Colonel Paget temporarily took command of 1st (Guards) Brigade in Lord Methuen's 1st Division. Paget was also present at the Battle of Magersfontein. He received command of the new 20th Brigade (part of 1st Division) on promotion to major-general on 1 April 1900. Paget was promoted to the staff, and in the later stages of the war was put in command of an independent column hunting Boer commandos. Many of Paget's Australian and New Zealand volunteers were disenchanted and wanted to go home before the expiry of their one-year term of service. Paget gave what Ian Beckett describes as a "blustering speech" to his whole assembled force in November 1900, refusing their request. Herbert Plumer had to pacify the men. Subsequently, they blamed Paget for ordering a costly frontal assault on Rhenoster Kop on 29 November 1900. In June 1901, Paget resigned his command, intending to give up his career, after quarrelling with his superior, the Hon. Neville Lyttelton. Paget was persuaded by Edward VII, whom he knew well, to continue, Lord Roberts suggesting Paget was 'difficult with those above him'. Paget wrote to Sir John French praising his leadership in South Africa, and claiming that respect for him had been his reason for remaining in the Army. 1902–1914 The King wanted Paget to return to South Africa. However, he was appointed General Officer Commanding the 1st Infantry Division within 1st Army Corps in September 1902, and at the same time temporarily assumed command of the 2nd Infantry Brigade in the Marlborough lines at Aldershot, where the Brigade of Guards were to be quartered. He was also appointed CB and CVO. He was promoted lieutenant-general on 6 May 1906, and made Knight Commander, in the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO), and also appointed Knight Commander, in the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1907. After eighteen months of unemployment Paget was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Eastern Command on 4 April 1908. In that post in 1909 he seldom visited his office, preferring "other activities". In 1910 he was appointed a special ambassador to carry the news of King George V's accession to foreign courts. In September 1910 Sir John French declared that Sir Charles Douglas and Paget would 'command armies under him'. In 1911, when he "commanded" one of the forces on the Annual Manoeuvres, he did not actually attend, and his BGGS (Brigadier-General, chief of Staff) Aylmer Haldane had