officer. He served as adjutant in a newly established colonial mounted infantry regiment which, with the leave of Lord Roberts, was named after his chief of staff, "Kitcheners Horse". Kitcheners' Horse was employed, with distinction, in the operations undertaken by Lord Roberts in February 1900 for the relief of Kimberley and his advance on Bloemfontein and later Pretoria. Lord Kitchener took over the chief command of British forces in South Africa in November 1900, and appointed Congreve his personal secretary. He was promoted to major on 21 December 1901, and on the next day received a brevet promotion as lieutenant-colonel in recognition of services in South Africa. Following the end of hostilities in early June 1902, he left Cape Town on board the SS Orotava together with Lord Kitchener, and arrived at Southampton the next month. He was mentioned in a despatch by Lord Kitchener in June 1902. Command posts in the United Kingdom After the Boer War, Congreve held a series of command posts in Britain and Ireland. In November 1902 he joined the Staff of the 3rd Army Corps in Ireland as he was appointed Assistant Military Secretary and Aide-de-Camp to the Commander-in-Chief of the corps, the Duke of Connaught. First World War At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Congreve was a brigadier-general, commanding the 18th Brigade, which was on manoeuvres in Wales at the time. Although suffering from asthma, he deployed with the formation in the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to France, taking part in the Battle of the Aisne. The division was stationed near Neuve Chapelle when Congreve's men took part in the 1914 Christmas truce. In a letter written on Christmas Day itself, Brigadier-General Congreve wrote recalling how the Germans opposite his lines initiated by calling a truce earlier the same day, how one of his men got out over the parapet to meet in no man's land, and how officers and men exchanged cigars and cigarettes. Congreve admitted he was reluctant to personally witness the scene of the truce for fear he would be a prime target for German snipers. The Somme: Delville Wood Congreve commanded the 6th Division from May 1915 and then XIII Corps from November 1915. As commander of XIII Corps, Congreve led the battles for Longueval and Delville Wood between 14 July and 3 September 1916. The rapid advance of his corps in the southern