The commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Metcalfe, had joined the battalion in Crete in 1899. Metcalfe’s predecessor, Francis Howard, now Major General, commanded that sector of the defences that included King’s Post. He had been in the Sudan in 1898 together with Hunter and Rawlinson. The attack on Surprise Hill to destroy the Boer Krupp howitzer on its summit was planned by these four officers, all well-acquainted with one another.
