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{{EngvarB|date=April 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2014}}
{{short description|British Army General}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Sir Bindon Blood
|image= Bindon_Blood.png
|image_size=
|alt=
|caption=
|nickname=
|birth_date= {{birth date|1842|11|07|df=yes}}
|birth_place= [[Jedburgh]], Scotland
|death_date= {{death date and age|1940|05|16|1842|11|07|df=yes}}
|death_place= [[London]], England
|placeofburial=
|allegiance= United Kingdom
|branch= [[British Army]]
|serviceyears= 1860–1907
|rank= [[General (United Kingdom)|General]]
|servicenumber=
|unit=
|commands= [[Northern Command (India)|Northern Command, India]] [[Meerut]] District [[Buner]] Field Force [[Malakand Agency|Malakand]] Field Force
|battles= [[Military history of the North-West Frontier|North-West Frontier]] [[Anglo-Zulu War]] [[Second Anglo-Afghan War]] [[Anglo-Egyptian War]]
* [[Battle of Tell El Kebir]]
[[Chitral Expedition]] [[Siege of Malakand]]
|awards= [[Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]] [[Royal Victorian Order|Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order]] [[Mentioned in Despatches]]
|relations=
|laterwork=
}}
[[General (United Kingdom)|General]] '''Sir Bindon Blood''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100|sep=,|GCB|GCVO}} (7 November 1842 – 16 May 1940) was a [[British Army]] commander who served in [[Egypt]], [[Afghanistan]], [[India]], and [[South Africa]].

==Military career==
Bindon Blood was born near [[Jedburgh]], Scotland, to [[William Bindon Blood]] (1817–1894) and Margaret Stewart (1820–1849).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Who_was_who_in_British_India/LI8UAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=|title=Who was who in British India| first=John F. |last=Riddick |publisher=Greenwood Press|year= 1998|isbn= 978-0313292323|page=37}}</ref> He was related to Colonel [[Thomas Blood]], who attempted to steal the [[Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom|Crown Jewels]] in 1671. He attended the Royal School, [[Banagher]], [[National University of Ireland, Galway|Queen's College, Galway]], and the [[Addiscombe Military Seminary|Addiscombe Military College]]. He was commissioned in 1860 in the [[Royal Engineers]] as a temporary lieutenant in charge of signalling and [[pontoon bridge]] construction in India, and for brief periods in [[Zulu Kingdom|Zululand]] and South Africa. Promoted to captain in 1873, he served with British forces in the [[Military history of the North-West Frontier|North-West Frontier]] (Jowaki). In 1879 he was sent back to Africa for the [[Anglo-Zulu War]]. He went on to fight in the [[Second Anglo-Afghan War]] and the [[Battle of Tell El Kebir]]. By 1882 he was a [[Brevet (military)|brevet]] lieutenant colonel.

The following year, 1883, Blood married Charlotte E. Colvin, second daughter of [[Auckland Colvin|Sir Auckland Colvin]], a distinguished colonial administrator in India from a [[Colvin family|well-connected family]]. Then he returned to India and took command of the [[Bengal Sappers and Miners]] in 1885. After seven years he reached the rank of brigadier general, serving in the garrison at [[Rawalpindi]], and then in the relief force known as the [[Chitral Expedition]]. He then commanded the [[Malakand Agency|Malakand]] Field Force and the [[Buner]] Field Force, relieving the garrison during the [[siege of Malakand]]. At the end of this command he was promoted to major general. He was appointed in command of the [[Meerut]] District, in the [[Bengal Army|Bengal Command]], on 22 September 1898.<ref>Hart′s Army list, 1901</ref>

[[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]] succeeded as chief of command during the [[Second Boer War]] in late 1900, and requested Blood for service in South Africa, where he arrived in early March 1901. He spent six months in command of a division fighting in the [[Eastern Transvaal]] with the local rank of [[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|lieutenant general]] on the Staff from 1 April 1901.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27310 |date=3 May 1901 |page=3035}}</ref> He was mentioned in the last [[mentioned in despatches|despatch]] by Lord Kitchener dated 23 June 1902.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27459 |date=29 July 1902 |pages=4835–4837 }}</ref> In late September 1901 he returned to India to take up the position of Commander-in-Chief [[Northern Command (India)|Punjab Command]], where he arrived the following month.<ref>[http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201900-2011.pdf Army Commands] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705211343/http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201900-2011.pdf |date=5 July 2015 }}</ref> He kept the local rank of lieutenant general.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27387 |date=13 December 1901 |page=8840 }}</ref>

In November 1907 Blood retired to London, where he continued to lead a very active life. He was made colonel-commandant of the Royal Engineers in 1914 and worked to recruit soldiers for the [[First World War]]. He was aged 94 when he was made [[Chief Royal Engineer]] (CRE) in 1936.<ref>{{cite news|title=Sir Bindon Blood Dead at Age of 98|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19400517&id=eoAuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sJgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5927,3042952|accessdate=8 November 2013|newspaper=[[The Montreal Gazette]]|date=17 May 1940}}</ref> He died in 1940, survived by his one daughter.

==Dedication==
[[Winston Churchill]], who served under Blood on the [[Military history of the North-West Frontier|North-West Frontier]] in 1897, dedicated his first non-fiction book, ''[[The Story of the Malakand Field Force]]'' (1898), to "Major-General Sir Bindon Blood, K.C.B., under whose command the operations therein recorded were carried out; by whose generalship they were brought to a successful conclusion; and to whose kindness the author is indebted for the most valuable and fascinating experience of his life".<ref>{{cite book|first=Winston L. Spencer|last=Churchill|authorlink=Winston Churchill|title=The Story of the Malakand Field Force: an episode of frontier war|place=London, UK|publisher=Longmans, Green|year=1898|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/9404/9404-h/9404-h.htm}}</ref>

==Arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
|escutcheon = Quarterly first and fourth Argent a fess indented Gules between six martlets Sable (Blood) second and third Gules three escallops Argent within a bordure engrailed Or (Bindon).
|crest = On a wreath of the colours issuant from waves of the sea a demi-figure of Neptune Proper.
|motto = Honor Virtutis Praemium
|notes = Confirmed 21 January 1902 by [[Sir Arthur Edward Vicars]], [[Ulster King of Arms]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000529301/StaffViewMARC#tabnav |page=236 |publisher=National Library of Ireland |accessdate=23 November 2022}}</ref>}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070825113148/http://www.remuseum.org.uk/articles/rem_article_blood.htm Royal Engineers Museum] Blood's Pontoon (1870–89)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080501131923/http://www.remuseum.org.uk/corpshistory/rem_corps_part15.htm Royal Engineers Museum] The Corps between the wars (1919–39)- General Blood's appointment to Chief Royal Engineer

{{s-start}}
{{s-hon}}
{{s-bef| before = [[Philip Gordon Grant]]
| as = Director of Fortifications and Works }}
{{s-ttl| title = [[Chief Royal Engineer]]
| years = 1936–1940 }}
{{s-aft| after = [[James Ronald Edmonston Charles|Sir Ronald Charles]] }}
{{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blood, Bindon}}
[[Category:1842 births]]
[[Category:1940 deaths]]
[[Category:Scottish military personnel]]
[[Category:People from the Scottish Borders]]
[[Category:Royal Engineers officers]]
[[Category:British Army generals]]
[[Category:Alumni of Addiscombe Military Seminary]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Galway]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Chitral Expedition]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Malakand Frontier War]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Afghan War]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the Anglo-Zulu War]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the First Mohmand Campaign]]

Bindon Blood - Revision history

Bot at 03:34, 24 November 2022