Neville Lyttelton

General The Honourable Sir Neville Gerald Lyttelton, (28 October 1845 – 6 July 1931) was a British Army officer from the Lyttelton family who served against the Fenian Raids, and in the Anglo-Egyptian War, the Mahdist War and the Second Boer War. He was Chief of the General Staff at the time of the Haldane Reforms and then became Commander-in-Chief, Ireland. Army career Born the son of 4th Baron Lyttelton and Mary Lyttelton (née Glynne) and educated at Eton College, Lyttelton was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade in January 1865. As a junior officer he was sent to Canada, where he helped defeat the Fenian raids in 1866 and served as secretary to the Oregon Boundary Commission in 1867. He was promoted to lieutenant on 14 July 1869, to captain on 13 October 1877 and to major on 22 February 1882. In 1880 he was made private secretary to Hugh Childers, Secretary of State for War. He took part in the Anglo-Egyptian War in 1882 as an Aide-de-Camp to Sir John Adye, from 1 August 1882. He saw action at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir and was mentioned in despatches. He was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel and awarded the Order of Osmanieh (4th Class) on 17 November 1882. He became assistant military secretary to Lieutenant General Sir John Adye in his role as Governor of Gibraltar on 1 January 1883 and military secretary to Lord Reay, Governor of Bombay in 1885. In his young life he made friends, mixing in whiggish aristocratic circles with Edward Grey and Arthur Balfour, later the shapers of imperial foreign policy. He was promoted to brevet colonel on 18 November 1886 and became second-in-command of the 3rd Battalion of his regiment in 1890. Promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant colonel on 9 November 1892, he became commanding officer of the 1st Battalion of his regiment in 1893 and went on to be commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion of his regiment in Ireland.