[6] He again served in South Africa as a deputy assistant quartermaster general (DA&QMG) for Cape Colony in 1902.

[7] Following the end of the war in June 1902, he left Cape Town on the SS Canada and returned to Southampton in late July.

[10] In January 1913 he succeeded Colonel John Gough as a general staff officer, grade 1 at the college.

[15] He then was general officer commanding (GOC) of the 55th (West Lancashire) Division from January 1916,[7][16] which also saw him promoted to the temporary rank of major general, which in June became permanent (or substantive), a post he would hold for the rest of the war, making him one of the army's longest serving divisional commanders of the war.

[17] As a divisional commander he sought feedback from his officers (an unusual practice at the time) at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 and then played a crucial role in holding the German Sixth Army at Givenchy in April 1918.