Webb Pilcher, of Harrow, and his wife, Sophia (née Robinson). He was the eldest of five children (four surviving infancy); his younger brother, Percy, would go on to become a pioneering aeronautical engineer, assisted by their sister Ella who undertook the fabric work on the aircraft's wings. Pilcher was educated at Harrow School, but after his father died in October 1874, he left the school the following year (aged 17). Following his father's death, in an attempt to save money on living expenses, his mother took the family to live in Celle, where she herself died in 1877. Thomas brought his three younger siblings home, and entered the Army, commissioned in the Dublin City Artillery Militia in August 1878. Commissions in the Militia were often used as a stepping-stone to a regular commission, and Pilcher rapidly transferred out, first to the 22nd Regiment of Foot, then almost immediately to the 5th Fusiliers (later the Northumberland Fusiliers). After a period of regimental service, Pilcher attended the Staff College, Camberley, passing the course in 1892, and from 1895 to 1897 was appointed as the deputy assistant adjutant-general for Dublin District. From here, he took a posting in colonial West Africa in the late 1890s, where he was involved in raising a battalion of the West African Frontier Force and commanded an expedition to Lapai and Argeyah. In 1899 Pilcher transferred regiments for the third time, to the Bedfordshire Regiment, where he took command of the 2nd Battalion. It served in the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902, during which time Pilcher was also given command of a column of mounted infantry, including a large contingent of Australians. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 20 October 1900, and to colonel on 29 November 1900, and in 1901 he was made an aide-de-camp to King Edward VII. During early 1902 he was stationed in the Orange River Colony, operating from Boshof, and later assisted in convoying supplies to garrisons west of Kimberley in Cape Colony. Following the end of the war, he returned to the United Kingdom in early June 1902. For his services during the war, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) on 29 November 1900, but was not invested until he was back in England, by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 8 August 1902. He commanded regular brigades at Aldershot from 1902 to