Quick Facts
Biography
Brigadier-General Henry Robert Kelham CB (1853 – 4 October 1931) was a senior British Army officer.
Military career
Kelham was commissioned into the 74th (Highland) Regiment of Foot as a lieutenant on 28 May 1873. He was promoted to captain on 7 January 1882, and fought at the Battle of Tell El Kebir in September 1882 during the Anglo–Egyptian War. Promoted to major on 31 January 1890, he served with the 1st battalion in the occupation of Crete in 1898.
Kelham was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 4 November 1899, and appointed in command of the 1st Battalion Highland Light Infantry which was sent to South Africa to reinforce British troops during the Second Boer War. For his service in the war, he was mentioned in dispatches, and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). The battalion stayed in South Africa throughout the war, which ended in June 1902, when they were reassigned to Egypt. Kelham was in command of 700 officers and men when they left Durban for Egypt on the SS Plassy in January 1903. He went on to become General Officer Commanding Lowland Division in April 1908 before retiring in March 1910.