General Sir Bindon Blood GCB GCVO
(1842-1940)

For the next ten years Bindon Blood was stationed mostly at Chatham and at Aldershot. A young R.E. officer's military education was then, apart from barrack-square drill, purely technical. The reason for this was that, at that time, no officers of Royal Engineers were employed as general officers in command or on the staff of the Army except in India.

In his autobiography, Fourscore Years and Ten, he relates some interesting events of that period viz:

• In 1865, he first met " Chinese Gordon," who had just returned from his successful campaign in China with his "Ever Victorious Army."



• In 1868, H.R.H. The Duke of Connaught honoured the Corps by starting his career as a commissioned officer in the Royal Engineers.



• At Chatham Lieut. Blood saw a man, who had been dismissed with ignominy, drummed out of the ranks, and he had, at Aldershot, to witness the unpleasant spectacle of a punishment of fifty lashes inflicted on a soldier.



• He was also at Aldershot when two officers of the 17th Lancers, who had been discussing Alken's famous coloured prints known as "The First Steeple-chase on Record" challenged each other to a match to be ridden under similar conditions. This episode finished with a severe wigging for the officers concerned by H.R.H. The Duke of Cambridge, who was Colonel of the Regiment.

While taking a keen part in all pastimes and sports, the young officer worked hard and earnestly at his profession. At Chatham in 1867 he submitted a design for a new pattern of pontoon bridge which was approved and finally adopted in 1870.

(More about pontoon can be seen at Blood's Pontoon 1870-1889)

In the autumn of 1871 Bindon Blood was posted to the Bengal Sappers and Miners at Roorkee which had been the headquarters of the Corps since 1854. Situated on the banks of the Ganges Canal, about 20 miles S.W. of Hurdwar, it was an ideal training ground. Sport, too, has always been good there and, in the 1870's, tigers were numerous in the jungles within 20 miles, leopards sometimes came actually into cantonments, and duck and snipe abounded in the Kadir of the Ganges. To a subaltern keen on his profession, a good rider and a first-class shot with gun and rifle, life must have seemed ideal. A polo club was started at Roorkee in 1873 ponies then measured thirteen hands or under and could be bought for ten or fifteen pounds. Wild boar were abundant in the Kadir and pig- sticking became a popular form of sport, Bindon Blood being one of the hardest riders. Incidentally he broke a collar-bone and three ribs after a pig in 1874. He shot his first tiger near Roorkee and in later years increased the tale to over fifty.

He was promoted Captain in 1873 and the next few years were full of incident. In the winter of 1875 he had the honour of being introduced to H.R.H. The Prince of Wales during the Royal visit to India, and he was in command of a large detachment of the Bengal Sappers and Miners, which formed part of the Imperial Assemblage held at Delhi, when Her Majesty Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India on January 1st, 1877. It was here that he first met Maharajah Sir Pertab Singh of Idar with whom he formed a life-long friendship.

It was not until his eighteenth year in the Army that he saw his first active service when he commanded two companies of Sappers and Miners which formed part of a punitive expedition against the Jowaki Afridis, a small tribe which inhabited a triangular area east of the Kohat Pass. It was only a small affair but the medal which he earned for it was the first of the many war medals which he was destined to wear.

His first tour of Indian service came to an end in August 1878 and he was posted to Chatham. His time in India had been full of work and sport but he had always found leisure for serious military study, and he realized from the first how supremely important it is to know your men. It was this characteristic which contributed so much to his success as a commander and he retained until the end this ability to earn, not only the respect and admiration, but also the affection of those who served under him, whatever their rank.

It was not long before Bindon Blood again saw active service, for the Zulu War broke out early in 1879. The campaign began most inauspiciously and the British troops under Lord Chelmsford met with a severe reverse at Isandhlwana on January 20th. By the end of April large reinforcements had arrived from England and Bindon Blood accompanied them as second in command of 30 Field Company RE. After spending some time at Durban he was appointed C.R.E. of the 1st Division: this formation took no part in the fighting, but remained at the mouth of the Tugela River for three months, where it suffered severely from sickness due to the very unhealthy nature of the country.

Bindon Blood devotes four chapters of his book Fourscore Years and Ten to a description of this campaign and to constructive criticism of the numerous mistakes that were made in its prosecution. Considering the period which elapsed between the year of the Zulu War and the time when Sir Bindon wrote his book, one is struck not only by his amazing memory for detail but also by his critical faculty and his ability to point a moral. For his services in the Zulu campaign Captain Blood received a Brevet Majority.

