General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

Sir Henry Macleod Leslie Rundle, (6 January 1856 – 19 November 1934) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

general during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

and the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Military career

Born in

Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the So ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, to Captain Joseph Sparkhall Rundle, a Royal Navy officer, and his wife Renira Cathrine (née Leslie, who was the daughter of Commander W. W. Leslie of the Royal Navy), Leslie Rundle was commissioned into the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

in 1876.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> He fought in the

Zulu War The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Following the passing of the British North America Act of 1867 forming a federation in Canada, Lord Carnarvon thought that a similar political effort, coup ...

in 1879, the

First Boer War The First Boer War ( af, Eerste Vryheidsoorlog, literally "First Freedom War"), 1880–1881, also known as the First Anglo–Boer War, the Transvaal War or the Transvaal Rebellion, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 betwee ...

of 1881 and the

Anglo-Egyptian War The British conquest of Egypt (1882), also known as Anglo-Egyptian War (), occurred in 1882 between Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed ‘Urabi and the United Kingdom. It ended a nationalist uprising against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha. It ...

of 1882. He was involved in the Nile expedition between 1884 and 1885 and served in the Sudan Frontier Field Force from 1885 to 1887. For service in the Khartoum expedition of 1898 he was promoted to Major-General for distinguished conduct in the field. He led a column up the

Blue Nile The Blue Nile (; ) is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the water to ...

to relieve Gedaref the same year.Leslie Rundle at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> Rundle became General Officer Commanding South-Eastern District on 29 December 1898. He was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 3rd (East Kent Militia) Battalion, Buffs (East Kent Regiment) on 21 June 1899. After the escalation of the

in late 1899, Rundle was in January 1900 appointed to the command of the

8th Division 8th Division, 8th Infantry Division or 8th Armored Division may refer to: Infantry divisions * 8th Division (Australia) * 8th Canadian Infantry Division * 8th Air Division (People's Republic of China) * 8th Division (1st Formation) (People's Repu ...

of the South African Field Force, with the temporary and local rank of

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

. The appointment was described as "the most remarkable instance of advancement to high military office which has occurred in the recent history of heArmy" by a contemporary issue of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

''. He left

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

in the SS ''Moor'' in March 1900 with the staff of the 8th division and 600 men of militia regiments, and arrived in Cape Town the following month. He served as commander until early March 1902, when he returned to the United Kingdom on board the SS ''Carisbrook Castle''. For his service in the war, he was mentioned in despatches (including by Lord Kitchener on 23 June 1902) and appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) (the award was dated 29 November 1900 in the gazette, but he was only invested by King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

after his return, at St James's Palace on 2 June 1902). Following his return, he was in May 1902 back as General Officer Commanding South-Eastern District, based in Dover, and was on 14 May 1902 appointed in command of the

5th Division In military terms, 5th Division may refer to: Infantry divisions * 5th Division (Australia) *5th Division (People's Republic of China) * 5th Division (Colombia) *Finnish 5th Division (Continuation War) * 5th Light Cavalry Division (France) *5th Mo ...

, stationed there. He became General Officer Commanding North Eastern District in November 1903, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Northern Command in 1905 and Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta in 1909. He went on to be General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Command in 1915 and retired in 1916. Rundle was presented with the

Freedom of the borough The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...

of Dover on 29 October 1902, while living there as General Officer Commanding South-Eastern district.

Family

Rundle married in 1887 Eleanor Georgina Campbell, daughter of Captain H. J. M. Campbell, Royal Artillery, but they had no children.Obituary: General Sir Leslie Rundle
The Argus, 21 November 1934

References

, - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Rundle, Leslie 1856 births 1934 deaths Military personnel from Devon British Army generals of World War I Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Royal Artillery officers British Army personnel of the Anglo-Zulu War British military personnel of the First Boer War British Army personnel of the Mahdist War British Army personnel of the Second Boer War People from Newton Abbot Governors and Governors-General of Malta