General Buller

Downes is particularly associated with General Sir Redvers Henry Buller VC, GCB, GCMG, whose memorials in Crediton and Exeter illustrate the standing in which he was held and many of the documents in the archives at Downes give testament to this.

He was born in 1839 and was educated at Eton and commissioned into the 60th Rifles in 1858.  He remained in the army for over 40 years. He served in India in 1859 and China in 1960 and them spent nine years in Canada where, as Company Commander, he took part in the expedition to put down a rebellion on the Red River in Manitoba.  This exhibition had been led by Sir Garnet Wolsley who subsequently invited Buller to join his staff for the second Ashanti War 1873 in what is now Ghana.

He then sailed from Plymouth to South Africa where he commanded the Frontier Light Horse, an irregular cavalry formation recruited locally.  Next came the Zulu War in 1879 immortalised in the film of that name and including such famous battles as Isandhlwana and the heroic defence of the Rorke’s Drift.  As a Colonel he was involved in fighting against a large Zulu army where he rescued 400 injured men, restored the morale of the force and beat off a four-hour attack by 20,000 Zulus.  He was awarded a VC for this courage in this campaign.

He then served in Egypt and the Sudan, being promoted to Major General.  After this he served at the War Office where he became Adjutant General and created the Army Service Corps, quickly becoming the acknowledged expert on logistics.  The second Boer War (1899 – 1902) was not going well and Buller was sent out as Commander in Chief to restore the situation.   He had a somewhat mixed success and was the subject of some criticism but he certainly retained the support of the majority of his men and the general public as can be seen by the many tributes paid to him, both during his lifetimes and after his death in 1908.