Henry Sclater

Henry Crichton Sclater, the third son of James Henry Sclater and Louisa Catherine Fowler, was born on 5 November 1855.{{cite news|author=Staff|title=General Sir H. C. Sclater|newspaper=The Times|location=London, UK|date=27 September 1923|page=13}} After being educated at Cheltenham, he went to the Royal Military Academy and was commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1875.{{cite web|url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/SCLATER.shtml |title=Sclater, Sir Henry Crichton|publisher= Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205230356/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/SCLATER.shtml|archive-date=5 February 2011 |url-status=dead}}

Sclater was a General Staff Officer and later Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at the Headquarters for the Nile expedition between 1884 and 1885. He was promoted to major on 15 June 1885, served in the Egyptian Frontier Field Force from 1885 to 1886 and was Deputy Assistant Adjutant General in Cairo from 1885 to 1890. Following his return to the United Kingdom, he was Brigade major of Royal Artillery, until in late 1899 he was reassigned following the outbreak of the Second Boer War.{{London Gazette|issue=27162|page=810|date=6 February 1900}}

He served as Assistant Adjutant General, Royal Artillery and Colonel on the General Staff of the Royal Artillery in South Africa (mentioned in despatches dated 31 March 1900).{{London Gazette|issue=27282|page=845|date=8 February 1901}} Following the end of the war, Lord Kitchener (Commander-in-Chief in South Africa) wrote in a despatch dated June 1902 how Sclater "possesses an unusual combination of ability and common sense. I consider him to be a Staff officer of exceptional value, to whom all ranks of the Royal Artillery in South Africa owe much."{{London Gazette |issue=27459 |date=29 July 1902 |pages=4835–4836 }} He returned home with the SS Kinfauns Castle leaving Cape Town in early August 1902, after the war had ended.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Army in South Africa - Return of Troops|date=14 August 1902 |page=8 |issue=36846}} In recognition of services during the war, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the South Africa honours list published on 26 June 1902,{{London Gazette |issue= 27448 |supp=y |page=4191 |date= 26 June 1902 }} and he received the actual decoration from King Edward VII after his return, during an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular |date=25 October 1902 |page=8 |issue=36908}}

In September 1902, Sclater accompanied Lord Roberts, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, and St John Brodrick, Secretary of State for War, on a visit to Germany to attend the German army maneuvers as guest of the Emperor Wilhelm.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The German maneuvers|date=5 September 1902 |page=6 |issue=36865}} The following month, he was back as a regular regimental officer in the Royal Artillery,{{London Gazette|issue=27487|page=6737|date=24 October 1902}} but in early November 1902 he was again appointed a staff officer as Deputy Director-General of Ordnance, with the substantive rank of colonel in the army.{{London Gazette |issue=27494 |date=11 November 1902 |page=7168 }} The Army Ordnance Department was responsible for supply of weapons and military equipment. He was Director of Artillery at the War Office from 1903 to 1904 when he became Quartermaster General for India. In 1908 he was appointed commander of Quetta Division in India.

He served in World War I as Adjutant-General to the Forces and a Member of Army Council from 1914 to 1916: in this capacity he was responsible for the expansion of the Army in 1914.{{cite book|author=Peter Simkins|title=Kitchener's Army: The Raising of the New Armies, 1914-16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAgNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA37|year=1988|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-2638-6|page=37}} He served as general officer commanding-in-chief for Southern Command from March 1916, taking over from Lieutenant General William Pitcairn Campbell,{{London Gazette|issue=29638|page=6307|date=23 June 1916|supp=y}} to 1919, the year he was promoted to general,{{London Gazette|issue=31395|page=7426|date=6 June 1919}} and retired from the army in 1922, dying the following year.

On 12 June 1884 Sclater married Edith Barttelot. They had no children.

Sclater died on 26 September 1923, and was survived by his wife, Dame Edith Sclater.[http://www.thepeerage.com/p13481.htm Henry Crichton Sclater profile], ThePeerage.com; accessed 20 March 2016.

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Category:1855 births

Category:1923 deaths

Category:British Army generals

Category:British Army generals of World War I

Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Royal Artillery officers

Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War

Category:British Army personnel of the Mahdist War

Category:Place of birth missing

Category:Place of death missing