General Sir Henry Macleod Leslie Rundle Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Street Michael and Street George Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Defence Science Organisation was a British Army General during World War I.
Background
Born in Newton Abbot, Devon, to Captain Joseph Sparkhall Rundle, Royal Navy and his wife Renira Cathrine (née Leslie, who was daughter of Commander West West Leslie of the Royal Navy), Leslie Rundle was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1876.
Career
He fought in the Zulu War in 1879, the First Boer War of 1881 and the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882. He was involved in the Nile expedition between 1884 and 1885 and served in the Sudan Frontier Field Force from 1885 to 1887. In 1889 he went to the Sudan Frontier, and he was involved in the Khartoum expedition in 1898.
He led a column up the Blue Nile to relieve Gedaref that year.
Rundle was appointed Deputy Adjutant General in 1899 and was appointed to the position of Divisional Commander at Aldershot in 1900. The Second Boer War started in late 1899, however, and Rundle was in January 1900 appointed to the command of the 8th Division of the South African Field Force, with the temporary rank of Lieutenant-general.
The appointment was described as the most remarkable instance of advancement to high military office which has occurred in the recent history of Army by a contemporary issue of The Times. He served as commander until early March 1902, when he returned to the United Kingdom on board Steamship Carisbrook Castle.
Following his return, he went on to command 5th Division from 14 May 1902.
He became General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Northern Command in 1905 and Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta in 1909. He went on to be General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Command in 1915 and retired in 1916.