Hardly had he returned to England at the end of 1879 when he found orders awaiting him to join Sir Frederick Roberts' force at Kabul where he arrived in March 1880, that is, some seventeen months after the Second Afghan War had broken out. Major Blood was unlucky in not taking part in any of the more spectacular phases of this campaign, but he found plenty of work for the R.E. under his command at Kabul. Following Wellington's example at Torres Vedras, he also found time to import a few couple of hounds from Peshawar with which he ran a drag-hunt. In the meantime, events in Southern Afghanistan had shifted the centre of military operations from Kabul to Kandahar. As Northern Afghanistan was considered to have been pacified, Abd-ur-Rahman was placed on the throne at Kabul and was invested with full powers as Amir of Afghanistan. The British forces there, their task having been completed, were consequently ordered back from Kabul to India. Major Blood accordingly left Kabul with his two companies of Sappers and Miners on August 7th, taking the Jelalabad route in company with a small column of all arms of which he took command; on reaching Peshawar, he picked up another two Sapper companies and eventually reached Roorkee in September 1880.

Colonel E. T. Thackeray, V.C., was then Commandant of the Corps; but, during his absence on sick leave, Major Blood officiated in command, and was soon hard at work on the reorganization of the Bengal Sappers and Miners in friendly consultation with the other two Corps in Madras and Bombay.

In the spring of 1882 he left India for England and was posted to the 26th Field Company RE at Shorncliffe. It was not long, however, before he was again on active service when he and his company was deployed with the 1882 Egyptian Expepition. The company was attached to the 2nd Division of this force and served most of the time with the 3rd Brigade under Sir A. Alison. On landing at Alexandria on August 15th, Sir Garnet Wolseley realized that an immediate advance from that place on Cairo was impracticable, owing to Arabi's strong position at Kafr Dawar, ten miles east of Alexandria ; he therefore moved his force and his base of operations to Ismailia. Pushing forward thence along the Sweetwater Canal he occupied Kassassin on August 26th. Arabi then fell back on his Tel-el-Kebir entrenchments, where he had a force of about 25,000 men and 60 guns.

The British force attacked Tel-el- Kebir with complete success at daylight on September 13th. In this battle Major Blood's Sappers were with the infantry reserve. After the action, in which it took an active part, the 26th Company was sent to Benka, 30 miles west of Tel-el-Kebir, where a force was formed to deal with any enemy move from Kafr Dawar. The Egyptians there surrendered shortly afterwards and Major Blood and his Company were sent to Cairo, where they stayed, doing useful work, until he was transferred to England in May 1883. For his services in this campaign Major Blood was promoted Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel.

On the 12th July 1883, Lieut.-Colonel Blood married Miss Charlotte Colvin, daughter of Sir Auckland Colvin of the Indian Civil Service, an ideally happy partnership which remained unbroken for 57 years.

Lieut.-Colonel Blood's thoughts now turned again to India; and in 1885 he became Commandant of the Bengal Sappers and Miners at Roorkee, an appointment which he held for the next seven years. During this time he put the finishing touches to the reorganization of the Corps and, aided by a picked band of officers - Aylmer, Barton, Leach, Buston, Heath, Bond, among others - he brought the Bengal Sappers to a high standard of efficiency. Menssana in corpore sato was his watchword and a judicious mixture of work and sport made life very pleasant for the British officers and other ranks under his command. The Indian ranks idolized him as one who knew and understood them, and whom they recognized as a fine soldier, a slayer of tigers and a thorough sportsman. His popularity was shared to the full by his wife, who contributed in no small measure to the success of the various commands which he exercised. The outstanding service which he had rendered whilst in command of the Bengal Sappers and Miners was recognized many years later by his being appointed their Colonel in March 1918, in succession to General Sir Edward T. Thackeray, V.C., K.C.B.

In 1894 he was appointed Colonel on the Staff at Rawalpindi and in March of the following year he became Chief Staff Officer to Major-General Sir Robert Low, who had been appointed to command the Chitral Relief Force.

Colonel Blood's selection for this important field service appointment was a singular proof of the high esteem in which his military qualities were held at the time. Chitral was a small hill state at the head of the Kunar Valley, situated about 140 miles north of Nowshera, which became the base of operations of the Relief Force. Its ruler, the Mehtar Sher Afzal, aided by a freebooter named Umra Khan, had laid siege to a fort near Chitral village which was garrisoned by Indian troops under the command of a few British officers. The Relief Force had been organized to invade Chitral and relieve the besieged garrison.

The first obstacle to be surmounted was the Malakand Pass, 40 miles north of Nowshera, which was strongly held by Umra Khan's tribesmen, the forcing of which seemed likely to prove to be a difficult task. But the dispositions made for its attack, which included close support by mountain artillery, were so successful that the Pass was carried, after a six-hour fight, on April 3rd 1895. A great piece of luck was the discovery of an old Buddhist road over the Pass, which was quickly put in order by the Sappers and expedited the passage of the Force over the Pass. During the subsequent advance the Swat and Panjkora rivers, snow-fed and unfordable, were bridged, the former by Major Barton and the latter by Major Aylmer, who had won the Victoria Cross at Nilt in 1891.

