Charles Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby

Brigadier-General Hon. Charles Strathavon Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, (18 May 1870 – 15 December 1949) was a British Army officer in the Second Boer War and World War I. Early life Charles Strathavon Heathcote-Drummond Willoughby (pronounced 'Hethcut-Drummond-Willowby') was born on 18 May 1870, the second son of Gilbert Henry Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 2nd Lord Aveland, and his wife Lady Evelyn Elizabeth Gordon, daughter of the 10th Marquess of Huntly. Lord Aveland later succeeded his mother as Lord Willougby d'Eresby, and was created Earl of Ancaster in 1892. As the younger son of a peer, Charles bore the courtesy title 'The Honourable'. The Conservative politicians Gilbert, 2nd Earl of Ancaster and Lt-Col Claud Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby were his brothers. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. Military career In March 1888, Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughy obtained a commission as a part-time Militia officer in the 4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment (Royal South Lincolnshire Militia), and then in January 1891 transferred to the Regular Army as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Scots Guards. He was promoted to lieutenant 11 August 1894, and captain on 7 June 1899. He was serving with the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards when the 2nd Boer War broke out. Second Boer War The 2nd Scots Guards left Southampton on the SS Britannic in March 1900, arrived in South Africa as reinforcements the following month, and soon took part in operations in the Orange River Colony. Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby was present at the actions of Biddulphsberg and Wittenbergen. Early in 1901 he served briefly as an extra Aide-de-Camp to the British High Commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner. Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby became Adjutant of the 2nd Scots Guards in December 1901, and was present with the battalion during further operations in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony until the Boer surrender on 31 May 1902. For his service during the war he was promoted to brevet major on 22 August 1902. He left Port Natal on the SS Michigan with other men of the 2nd battalion in late September 1902, arriving at Southampton in late October, when the battalion was posted to Aldershot. He then returned to the role of Aide-de-Camp to Milner (now Lord Milner) in South Africa until the end of 1903. Returning to his regiment in London, Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby was promoted to the substantive rank of major in 1904.