Redvers Buller
General Sir Redvers Henry Buller,, was a British Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He served as Commander-in-Chief of British Forces in South Africa during the early months of the Second Boer War and subsequently commanded the army in Natal until his return to England in November 1900.
Origins
Buller was the second son and eventual heir of James Wentworth Buller, MP for Exeter, by his wife Charlotte Juliana Jane Howard-Molyneux-Howard, third daughter of Lord Henry Howard-Molyneux-Howard, Deputy Earl Marshal and younger brother of Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk. Redvers Buller was born on 7 December 1839 at the family estate of Downes, near Crediton in Devon, inherited by his great-grandfather James Buller from his mother Elizabeth Gould, the wife of James Buller MP.The Bullers were an old Cornish family, long seated at Morval in Cornwall until their removal to Downes. The family estates, including Downes, inherited in 1874 by Redvers Buller from his unmarried elder brother James Howard Buller included of Devon and of Cornwall, which in 1876 produced an income of £14,137 a year.
Early career
After education at Eton, he purchased a commission in the 60th Rifles in May 1858. He served in the Second Opium War and was promoted captain before taking part in the Canadian Red River Expedition of 1870. In 1873–74, he was the intelligence officer under Lord Wolseley during the Ashanti campaign, during which he was slightly wounded at the Battle of Ordabai. He was promoted to major and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.Zulu War and Victoria Cross
He then served in South Africa during the 9th Cape Frontier War in 1878 and the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. In the Zulu War he commanded the mounted infantry of the northern British column under Sir Evelyn Wood. In March 1879 the column met defeat at the Battle of Hlobane. Buller was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery during this battle.The following day he participated in the British victory at the Battle of Kambula. After the Zulu attacks on the British position were beaten off, he led his mounted troops in a ruthless pursuit of fleeing Zulu fighters. In June 1879, he again commanded mounted troops at the Battle of Ulundi, the Zulu capital. This decisive British victory effectively ended the war.
His VC citation, for actions taken during the Battle of Hlobane, reads:
In an interview to The Register newspaper of Adelaide, South Australia, dated 2 June 1917, Trooper George Ashby of the Frontier Light Horse attached to the 24th Regiment gave an account of his rescue by Col. Buller:
First Boer War, Sudan and Ireland
In the First Boer War of 1881 he was Sir Evelyn Wood's chief of staff and the following year was again head of intelligence, this time in the Anglo-Egyptian War, and was knighted.He had married Audrey, the daughter of John Townshend, 4th Marquess Townshend, in 1882 and in the same year was sent to the Sudan in command of an infantry brigade and fought at the battles of El Teb and Tamai, and the Nile Expedition to relieve General Gordon in 1885. He was promoted to major-general. He was sent to Ireland in 1886, to head an inquiry into moonlighting by police personnel. He returned to the Army as Quartermaster-General to the Forces the following year and in 1890 promoted to Adjutant-General to the Forces, becoming a Lieutenant general on 1 April 1891. He was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 1st (Exeter and South Devon) Volunteer Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, on 4 May 1892. Although expected to be made Commander-in-Chief of the Forces by Lord Rosebery's government on the retirement of the Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, in 1895, this did not happen because the government was replaced and Lord Wolseley was appointed Commander-in-Chief instead. On 24 June 1896 Buller was promoted to full General.
Second Boer War and sacking
Buller became head of the troops stationed at Aldershot in 1898. He was sent as commander of the Natal Field Force in 1899 on the outbreak of the Second Boer War. On seeing the list of troops which would make up his Corps Buller is said to have remarked "well, if I can't win with these, I ought to be kicked." By early September 1899 he had serious thoughts that the Boers could not easily be browbeaten, and that George White's forces in Natal might receive some punishment if they deployed too far forward. He arrived at the end of October. He was defeated at the Battle of Colenso, during what was later to become known as Black Week. Defeats at the Battle of Magersfontein and Battle of Stormberg also involved forces under his command. Because of concerns about his performance and negative reports from the field he was replaced in January 1900 as overall commander in South Africa by Lord Roberts. Defeats and questionable ability as commander soon earned him the nickname "Reverse Buller" among troops. He remained as second-in-command and suffered two more setbacks in his attempts to relieve Ladysmith at the battles of Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz. On his fourth attempt, Buller was victorious in the Battle of the Tugela Heights, lifting the siege on 28 February 1900, the day after Piet Cronje at last surrendered to Roberts at Paardeberg. After Roberts took Bloemfontein, Buller correctly predicted that the Boers would take to guerrilla warfare. Later he was successful in flanking Boer armies out of positions at Biggarsberg, Laing's Nek and Lydenburg. It was Buller's veterans who won the Battle of Bergendal in the war's last set-piece action.Buller was also popular as a military leader amongst the public in England, and he had a triumphal return from South Africa with many public celebrations, including those on 10 November 1900 when he went to Aldershot to resume his role as General Officer Commanding Aldershot District, later to be remembered as "a Buller day". He spent the following months giving lectures and speeches on the war, was promoted to a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in November 1900, and received the Honorary Freedom of the Borough of Plymouth in April 1901. However, his reputation had been damaged by his early reverses in South Africa, especially within the Unionist government. When public disquiet emerged over the continuing guerrilla activities by the defeated Boers, the Secretary of State for War, St. John Brodrick, and Lord Roberts sought a scapegoat. The opportunity was provided by the numerous attacks in the newspapers on the performance of the British Army. The matter came to a head when a virulent piece written by The Times journalist Leo Amery was publicly answered by Buller in a speech on 10 October 1901. Brodrick and Roberts saw their opportunity to pounce and, summoning Buller to an interview on 17 October, Brodrick, with Roberts in support, demanded his resignation on the grounds of breaching military discipline. Buller refused and was summarily dismissed on half pay on 22 October. His request for a court martial was refused, as was his request to appeal to the King.
Later life
There were many public expressions of sympathy for Buller, especially in the West Country, where in 1905 by public subscription a notable statue by Adrian Jones of Buller astride his war horse was erected in Exeter on the road from his home town of Crediton.He received the Honorary Freedom of the borough of Blandford on 1 December 1902.
Buller described himself as a Whig and a Liberal Unionist, but declined a number of offers, from both sides, to stand for Parliament at the 1906 election. Buller continued his quiet retirement, until on 29 May 1907 he accepted the post of Principal Warden of the Goldsmiths' Company which he held until his death in 1908.
Marriage and offspring
In 1882, aged 43, he married Lady Audrey Jane Charlotte Townshend, widow of Greville Howard, by whom she had issue, and daughter of John Townshend, 4th Marquess Townshend, by his wife Elizabeth Jane Crichton-Stuart, daughter of Lord George Stuart, younger son of John Crichton-Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute.Sir Redvers and Lady Audrey had one daughter, Georgiana Buller. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross and made a Dame Commander, Order of the British Empire, of Bellair House, Exeter. She served as an administrator of the War Hospitals in Exeter during World War I and died unmarried in 1953.
Death, burial and succession
Buller died on 2 June 1908, at the family seat, Downes House, Crediton, Devon, and is buried in the churchyard of Holy Cross Church in Crediton. The entire western side of the chancel arch inside the church forms an elaborate monument to Sir Redvers.As he died without male progeny he was succeeded in the family estates by his next surviving younger brother Arthur Tremayne Buller, his father's fifth son.