Henry Bond (British Army officer)

{{Infobox cricketer

| name =

| image =

| country = Ireland

| fullname = Henry Hendley Bond

| birth_date = 13 June 1873

| birth_place =

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1919|11|10|1873|6|13}}

| death_place = Glasnevin, Ireland

| nickname =

| family =

| batting = Unknown

| bowling = Unknown

| role =

| club1 = Europeans (India)

| year1 = 1898/99–1900/01

| columns = 1

| column1 = First-class

| matches1 = 5

| runs1 = 107

| bat avg1 = 15.28

| 100s/50s1 = –/–

| top score1 = 41

| deliveries1 = 30

| wickets1 = 0

| bowl avg1 = –

| fivefor1 = –

| tenfor1 = –

| best bowling1 = –

| catches/stumpings1 = 3/–

| date = 18 December

| year = 2018

| source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/ireland/content/player/27055.html ESPNcricinfo

}}

Brigadier-General Henry Hendley Bond {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DSO}} (13 June 1873 – 10 November 1919) was an Irish first-class cricketer and British Army general. He came from a military family{{snd}}his father was Major-General Henry Bond{{snd}}and attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Artillery and served in India, England, Ireland and during the Second Boer War. During his time in India he played first-class cricket for the Europeans cricket team. He was later a gunnery instructor and a champion racquets player.

Upon the outbreak of the First World War he was recalled to field service and commanded the 17th Battery of the Royal Field Artillery during the Battle of Mons, for which he was mentioned in dispatches by Field Marshal French. Bond later served with the British forces at Salonica and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, brevet colonel and temporary brigadier-general. Bond received the Distinguished Service Order and was appointed as commander of the Order of the Crown of Romania for his service. Towards the end of the war he began to suffer from a degenerative neurological condition and died in Dublin in 1919.

Early life

According to some sources, Bond was born at Ahmedabad in British India on 13 June 1873,{{cite book |last1=Renshaw |first1=Andrew |title=Wisden on the Great War: The Lives of Cricket's Fallen 1914–1918 |date=8 May 2014 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1408832363 |page=462 |language=en}} but the registration of his birth indicates he was born in Ballymahon, County Longford.[https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1873/03183/2167087.pdf irishgenealogy.ie] He was the son of Major General Henry Bond and his wife Mary Earbery Bond (née Hendley). Both of his parents were born in Ireland.

He was educated in England at Wellington College. Bond later attended the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich as a gentleman cadet and played in the academy's cricket team (including matches against the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1891 and 1892).{{cite book |last1=Mockler-Fennyman |first1=A F |title=Annals of Sanhurst |date=1900 |publisher=William Heinemann |location=London |pages=135–7 |url=http://www.sandhurstcollection.co.uk/resources/annalsofsandhurs00mockrich.pdf |access-date=24 December 2018}}

Military career

After graduation Bond entered the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant on 22 July 1892.{{London Gazette |issue=26315|date=9 August 1892 |page=4493}}{{cite book |last1=White |first1=Gerry |title=A Great Sacrifice: Cork Servicemen who died in the Great War |date=2010 |publisher=Echo Publications |isbn=978-0956244314 |page=500 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Army |first1=Great Britain |title=The Monthly Army List |date=1892 |publisher=H.M. Stationery Office |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rE1EAQAAIAAJ |language=en}} He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in August 1895.{{London Gazette |issue=26650|date=6 August 1895 |page=4432}} He was posted to British India in 1898, where he debuted in first-class cricket for the Europeans in the 1898/99 Bombay Presidency tournament against the Parsees at Bombay Gymkhana.{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/13/13005/First-Class_Matches.html |title=First-Class Matches played by Henry Bond |publisher=CricketArchive |access-date=20 December 2018|url-access=subscription}} He made a further four first-class appearances for the Europeans, all against the Parsees, up to 1900. Across his five matches, he scored a total of 107 runs at an average of 15.28, with a high score of 41.{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/13/13005/f_Batting_by_Team.html |title=First-class Batting and Fielding For Each Team by Henry Bond |publisher=CricketArchive |access-date=20 December 2018|url-access=subscription}}

