LIEUTENANT-GENERAL
SIR CHARLES WARREN

Extract from "British Commanders in the Transvaal War 1899-1900" published by W.D. & H.O. Wills Ltd:

LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR CHARLES WARREN,

Who is doing such fine work under General Sir Redvers Buller in Natal, is an extremely prudent, cautious and accomplished soldier. He is 60 years of age. Fortunate in securing a splendid military education, he entered the army in 1857. His exceptional intellectual abilities were brought into play in the Survey of Gibraltar, 1861-65, and again in 1867-1870, when conducting the Excavations at Jerusalem and Reconnaissance of Palestine. The accounts of this Expedition are contained in publications written by himself a few years later, which are considered of great importance. Since then he has seen many fields of active service, a great proportion of time being spent in African disputes, the more prominent of these being the Kaffir War of 1878 and the Bechuanaland Expedition of 1884-5, when his admirable organization gained him great distinction.

Appointed to the command of the Fifth Division of the Army Corps in South Africa, he left Southampton on November 24th, 1899, joining General Buller at Chieveley Camp early in January. Apart from the fact that the position afterwards proved untenable, his capture of Spion Kop on January 24th brilliantly demonstrated his power of conception and execution. At the last, and successful attempt to relieve Ladysmith, Sir Charles Warren conducted the assault of the enemy's main position, successfully carrying it after eleven days hard fighting.