Henry Settle

Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Hamilton Settle, (27 January 1847 – 22 April 1923) was a senior British Army officer who held various commands during the Second Boer War.

Life and career Settle was born in 1847, the second son of Captain H T Settle. From 1886 to 1892, Settle filled the post of Surveyor General and Quarter Master General of the Egyptian Army. During this time he fought in the Mahdist War, being present at the Battle of Suakin. For his services he received two further mentions in dispatches, and was promoted brevet Lieutenant Colonel and awarded the Distinguished Service Order. In 1892 he was appointed Inspector General of Egyptian Police, and three years later returned to England to take up the appointment of Assistant Inspector General of Fortifications. In 1898 he was created a Companion of the Order of the Bath. In early 1900 he was appointed to command the troops stationed in the Orange River Colony, where he arrived on 14 February. Lord Roberts quickly ordered three small columns to be formed by Settle, to check the course of the rebellion in Cape Colony. Settle himself took the right column to cut off Liebenberg. One of the other two columns however was repulsed, and Kitchener was sent to take command of the operations with strong reinforcements. His plan was the same as Settle's, who joined him in Prieska on 21 March 1900, and was given the task of bringing to order the rebels left in the outlying districts south of the Orange River. In this he was successful, and when he reached Upington, on 3 April, there was nothing to do but to arrange for the policing of the disaffected districts. Settle then returned to Cape Town to resume his work as Inspector General of Lines of Communication. For his services in the war, he was twice mentioned in dispatches (included by Lord Kitchener 23 June 1902 ), appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) on 29 November 1900 (invested by King Edward VII at Marlborough House on 25 July 1901), and promoted to the rank of major-general, for distinguished service, in the South Africa Honours list published on 26 June 1902. The war ended with the Peace of Vereeniging on 31 May 1902, but Settle stayed in South Africa, in command of the troops in Cape Colony.

Following his return to the United Kingdom, he was appointed in command of the Portsmouth Coast Defences, and on 11 April 1908 promoted to lieutenant-general.