On April 17 th an advance was made to Munda, where Umra Khan had some 9,000 of his best men. He, however, put up a very poor fight and disappeared into Afghanistan where he died shortly afterwards. All opposition now ceased and the advance continued; but meanwhile Chitral Fort had been relieved by a small force under Colonel Kelly which had made a gallant and adventurous march from Gilgit over the Shandur Pass.

The Chitral campaign was essentially a " Sappers' War." Luckily the Force was strong in technical troops, and Colonel Blood was the very man to get full value out of them. He received the K.C.B. for his valuable services as Chief Staff officer and his investiture took place at Windsor Castle on April 1896, when Her Majesty Queen Victoria conferred the honour of knighthood upon him. On that occasion he presented to Her Majesty an ancient manuscript copy of the Koran.

Meanwhile, Colonel Blood had been given command of the Bandelkand Brigade, with headquarters at Agra; but he only held it for a year or so, being destined for greater things than the command of a 2nd-Class District.

Trouble had been brewing for some time on the North-West Frontier, and the spark which lit the flame was a treacherous attack by Wazirs on a Political Officer and his escort at Maizar at the head of the Tochi Valley. The mullahs preached a Jehad (holy war), and Wazirs, Swatis, Mohmands, Afridis and Orakzais all answered the call; in a short time the whole frontier was ablaze.

The Swat Valley was a special centre of religious fanaticism, and on July 26th fierce attacks were delivered by the tribesmen on the Malakand camp and on Chakdarra Fort, both of which were repulsed. Reinforcements were sent up and Sir Bindon Blood was given command of the Malakand Field Force with the temporary rank of Major-General.

It was the most important command held by a Royal Engineer officer in India since the days of the Mutiny. Sir Bindon had the Shikarri's eye for country, and the careful notes which he had made of the terrain during the Chitral expedition now stood him in good stead. He arrived on August 1st and, after a brisk fight, relieved Chakdarra the next day.

A complete division was assembled in the course of the next few days and, by the middle of August, Sir Bindon had advanced up the Swat River and was facing "The Gate of Swat " at Landakai, considered by the tribesmen to be impregnable. This action was concisely described by Winston Churchill in The Story of the Malakand Field Force. -

"The principle of concentrating artillery has been admitted in Europe, but Sir Bindon Blood is the first General who has applied it to mountain warfare in India. At Landakai the Force had eighteen guns in action, of which twelve were in one line. The fire of this artillery drove the enemy, who were in great strength and in an excellent position, from their ground, and the infantry attack was accomplished with hardly any loss."

The Swatis soon came to terms.

The next operation was an advance westwards into Bajawar against the Mamund section of the Mohmand tribe, with which Major-General E. R. Elles co-operated with a force of two brigades from Peshawar and Shabkadr. By September 14th, Sir Bindon was in Nawagai with his 3rd Brigade, the 2nd Brigade being to the cast of him. Determined night attacks were made on Nawagai on September 14th and 20th, but were repulsed with heavy loss to the enemy.

On the 21st he joined hands with Major-General Elles and, leaving the Mohmands to the latter, Sir Bindon proceeded to clear up the Mamund situation, which he did so speedily that the operations of the Malakand Field Force came to an end by the middle of October. He had, as extra A.D.C. during part of these operations, Lieutenant Winston Churchill, of the 4th Queen's Own Hussars.

The Bunerwals alone remained defiant. They boasted that their country had never been invaded since the days of Alexander, and recollections of the fighting at the Ambeyla Pass in 1863 had not entirely faded. They were good fighters and the natural difficulties of the country were considerable; but, so sound were Sir Bindon's plans and so well were they carried into effect by troops who thoroughly trusted their commander, that the campaign only lasted a fortnight and the Buner Field Force was broken up on January 21st 1898.

The record of these few months of fighting, resulting in one successful operation after another, constitutes a tribute of no mean order to the soldierly qualities and capacity for command of the General who conducted them. For his services in these operations he was, in May 1898, promoted Major-General for distinguished service in the field. It was not until April 1898 that the Afridis finally submitted and, as this brought an end to the most extended rising that had until then ever been experienced on the North-West Frontier, there followed ten years of comparative peace.

The Army in India had thus an opportunity for settling down to regular and systematic peace training, of which Sir Bindon, who had meantime been appointed to command the Meerut Division with 11,000 troops under him, took the fullest advantage.

In April 1898 he had taken short leave home and was honoured by an invitation to Osborne House where H.M. Queen Victoria showed great interest in his account of the late expedition on the North-West Frontier. He was also received more than once by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales.

