In January 1879 Sir Bartle Frere, a personal friend of Chelmsford, engineered a war against Cetshwayo, King of the Zulus, who at that time were an allied power by treaty with the British Crown.
Lord Chelmsford became lieutenant general in 1882, Lieutenant of the Tower of London (1884 until 1889), colonel of the 4th (West London) Rifle Volunteer Corps (1887), full general (1888), and colonel of the Derbyshire Regiment (1889).