Henry Lukin

Major-General Sir Henry Timson Lukin KCB CMG DSO (24 May 1860 Fulham, England - 15 December 1925 Muizenberg), was a South African military commander. He fought in the Zulu War (1879) and the Basutoland Gun War (1880-1881), the Bechuanaland Campaign (1897), and the Anglo-Boer War when he was in command of the artillery during the defence of Wepener for which action he was awarded a DSO. From 1903 to 1911 he commanded the Cape Mounted Riflemen, from 1904 to 1912 he was Commandant-General of the Cape Colonial Forces and in 1912 Inspector-General of the Permanent Force of the Union of South Africa.

Brig Gen Lukin transferred to the new Union Defence Forces in 1912 as Inspector-General of the Permanent Force. He commanded a formation in the German South West Africa Campaign (1914-1915), and commanded the 1st South African Infantry Brigade of the South African Overseas Expeditionary Force in Egypt (1916) and France (1916), at Delville Wood before being promoted to a divisional command in the British Army. He was knighted for his war service, and retired in 1919.

He was the only son of barrister-at-law Robert Henry Lukin of the Inner Temple; Henry or Harry Lukin, as he was usually known, had a sister two years younger and lost his mother when sixteen years old. Henry Lukin did not enter Sandhurst despite a family military tradition. Instead he sailed for South Africa and was commissioned as a lieutenant in Bengough's Horse during the Zulu War, and was seriously wounded at Ulundi in 1879.

References

* [http://rapidttp.com/milhist/vol073bj.html The South African Military History Society] "Militaria" - Official Professional Journal of the SADF (Vol 12/2: 1982)