Bond was promoted to the rank of captain on 6 April 1900.{{London Gazette |issue=27192|date=15 May 1900|page=3071}} In 1902 he was serving with 136 Battery at Woolwich under the command of a Major Elton.{{cite book |last1=Hart |first1=H. G. |title=Annual Army List |date=1902 |pages=172, 189a |language=en}} Later that year, he served in the closing stages of the Second Boer War.{{cite book |last1=Hart |first1=H. G. |title=Annual Army List, Militia List and Yeomanry Cavalry List (London, 1908) |date=1908 |page=203c |language=en}} Bond was seconded to the Colonial Office on 9 July 1904 and did not return to regular army service until 25 August 1907.{{London Gazette |issue=27697|date=19 July 1904|page=4676}}{{London Gazette |issue=28056|date=3 September 1907|page=6020}} He was attached to the Royal Artillery's 15th Battery at Dundalk, Ireland in 1908, which was then attached to the Sierra Leone Battalion.{{cite book |last1=Hart |first1=H. G. |title=Annual Army List, Militia List and Yeomanry Cavalry List (London, 1908) |date=1908 |page=189a |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Hart |first1=H. G. |title=Annual Army List, Militia List and Yeomanry Cavalry List (London, 1908) |date=1908 |page=171 |language=en}} He was appointed unit adjutant on 23 April 1908 and promoted to the rank of major on 10 October 1909.{{London Gazette |issue=28136|date=12 May 1908|page=3482}}{{London Gazette |issue=28298|date=19 October 1909|page=7661}} Bond was seconded to the general staff on 1 April 1911 as a gunnery instructor.{{London Gazette |issue=28482|date=4 April 1911|page=2702}}{{London Gazette |issue=28482|date=4 April 1911|page=2701}} In the Irish Census of 1911 he is listed as living with his mother and sisters in Castlelyons, County Cork.{{cite web |title=Residents of a house 10 in Kill St. Anne South (Castlelyons, Cork) |url=http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cork/Castlelyons/Kill_St__Anne_South/412231/ |website=National Archives: Census of Ireland 1911 |access-date=23 December 2018}} In August 1911 he was chief umpire of a field artillery competition arranged by the National Artillery Association on Salisbury Plain. He declared the winner of the King's Prize for Field Artillery to be the 7th London Battery, who beat ten other units.{{cite news |title=King's Prize for Gunners |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/london-standard-aug-29-1911-p-4/ |access-date=24 December 2018 |work=London Standard |date=29 August 1911}} In 1912 he played racquets for the Royal Artillery against the Royal Engineers in an annual match that was won by the engineers.{{cite news |title=Racquets |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/258816933/ |access-date=24 December 2018 |work=London Observer |date=24 March 1912}} At one stage he was the army racquets champion.{{cite news |title=Honoured Sportsmen |url=https://www.illustratedfirstworldwar.com/item/honoured-sportsmen-bpc000004_19150227_01_0021/ |access-date=24 December 2018 |work=Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News |issue=2163|volume= 82 |date=27 February 1915|page=736}} By April 1914 he was the gunnery instructor at Larkhill Camp.{{cite news |title=Artillery Practice |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/london-standard-apr-21-1914-p-4/ |access-date=24 December 2018 |work=London Standard |date=21 April 1914}}

First World War and death

Bond returned to general service (from his staff/instructor position) on 5 August 1914, after the outbreak of the First World War.{{London Gazette |issue=28884|date=28 August 1914|page=6880|supp=y}} On 20 November he was mentioned in dispatches by Field Marshal Sir John French, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), for his service during the Battle of Mons as commander of the 17th Battery of Royal Field Artillery.{{cite book |last1=French |first1=John |title=Complete Despatches of Lord French 1914–1916 |date=2012 |publisher=Andrews UK Limited |isbn=9781781504130 |page=146 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R2W-BAAAQBAJ |access-date=24 December 2018 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Wyrall |first1=Everard |title=The History of the Second Division 1914-1918 - Volume 1 |date=2013 |publisher=Andrews UK Limited |isbn=9781781506271 |page=330 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r2--BAAAQBAJ |access-date=24 December 2018 |language=en}} He served in the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel from 21 December 1914 to 4 January 1915.{{London Gazette |issue=29243|date=27 July 1915|page=7416|supp=y}} Bond returned to the general staff on 27 February 1915 and was appointed a 2nd grade staff officer on 4 April 1915 when he became a brigade major.{{London Gazette |issue=29281|date=31 August 1915|page=8701|supp=y}}{{London Gazette |issue=29140|date=23 April 1915|page=3946}}{{London Gazette |issue=29272|date=20 August 1915|page=8374|supp=y}} He returned to his unit on 21 July 1915 and served with the British force at Salonica.{{London Gazette |issue=29304|date=21 September 1915|page=9326}} Bond was again granted the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel from 22 August, before receiving promotion to the permanent rank on 11 September.{{London Gazette |issue=29491|date=25 February 1916|page=2197}}{{London Gazette |issue=29409|date=21 December 1915|page=12687}} He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in the 1917 New Year Honours and promoted to brevet colonel on 4 June 1917.{{Edinburgh Gazette |issue=13033|date=1 January 1917 |page=20|city=Edinburgh}}

Soon after this, his health began to deteriorate due to a degenerative neurological condition. He suffered with the disease for eighteen months, before dying at Glasnevin in Dublin on 10 November 1919, at which point he held the temporary rank of brigadier general. When his death was registered, the cause of death was given as "general paralysis of the insane".[https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1919/05137/4415420.pdf irishgenealogy.ie] Two months prior to his death, he had been appointed a commander of the Order of the Crown of Romania.{{Edinburgh Gazette |issue=13504|date=24 September 1919 |page=3127|city=Edinburgh}} He was buried in the churchyard near his family's home at Castlelyons, County Cork.