Sir Henry Timson Lukin

Memorial to Major General Sir Henry Timson Lukin who, after a distinguished military career in South Africa (and many years service with the Cape Mounted Riflemen in King William's Town) commanded the South African infantry brigade in Egypt and France 1915-1917. In 1916 Lukin commanded the 9th Scottish Division and in 1917 commanded his division at the Arras, Ypres and Cambrai Battles. I assume that my great uncle, William Albert Pautz, died under his command ay Messines Ridge / Meteren in 1918. The memorial is on the corner of Alexandra Road and Ayliff Street in King William's Town, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Photographed on July 5, 2008.


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Major-General Sir Henry Timson Lukin KCB CMG DSO (24 May 1860 Fulham, England - 15 December 1925 Muizenberg), was a South African military commander. He fought in the Zulu War (1879) and the Basutoland Gun War (1880-1881), the Bechuanaland Campaign (1897), and the Anglo-Boer War when he was in command of the artillery during the defence of Wepener for which action he was awarded a DSO. From 1903 to 1911 he commanded the Cape Mounted Riflemen, from 1904 to 1912 he was Commandant-General of the Cape Colonial Forces and in 1912 Inspector-General of the Permanent Force of the Union of South Africa.

Brig Gen Lukin transferred to the new Union Defence Forces in 1912 as Inspector-General of the Permanent Force. He commanded a formation in the German South West Africa Campaign (1914-1915), and commanded the 1st South African Infantry Brigade of the South African Overseas Expeditionary Force in Egypt (1916) and France (1916), at Delville Wood before being promoted to a divisional command in the British Army. He was knighted for his war service, and retired in 1919.

He was the only son of barrister-at-law Robert Henry Lukin of the Inner Temple; Henry or Harry Lukin, as he was usually known, had a sister two years younger and lost his mother when sixteen years old. Henry Lukin did not enter Sandhurst despite a family military tradition. Instead he sailed for South Africa and was commissioned as a lieutenant in Bengough's Horse during the Zulu War, and was seriously wounded at Ulundi in 1879.

Source: The South African Military History Society

Major General Sir Henry Timson Lukin, KCB, CMG, DSO
by Colonel B C Judd, OBE

Henry Timson Lukin was born in 1860, the only son of Robert Henry Lukin, a barrister of the Inner Temple. Harry Lukin, as he was generally known, had a sister two years his junior; their mother died when he was sixteen years old.
In due course he entered Merchant Taylor's School, where he did not acquire much learning. As he was bent on a military career he was sent to the crammer, a Mr Winter, at Woolwich in order to prepare for the entrance examination for Sandhurst. He found the examination too much for him. However, he went through the Knightshridge riding school and completed a short course on infantry drill at Chelsea Barracks.

The year 1878 was an eventful one in South Africa, with the expectation of war there. Lukin emharked at Southampton on the Union Mailship Nyanza on 2 January 1879 and eventually landed at Durban, prepared for whatever might eventuate.

The battle of Isandlwana, a disaster for the British Army, took place on 22 January; three strong columns were ordered to advance on Zululand and there was an urgent demand at the time for labour to work on the almost non-existent roads.

Lukin was placed in charge of a party of Africans whose task it was to improve and extend the wagon road. He performed this task energetically for some weeks until troops began to pass on their way to the front, among them a battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers whose adjutant, Spurgin, happened to be a cousin of Lukin's. Spurgin informed Lukin that a native contingent was being enrolled hy Major Bengough of the 77th Regiment. On Spurgin's recommendation Lukin was appointed a Lieutenant in Bengough's Horse. Lukin was a soldier at last and served with his regiment throughout the war. He received a bullet wound in the leg during a charge in which the Native Contingent was in support of the 17th Lancers and was troubled by this for some weeks. Major Bengough reported favourably on Lukin's services and recommended him for a direct commission. As a result, Lukin was gazetted a Lieutenant in the Cape Mounted Riflemen which was the only standing unit in the Cape Colony at the time.

When Lukin joined the Cape Mounted Riflemen the Regiment was operating in two wings. The Left Wing, under command of Colonel Frederick Carrington, was engaged in operations against the Basuto and the Right Wing, under Colonel Zachary Bayly, operated both in Basutoland and Gcalekaland. At this time Lukin served under Carrington.

