British General. An important participant in several of the British Army's most notable campaigns of the nineteenth century, he was commissioned an Ensign in the 95th Regiment (Sherwood Foresters) on October 13, 1854 and promoted to Lieutenant in 1858. Beginning in 1857, he served in India where he and his regiment participated in putting down the Indian Mutiny; during which he was mentioned in despatches three times and was wounded in action. In Bombay, he was Inspector of Musketry from 1860 to 1862, and Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to Lieutenant General William Rose Mansfield (1st Baron Sandhurst), Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay district, from 1862 to 1864. In 1868, he attended Staff College in India and the following year he was again appointed Aide-de-Camp to General William Rose Mansfield who had just become Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in Ireland. From 1871 to 1875, he was Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at Aldershot (the traditional homeland base garrison of the British Army). Promoted to Major in 1875, and in 1877 he became Deputy Adjutant Quartermaster General at Aldershot. In 1878, he was posted to South Africa where he served during the Ninth Frontier War (Xhosa War) as assistant military secretary to Lieutenant General Sir Frederic Augustus Thesiger (who soon became 2nd Baron Chelmsford). He then served throughout the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, in which he held the rank of brevet Lieutenant Colonel and was military secretary to Lieutenant General Lord Chelmsford. He was with Lord Chelmsford and half of the divided column which departed the camp at Isandhlwana on the morning of January 22, 1879 in search of the Zulu army, and during their absence the camp was overrun by the enemy and its British, Colonial, and African allies massacred. The following day, Chelmsford, Crealock, and the surviving half-column arrived at Rorke's Drift immediately after the infamous battle there which resulted in the award of eleven Victoria Crosses. A gifted artist (like his older brother Lieutenant General Henry Hope Crealock, who also served during the Anglo-Zulu War), his sketches of Rorke's Drift following the battle were the basis for the first images of the battleground appearing in "The Illustrated London News." Crealock was wounded at the battle of Gingindlovu on April 2, 1879, present at the relief of the besieged garrison at Eshowe on April 3, 1879, and was at the battle of Ulundi on July 4, 1879 which ultimately ended the Anglo-Zulu War. During the war, he was again mentioned in despatches a further three times. He went to great lengths to shield Lord Chelmsford from any responsibility for the disastrous defeat at the battle of Isandhlwana. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and on July 21, 1880 he was given command of the Second Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters. In 1882, he led his battalion during the Anglo-Egyptian War and held the command at Alexandria. He subsequently commanded the 45th Regimental District, at Derby, from 1885 to 1887. From 1887 to 1890 he was Assistant Adjutant General at Aldershot, and from 1890 to 1892 he was Assistant Quartermaster General at Aldershot. He next commanded the 2nd Infantry Brigade at Aldershot from 1892 to 1893. Promoted to Major General in 1892. He held commands in Burma from 1893 to 1895, and in Bengal, India from 1895 until his death at 56 years of age. He was the author and illustrator of "The Frontier War Journal of Major John Crealock, 1878: A Narrative of the Ninth Frontier War by the Assistant Military Secretary to Lieutenant General Thesiger," and "The Road to Ulundi: The Water-colour Drawings of John North Crealock," both of which published posthumously. For his services to Great Britain and the Empire, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). In the film "Zulu Dawn" (1979), Crealock was portrayed by Michael Jayston.