Wilfred Gilbert Thesiger

His father was a General, his grandfather the 1st Baron Chelmsford was twice Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom, and his elder brother Frederic Thesiger had a distinguished career as colonial governor, became Viceroy of India and was created Viscount Chelmsford.

Following the outbreak of the Second Boer War in late 1899, Thesiger volunteered for active service and was attached as a lieutenant to the 59th Company of the 15th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry, on 24 March 1900.

[1] The company had left the United Kingdom for South Africa in the SS Mahratta in early March 1900.

Following his return to Europe, he re-entered the diplomatic service, and held the following offices: While British Vice Consul to the Congo he spent three months in the Kasai basin and reported to the British Parliament on incidents of starvation and brutality in the region while people were put to work as slaves on rubber plantations in the Belgium-controlled Congo Free State.

From 1909 until 1919 he was Consul-General at Addis Ababa, with the local rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of the Emperor.