For the next two years Sir Bindon continued to command the Meerut Division. Being stationed in one of the most sporting areas of India, he took full advantage of his opportunities and added considerably to his bag of tigers. But in January 1901 he was ordered to South Africa, together with other general and staff officers from India, in compliance with a request from Lord Kitchener who had recently succeeded to the supreme command in South Africa.

On arrival at Pretoria he was appointed local Lieutenant-General and was given command of the Eastern Transvaal, where some 35,000 of our troops were operating, with headquarters at Middelburg. One of his first tasks was to stop the Boers from raiding the railway, which he succeeded in doing by a combination of stratagem and blockhouse lines.

For the next five or six months he controlled operations involving the driving of various areas with several columns, always with the object of rounding up some particular Boer commando and its commander.

Reading between the lines of the chapter of his book which he devotes to this period, it is apparent that he was not too well served by some of his subordinates, whilst he makes some very trenchant remarks about the slack and unsoldierlike methods of certain individuals.He returned to India in October 1900.

Before embarking for South Africa, Sir Bindon had been offered his choice between the Military Membership of the Viceroy's Council in India and the Punjab Command. He unhesitatingly chose the latter; it was the most important military command in India and included in its area the North-West Frontier. He took over command in October 1901.

In the chapter of his book which deals with his experiences in the Punjab Command, Sir Bindon tells us but little of the extensive military reforms which were instituted by Lord Kitchener, who had become Commander-in-Chief in India in November I902. One is inclined to ask whether he was ever consulted in this important matter, as he would hardly have omitted to say so had his opinions indeed been asked for. He tells us, however, that he was liberally treated in the matter of training grants for manoeuvres, so that one may be sure that the troops under his command, numbering some 85,000 men, must have benefited from the experience of serving under a General who had so often and indeed so recently proved his worth in the field.

During the winter of 1904-05, when Their Majesties King George and Queen Mary (then Prince and Princess of Wales) spent about a month in the Punjab Command, Sir Bindon directed manoeuvres by more than 60,000 men, the greater part of whom took part in a ceremonial parade and marched past Their Royal Highnesses in full dress on the day after the manoeuvres terminated. The staff work involved in getting the troops on to the parade ground-practically straight from their manoeuvre camps was a performance of which their Commander-in-Chief was very justly proud.

Another incident to which Sir Bindon alludes was the now forgotten 9th Lancer case. This distinguished regiment had been most unjustly accused of shielding the perpetrators of an assault on an Indian which led to the latter's death. The matter had been carried up to Viceregal level and the Regiment was subjected to the most unjustifiable official obloquy. Sir Bindon championed their cause to his utmost but only received an official rebuff for his pains. This incident is quoted to show how, as always, his first thoughts were for the welfare and, if necessary, the vindication of the men who served under him.

The period of his service on the active list was now rapidly drawing to a close, and what he calls the "melancholy day " arrived at last on November 7th 1907 when he eventually retired after close on forty-seven years of continuous and distinguished service.

For his services in the field Sir Bindon was mentioned in despatches no less than eight times. He had earned seven war medals with several clasps, as well as the Order of the Osmanieh for his services in the Egyptian campaign of 1882. He also received the K.C.B., two brevet promotions and one substantive promotion for distinguished service in the field. Sir Bindon settled in England and in 1909 was created a G.C.B.

In July 1914 he was appointed a Colonel Commandant. Three years later he became Representative Colonel Commandant and he continued to represent the Corps for the next sixteen years. During all this long period, and in spite of his advancing years, which, however, seemed to pass him over without leaving their mark, he maintained the liveliest interest in the activities and welfare of the Corps which he loved so well.

There were very few Regimental functions which he did not attend, and those who were privileged to listen to the addresses which he was accustomed to give to the troops and veterans at the Annual Veterans' Parade at Chatham never failed to be stirred by the simple yet compelling words in which he used to convey to us the all-important duty of loyal service to the Corps of Royal Engineers.

In 1932 H.M. The King created him a G.C.V.O., in acknowledgment of the eminent services he had rendered to the State and to his Corps. Shortly after he had celebrated his 90th birthday in the same year he was entertained by the Corps at the Headquarters Mess at Chatham.

In the following year Sir Bindon relinquished the post of Representative Colonel Commandant, the duties of which he had filled so conscientiously and with such outstanding success for the preceding sixteen years. Yet he still found time to attend Corps functions and, when his great age began to take its toll of his energies, he was never so happy as when he was discussing Corps matters with his brother Colonels Commandant in his own home.

On October 1936, when the post of Chief Royal Engineer was re-created, H.M. The King selected Sir Bindon to be the first to fill this honourable appointment: it goes without saying that His Majesty's selection met with the universal approbation of his brother Sappers.

Links to further reading:

Articles - Blood's Pontoon 1870-1889

Campaign History - Royal Engineers and the Zulu War