He later served on the Cape Frontier, in Pondoland, the Ciskei and Transkei, until the annexation of East and West Pondoland in 1894. He met his future wife, Miss Lily Quinn, at Alice and married her in 1891. Shortly thereafter he was given command of the CMR artillery troop which was then equipped with mountain guns only. In 1893 he proceeded to England to attend courses in gunnery and signalling. While there he completed a course at Hythe on the Maxim machine gun.

On his return from England Lukin was promoted to Captain and placed in command of CMR artillery and signals. In 1897 he commanded the CMR artillery and machine gun detachment in the Bechuanaland Field Force under Colonel E H Dalgety. When the Anglo-Boer War broke out in 1899, Lukin went into the field, again in command of CMR artillery and signals. When the Cape Colonial Division under General Brabant and Colonel Dalgety was disbanded, Lukin commanded the CMR in Scobell's Column and later in 1 Division, Cape Colony, until the end of the war.

When Colonel Dalgety retired from the CMR at the end of 1902, Lukin was appointed to command the Regiment which he did, very ably, until the advent of Union in 1910 when he left on promotion. He was promoted to Brigadier General and appointed Inspector General of the Permanent Force.

During the First World War Lukin commanded the SAMR (South African Mounted Rifles) Brigade in the German South West Africa campaign of 1914-15 and the 1st South African Infantry Brigade in the Senussi campaign, in Egypt, in France and Flanders. In France he was, for a time, in command of the British 9th Division. Later, in England he commanded the 64th Division, Eastern Command, as a Major General.

On returning to the Cape after the War he retired on pension and was elected the first president of the BESL (British Empire Service League) in South Africa during a conference to establish the League in 1921. (The conference, under the chairmanship of Field Marshal Lord Haig, sat from 28 February to 4 March).

Most of those who were intimately acquainted with General Lukin were aware that, in common with all great men, he had certain idiosyncracies, to which the members of the Cape Mounted Riflemen were well accustomed. He usually gave every problem ponderous consideration as he was a slow thinker. However, having solved the problem to his satisfaction he would act quickly and successfully. Being quite fearless he was particularly successful as a regimental or small column commander.

He was somewhat impatient when presented with suggestions from members of his staff, but nevertheless always gave them consideration. One would frequently find that after days, or sometimes hours, had passed one's suggestions were acted upon. He could berate an erring subordinate in masterly style, yet, if he later considered that he had been unjust would send for the man and apologize. Lukin was, fundamentally, a kind and loyal man. Holding himself accountable for the success or failure of any enterprise in which the men under his command might be engaged, he would support a subordinate who in his opinion had done his best to carry out orders. Although Lukin had some imagination, he did not have a very great sense of humour. Some of his idiosyncrasies were, nevertheless, a source of great amusement to the men. He had, for example, a peculiar way of placing his feet when walking along a veld path which usually resulted, sooner or later, in a fall, from which he would rise, in accordance with the regimental motto, in increased splendour. (The regimental motto of the CMR was Aucto Splendore Resurgo, translated, 'I rise again with increased splendour.' Ed.)

Lukin was always insistent that his men should be immaculately turned out both in peace and wartime; his own turn-out, however, was frequently not what it should have been. He would often be observed to have unfastened buttons and to have neglected to remove toothpowder and blood from his face, the latter caused by his dashing efforts with a cut-throat razor!

In general, Lukin could not be described as a well-read man; he confined his reading to military history. He was intensely ambitious for his Regiment and zealous in the maintenance of its good name. He had, in South Africa, no experience of independent command over large forces and might fairly be described as the very best type of conventional soldier whose day probably passed with the cavalry and horse artillery.

Lukin never fully recovered from the shock of the disbandment of the Cape Mounted Riflemen, something which he considered to have been a mistake. Three days before he died he discussed his own funeral arrangements with the Officer Commanding at the Cape. He asked me as the Artillery commander to arrange for my gunners to haul the gun-carriage and man the saluting battery. The bearer party consisted mainly of those men who had served in the Regiment that he had loved and trained so well.

Source: Military History Journal - Vol 7 No 3

Doe's anyone have a photo of this chap...

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It was in a landscape of young trees and thin under growth that the South African National Monument was unveiled on the 10th October 1926 by the General JMB HERTZOG , Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, Sir Percy FITZPATRICK, the Field-Marshall HAIG and the widows of the generals BOTHA and LUKIN.

