Reginald Salmond Curtis

Major-General Sir Reginald Salmond Curtis (21 November 1863 – 11 January 1922) was a British army officer, responsible for the reorganisation and modernisation of the Royal Engineers during the First World War. Early life He was the eldest son of Major-General Reginald Curtis, Royal Artillery and Marianne Emma Salmond, and was educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He received his first commission in 1883. Career in Africa From 1890 to 1893 he served in the Egyptian Army, and was present at the capture of Tokar, in the Sudan campaign of 1891. In the Ashanti expedition of 1895-6 he served as Director of Telegraphs. The Second Boer War broke out in South Africa in October 1899. Curtis was at first ADC to the Engineer-in-Chief, and was afterwards appointed Assistant Director of Telegraphs. He was involved in military operations in the Orange Free State from February to May, 1900, including the battles of Paardeberg and Driefontein, and operations at Vet River, and Zand River. He served in the Transvaal in May and June, 1900, in actions near Johannesburg and Pretoria, then east of Pretoria from July to October, 1900, including the action at Belfast, also in Cape Colony south of the Orange River. For his service with the paramilitary South African Constabulary during the later part of the war, he received a brevet promotion to lieutenant-colonel on 22 August 1902.