Leslie Rundle

Rundle was born on 6 January 1856 in Newton Abbot, Devon. He was the son of 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).{{cite web |title=Rundle, Sir (Henry Macleod) Leslie (1856–1934), army officer |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35870 |website=www.oxforddnb.com |publisher=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |access-date=24 February 2025 |language=en}}

File:General Sir (Henry Macleod) Leslie Rundle.jpg

Rundle was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1876.[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/RUNDLE.shtml Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives] He fought in the Zulu War in 1879, the First Boer War of 1881 and the Anglo-Egyptian War 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.{{Cite book|author=Winston Churchill.|title=The River War Volume II|year=1899 |page=462. Published Longmans. 1899|url=https://archive.org/details/1899RiverWarVol2/page/n495/mode/2up}} He led a column up the Blue Nile to relieve Gedaref the same year.[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35870 Leslie Rundle at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

Rundle became general officer commanding, South-Eastern District on 29 December 1898.{{cite web|url=http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201860-.pdf |title=Army Commands |accessdate=2 July 2016 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304112744/http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201860-.pdf |archivedate=March 4, 2016 }} He was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 3rd (East Kent Militia) Battalion, Buffs (East Kent Regiment) on 21 June 1899.Army List.

After the escalation of the Second Boer War in late 1899, Rundle was in January 1900 appointed to the command of the 8th Division of the South African Field Force, with the temporary and local rank of lieutenant general.{{London Gazette| issue=27156 |page=430 |date=23 January 1900}}{{London Gazette |issue=27175 |page=1880 |date=20 March 1900}} The appointment was described as "the most remarkable instance of advancement to high military office which has occurred in the recent history of [the] Army" by a contemporary issue of The Times.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Commander of the Eight Division|date=23 January 1900 |page=9 |issue=36046}} He left Southampton in the SS Moor in March 1900 with the staff of the 8th division and 600 men of militia regiments,{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The War in South Africa - Embarcation of Troops|date=12 March 1900 |page=7 |issue=36087}} 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.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The War – return of Officers |date=13 March 1902 |page=10 |issue=36714}} For his service in the war, he was mentioned in despatches (including by Lord Kitchener on 23 June 1902{{London Gazette |issue=27459 |date=29 July 1902 |pages=4835–4837}}) 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,{{London Gazette |issue=27306 |date=19 April 1901 |page=2698}} but he was only invested by King Edward VII after his return, at St James's Palace on 2 June 1902).{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The King´s Levee and Investiture |date=3 June 1902 |page=10 |issue=36784}}

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, stationed there.{{London Gazette|issue=27436|page=3384| date=23 May 1902}}

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 was promoted to general in September 1909.{{London Gazette|issue=28287|page=6814|date=10 September 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 of Dover on 29 October 1902, while living there as General Officer Commanding South-Eastern district.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Army - Sir Leslie Rundle at Dover|date=30 October 1902 |page=12 |issue=36912}} He was honorary treasurer of the Blue Cross Fund.{{cite news |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000033%2F19161117&page=7 |title=Blue Cross Fund |newspaper=The Birmingham Daily Post|date=November 17, 1916|page=7|url-access=subscription}}

File:Lady Rundle (née Eleanor Georgina Campbell).jpg at 'The Drawing Room' of 1 March 1899.]]

In 1887, Rundle married Eleanor Georgina Campbell, daughter of Captain H. J. M. Campbell, Royal Artillery, but they had no children.Who´s Who[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10995261?searchTerm=8th+Division+South+Africa Obituary: General Sir Leslie Rundle] The Argus, 21 November 1934

Rundle died on 19 November 1934.

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Category:1856 births

Category:1934 deaths

Category:Blue Cross workers

Category:British Army generals

Category:Military personnel from Devon

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 St Michael and St George

Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order

Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order

Category:Royal Artillery officers

Category:British Army personnel of the Anglo-Zulu War

Category:British military personnel of the First Boer War

Category:British Army personnel of the Mahdist War

Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War

Category:People from Newton Abbot

Category:Governors and governors-general of Malta