He was promoted Captain in 1888. From 1892 to 1897 he served as aide-de-camp to the Major-General commanding the Home District, during which period he commanded a Guards Company in the Special Service Corps and saw active service again on the Ashantee Expedition of 1895–1896, gaining the Ashanti Star, and in 1897 was promoted Major. In 1898 he joined the Soudan Expedition, when he was mentioned in despatches and decorated with the Queen's Medal and the Egyptian Medal. From 1898 to 1900 he was posted to Ottawa as Military Secretary to the Governor-General of Canada, the Earl of Minto, but he interrupted this posting in 1899 to return to South Africa, accompanying a Canadian contingent joining the war. One historian has said of Drummond's interlude in Canada –