Hill Child was commissioned as a
second lieutenant in the part-time
3rd (Edinburgh Light Infantry Militia) Battalion, Royal Scots, on 25 October 1899. The battalion was embodied for full-time service in the
Second Boer War on 5 December that year, and in early March 1900 left
Queenstown on the
SS Oriental for South Africa. They landed at
East London on 21 March 1900 and by July was engaged in operations against Boer Commandos in the
Transvaal. Hill Child was wounded, and returned to the United Kingdom during Christmas 1900. He was promoted to
lieutenant in the militia battalion on 6 March 1901, but in July was commissioned into the
Regular Army as a second lieutenant in the newly raised
Irish Guards. Promotion to lieutenant in the regiment came on 1 March 1902, and he was chosen to carry the colours at the first presentation of
Colours to the Regiment on 30 May 1902, following which he was appointed a
Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO). He retired from Regular service in 1909 and was placed on the Reserve of Officers in 1910. On 8 February 1910, Hill Child was promoted to
lieutenant-colonel in the part-time
Territorial Force and was appointed commanding officer of the
II North Midland Brigade in the
Royal Field Artillery. He was in command when the brigade was mobilised as part of the
46th (North Midland) Division in the
First World War and served with it on the
Western Front. The brigade was later numbered CCXXXI (231). 46th Division saw its first major action at the
Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt in October 1915. Hill Child was awarded the
Distinguished Service Order in 1916. At the
Battle of Gommecourt on 1 July 1916, organised as a diversion from the main
Battle of the Somme, the divisional artillery was allocated the task of wire-cutting: CCXXXI and another brigade formed the Left group, under the command of Hill Child. This group supported two battalions (1/5th and
1/7th (Robin Hoods)) of the
Sherwood Foresters, but the German
wire entanglements were in dead ground and could not be seen by artillery observers. The attack was a costly failure, and Hill Child was a member of the court of inquiry into the circumstances. On 13 March 1918 the Commander, Royal Artillery (CRA) of the 46th Division was wounded, and Hill Child was appointed to act in his place. A week later he was promoted to the temporary rank of
brigadier general and confirmed as CRA. The 46th Division had been very unlucky during the war, the infantry in particular sustaining heavy casualties at the Hohenzollern Redoubt and Gommecourt, but it gained revenge at the
Battle of the St Quentin Canal on 29 September 1918 when it crossed the canal and broke open the
Hindenburg Line. Careful artillery preparation and support was an integral part of this success. Hill Child had nine brigades of field artillery under his command. The bombardment began on the night of 26/27 September with harassing fire and gas shells, followed with intense bombardment with high explosive shells until the morning of the assault. Every field gun was used in carefully timed barrages: 'creeping barrages' (including smoke shells) ahead of the attacking troops, with pauses at the end of each phase, including a 'standing barrage' of three hours to allow mopping-up of the first objectives to be carried out, and the second wave of troops to pass through and renew the attack behind the creeping barrage. The first of these creeping barrages actually progressed at twice the normal pace while the infantry rushed downhill to seize the canal crossings; it was described in the
Official History as 'one of the finest ever seen'. The 46th Division was prominent in the pursuit of the Germans leading to the
Armistice in November 1918. During the war Hill Child was
Mentioned in Despatches, awarded the French
Croix de Guerre, appointed a
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George and, in 1919, a
Companion of the Order of the Bath. He continued in the Territorial Army after the war as CRA of 46th (North Midland) Division from 1920 to 1924, after which he was placed in the Regular Army Reserve of Officers. ==Political career==