General Sir Bindon Blood, (7 November 1842 – 16 May 1940) was a British Army commander who served in Egypt, Afghanistan, India, and South Africa.
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Military career
Bindon Blood was born near Jedburgh, Scotland, to William Bindon Blood (1817–1894) and Margaret Stewart (1820–1849). He was related to Colonel Thomas Blood, who attempted to steal the Crown Jewels in 1671. He attended the Royal School, Banagher, Queen's College, Galway, and the Addiscombe Military College. He was commissioned in 1860 in the Royal Engineers as a temporary lieutenant in charge of signalling and pontoon bridge construction in India, and for brief periods in Zululand and South Africa. Promoted to captain in 1873, he served with British forces in the North-West Frontier (Jowaki). In 1879 he was sent back to Africa for the Anglo-Zulu War. He went on to fight in the Second Anglo-Afghan War and the Battle of Tell El Kebir. By 1882 he was a brevet lieutenant colonel.
The following year, 1883, Blood married Charlotte E. Colvin, second daughter of Sir Auckland Colvin, a distinguished colonial administrator in India from a well-connected family. Then he returned to India and took command of the Bengal Sappers and Miners in 1885. After seven years he reached the rank of brigadier general, serving in the garrison at Rawalpindi, and then in the relief force known as the Chitral Expedition. He then commanded the Malakand Field Force and the Buner Field Force, relieving the garrison during the siege of Malakand. At the end of this command he was promoted to major general. He was appointed in command of the Meerut District, in the Bengal Command, on 22 September 1898.
