 Vienna Exhibition also awarded him medals.