John Stewart-Murray, 8th Duke of Atholl

He was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards with the rank of second lieutenant on 28 December 1892, and was promoted to lieutenant on 30 December 1893. He served in Kitchener's expedition to the Sudan, fighting at the Battle of Khartoum and the Battle of Atbara. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 15 November 1898, and rose to the rank of captain a year later, on 20 November 1899.[2]

In 1900 he served as an aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General J. F. Burn-Murdoch, in command of a brigade of the Cavalry division stationed in Natal. In November 1900 he was given the rank of brevet major in the Royal Horse Guards,[3] and asked by Lord Kitchener, whom he had served under on the Omdurman Campaign, to raise a regiment of Scotsmen in South Africa, called The Scottish Horse. The regiment was raised quickly and soon saw active service in the Western Transvaal. A second regiment of Scottish Horse was raised from troops recruited by The 7th Duke of Atholl and a permanent headquarters was set up to supply both of these regiments, with Atholl in command but with subordinate commanding officers in the field in charge of each of the Regiments. This success continued until the Scottish Horse was a whole brigade by the end of the Second Boer War. In August 1901 Lord Tullibardine received the local rank of lieutenant colonel in South Africa while commanding the Scottish Horse.[4] He was mentioned in despatches by Lord Kitchener dated 23 June 1902.[5] Following the end of the war in June 1902, Lord Tullibardine and most of the men of the Scottish Horse left Cape Town on the SS Goth in early August, and arrived at Southampton later the same month.[6]

After his return to the United Kingdom, he was on 28 September 1902 received at Balmoral Castle by King Edward VII, who presented him with the Insignia of a Member (4th class) of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) for his services in South Africa.[7][8] The following year he was promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant colonel in the Army.

In the Great War Atholl commanded a Brigade of a Yeomanry Regiment and took them to fight dismounted (without horses) in the Dardanelles campaign against the Turks. He gained the rank of temporary brigadier general in 1918.

During the Second World War, despite being seventy years old, Atholl joined the Home Guard and reportedly took turns as sentry officer on duty in Whitehall. He remained closely involved with the Scottish Horse, remaining in the post of Colonel Commandant until 1919 and Honorary Colonel from 1920 until his death in 1942. He was key in establishing a Scottish National War Memorial[9] in Edinburgh Castle after the First World War and his papers relating to this are retained by the National Library of Scotland.[10]