Redvers Buller - First Boer War, Sudan and Ireland

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 Egypt campaign, and was knighted.

He had married Audrey, the daughter of the 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 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 in 1891. Although expected to be made Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the British Army by Lord Rosebery's government on the retirement of the Duke of Cambridge in 1895 this did not happen because the government was replaced and Lord Wolseley appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army instead.