Aylmer Haldane

General Sir James Aylmer Lowthorpe Haldane GCMG KCB DSO (17 November 1862 – 19 April 1950) was a senior British Army officer with a long and distinguished career.

Early life

Born to physician Daniel Rutherford Haldane and his wife Charlotte Elizabeth née Lowthorpe, James Aylmer Lowthorpe Haldane came from a family of distinguished Scottish aristocrats based in Gleneagles.

Military career

In 1882, after attending the Edinburgh Academy and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Haldane was commissioned as a British officer of the Gordon Highlanders. On 18 February 1886, he was promoted to Lieutenant.

Between 1894 and 1895, Haldane was part of the Waziristan Field Force and participated in the Chitral Expedition. Promoted to Captain on 13 Aug 1896, he was soon dispatched to quell the Afridis rebellion in the Tirah campaign for the next two years (1897–1898). He became aide-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief East Indies in 1898 and then fought in the Second Boer War. While imprisoned in Pretoria during the Boer War, he planned the escape which made Winston Churchill famous. Haldane failed to escape at the same time and later complained of Churchill's lack of regard for those who should have escaped with him. However, Haldane later managed his own escape.