THE BATTLE OF SANDFONTEIN:THE ROLE AND LEGACY OF MAJOR-GENERAL SIR HENRY TIMSON LUKIN
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Major-General Sir Henry Timson Lukin, KCB, CMG, DSO

Order of the Bath (KCB) (Military Division)
Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)
Distinguished Service Order
South Africa, bar 1877-8-9
Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal, bars Basutoland, Bechuanaland
Queen’s South Africa Medal, bars Cape Colony, Wepener, Transvaal, Wittebergen
King’s South Africa, bars South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902
1914-15 Star
British War Medal, 1914-20
Allied Victory Medal with oak leaf
King George V Coronation Medal, 1911
Union of South Africa Commemoration, 1910
Order of the Nile (Egypt) (Commander)
Legion of Honour (France) (Commander).
‘Tim’ Lukin was born at Fulham, London on 24 May 1860 and was educated at Merchant Taylor’s School.

He came out to South Africa in 1879 to begin his military career with a commission in Bengough’s Horse, a native mounted corps raised for service in the Zulu War of that year. He was severely wounded at the battle of Ulundi in July 1879.

"In March 1881 Lukin joined the Cape Mounted Riflemen (CMR) and took part in the operations in Basutoland during that year and thus earned the Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal, with bar ‘Basutoland’.

In 1891, while stationed in Alice, he married Lily Quinn.

In 1893 he attended courses in gunnery and military signalling at Shoeburyness, Woolwich, Aldershot and Hythe and on his return to South Africa in 1894 was appointed to command the CMR Artillery Troop and also as instructor in signalling. In 1897 he was promoted Captain.

During the Langeberg Campaign of 1896-7 he commanded the Maxim guns and signalling section and served as Field Adjutant of the Bechuanaland Field Force which earned him the bar ‘Bechuanaland’ to his Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal.

The outbreak of the South African War in 1899 saw Lukin on active service once more with the CMR and in November 1900 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. For his leadership during the Siege of Wepener he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, and a few months later was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. Lukin’s promotion to the rank of Colonel on 1 January 1903, when he succeeded Colonel E.H. Dalgety as Commanding Officer of the Cape Mounted Riflemen, always remained, for him, a source of great personal pride. In 1904, whilst retaining command of the CMR, he was also appointed Inspector-General, Cape Colonial Forces, a post in which he worked with untiring devotion, building the Cape Forces into a highly-trained and disciplined body of men, laying bare incompetence, encouraging his officers to attend courses, and urging the formation of Cadet Corps at schools in the Cape.

His King George V Coronation Medal was earned when he commanded the Union of South Africa contingent at the Coronation in 1911.

He next proceeded to Switzerland to study the Swiss military system.

On the formation of the Permanent Force, Union Defence Forces, in terms of the South African Defence Act of 1912, Lukin was appointed Inspector-General with the rank of Brigadier-General.

On the outbreak of World War I, Lukin was given command of the South African Mounted Riflemen Column and subsequently the S.A.M.R. Brigade in German South-West Africa, during the Campaign of 1914-1915.

In December 1915 Lukin left for Alexandria, North Africa, with the 1st South Africa Infantry Brigade where, as Brigade Commander, he led his men successfully against the Senussite army at the Battle of Agagia, and then went on to take Sollum. His services in Egypt were rewarded with the Companionship of the Order of the Bath, and the Khedive appointed him to the Egyptian Order of the Nile.

The Brigade arrived at Marseilles, France, in April 1916. Its war record on the Western Front appears proudly in the annals of World War I and the Brigade will long be remembered for such battles as Delville Wood and Butte de Warlencourt.

From Brigade Commander he rose to the rank of Major-General commanding the 9th (Scottish) Division at Arras, Passchendaele and Cambrai during 1917 and in the New Year’s Honours List of that year he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

He had to return to England because of Lady Lukin’s ill-health but in March 1918 he returned to duty as Commander of the 64th (Highland) Division.

He retired in 1919 with the rank of Major-General and the award by the French Government of the Legion of Honour (Commander).

He died on 15 December 1925 and was buried with full military honours at Plumstead Cemetery, Cape Province."

Source: The South African
Military History Society

Well researched.

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