Lord Downe was an officer in the
2nd Regiment of Life Guards, where he was promoted to
captain on 25 June 1873. He fought in the
Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, for which he was
mentioned in despatches. He was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 10th Hussars between 1887 and 1892. From 1899 to March 1900 he served as a staff officer in the
Second Boer War in South Africa, where he was deputed to accompany the military attachés representing foreign powers. He was mentioned in despatches twice, in a despatch dated 31 March 1900 the Commander-in-Chief
Lord Roberts stated that he "discharged his duties with tact and discretion". He was then appointed in command of a brigade of
Imperial Yeomanry. After his return to the United Kingdom, Lord Downe was in March 1901 asked by King
Edward VII to take part in a special diplomatic mission to announce the King's accession to the governments of
Belgium,
Bavaria,
Italy,
Württemberg, and
The Netherlands. In July 1901 he was promoted to the temporary rank of
Brigadier general on the Staff to command the Cavalry Brigade at the
Curragh, where training for fighting in South Africa took place. In December 1901 her received the local rank of
major-general whilst so employed. He retired from the army on 30 July 1902, and was granted the honorary rank of major-general. Lord Downe was the author of a 1902 report to inquire into the working of the
British Army Remount Department in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The report, which was especially critical of the supply of horses during the preceding war in South Africa, was published in a government blue-book with other such reports (Cd.995). In early 1903 Lord Downe was appointed a Special Envoy deputized by the King to travel to
Iran to present
the Shah with the insignia of the
Order of the Garter.
Honours Downe was created
Baron Dawnay, of Danby in the North Riding of the County of York, in the
Peerage of the United Kingdom, on 24 July 1897 and subsequently sat in the
House of Lords (his inherited viscountcy was Irish and did not give him this right). He was invested as a Companion of the
Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1886, and Companion of the
Order of the Bath (CB) in 1900 for services in South Africa. He was appointed a Commander of the
Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the November
1902 Birthday Honours list, and promoted to a Knight Commander of the same order (KCVO) by King
Edward VII on 18 December 1902.
Cricket A cricketer he played for
I Zingari and the MCC, playing in the Aborigines v MCC test at Lord's in 1868 in the first tour of England by an Australian team. He became President of the MCC in 1872 ==Personal life==