Junior officer

Between 1881 and 1882 Wilson made several unsuccessful attempts to get into the British Army officer-training establishments: two to enter the Royal Military Academy (Woolwich) and three for the Royal Military College. The entrance examinations to both relied heavily on rote learning. Sir John Fortescue later claimed that this was because as a tall boy he needed "time for his brain to develop".^[7][8][9]

Like French and Spears, Wilson acquired his commission "by the back door" as it was then known, by first becoming a militia officer. In December 1882 he joined the Longford Militia, which was also the 6th (militia) Battalion of the Rifle Brigade. He also trained with the 5th Munster Fusiliers.^[10][11] After two periods of training he was eligible to apply for a regular commission, and after further cramming in the winter of 1883–84, and trips to Algiers and Darmstadt to learn French and German, he sat the Army exam in July 1884. He was commissioned into the Royal Irish Regiment, but soon transferred into the more prestigious Rifle Brigade.^[10][12][13]

Early in 1885 Wilson was posted with the 1st Battalion to India, where he took up polo and big game hunting. In November 1886 he was posted to the Upper Irawaddy, just south of Mandalay, in recently annexed Burma to take part in the Third Burmese War, whose counter-insurgency operations in the Arakan Hills became known as "the subalterns' war". The British troops were organised into mounted infantry, accompanied by "Goorkha police". Wilson worked with Henry Rawlinson of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, who described him in his diary as "a very good chap". On 5 May 1887 he was wounded above the left eye. The wound did not heal and after six months in Calcutta he spent almost the whole of 1888 recuperating in Ireland until he was passed fit for regimental duty. He was left disfigured.^[14] His wound earned him the nicknames "Ugly Wilson" and "the ugliest man in the British Army".^[9]

Marriage

While in Ireland Wilson began courting Cecil Mary Wray, who was two years his senior. Her family, who had come over to Ireland late in Elizabeth I's reign, had owned an estate called Ardamona near Lough Eske, Donegal, the profitability of which had never recovered from the Great Famine of Ireland of the 1840s. On 26 December 1849 two kegs of explosive were set off outside the house, after which the family only ever spent one more winter there. From 1850 Cecil's father George Wray had worked as a land agent, latterly for Lord Drogheda's estates in Kildare, until his death in 1878. Cecil grew up in straitened circumstances, and her views on Irish politics appear to have been rather more hardline than her husband's. They were married on 3 October 1891.^[15]

The Wilsons were childless.^[16] Wilson lavished affection on their pets (including a dog "Paddles") and other people's children. They gave a home to young Lord Guilford in 1895–1896 and Cecil's niece Leonora ("Little Trench") from December 1902.^[17]

Staff College

While contemplating marriage, Wilson began to study for the Staff College, Camberley, in 1888, possibly as attendance at Staff College was not only cheaper than service with a smart regiment but also opened up the possibility of promotion. At this time Wilson had a private income of £200 a year from a £6,000 trust fund. At the end of 1888 Wilson was passed fit for home (but not overseas) service, and joined the 2nd battalion at Dover early in 1889.^[18] Wilson was elected to White's in 1889.^[19]

After a posting to Aldershot, Wilson was posted to Belfast in May 1890. In May 1891 he passed 15th (out of 25) into Staff College. French and German were amongst his worst subjects, and he began study there in January 1892.^[18] After his difficulty in entering the Army, passing the entrance exam proved that he did not lack brains.^[9]

Colonel Henry Hildyard became Staff College Commandant in August 1893, beginning a reform of the institution, placing more emphasis on continuous assessment (including outdoor exercises) rather than examinations. Wilson also studied under Colonel George Henderson.^[20] Whilst at the College he visited the battlefields of the Franco-Prussian War in March 1893.^[21] Rawlinson and Thomas D'Oyly Snow were often his study partners. Rawlinson and Wilson became close friends, often staying and socialising together, and Rawlinson introduced Wilson to Lord Roberts in May 1893, whilst both men were working on a scheme for the defence of India.^[20] Wilson became a protégé of Roberts.^[9]

Staff officer

Wilson graduated from Staff College in December 1893 and was immediately promoted captain.^[22] He was due to be posted with the 3rd Battalion to India early in 1894, but after extensive and unsuccessful lobbying he obtained a medical postponement. He then learned that he was to join the 1st Battalion in Hong Kong for two years, but swapped with another captain – who then died on his tour of duty. There is no clear evidence as to why Wilson was so keen to avoid overseas service. Repington, then a staff captain in the Intelligence Section at the War Office, took Wilson on a tour of French military and naval installations in July. After a very brief service with his regiment in September, with Repington's help Wilson came to work at the War Office in November 1894, initially as an unpaid assistant, then succeeding to Repington's own job.^[23]

The Intelligence Division had been developed by General Henry Brackenbury in the late 1880s into a sort of substitute General Staff; Brackenbury had been succeeded by Roberts protégé General Edward Chapman in April 1891.^[24] Wilson worked there for three years from November 1894.^{[8][24][25][26]} From November 1895 Wilson found time to assist Rawlinson with his "Officer's Note Book" based on a previous book by Lord Wolseley, and which inspired the official "Field Service Pocket Book".^[24]

Wilson worked in Section A (France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Latin America). In April 1895, despite intensive tutoring of up to three hours most days, he failed an exam in German for a posting to Berlin. On 5 May 1895, he took over from Repington as staff captain of section A, making him the youngest staff officer in the British Army. His duties took him to Paris (June 1895, to inquire about the expedition to Borgu on the Upper Niger) and Brussels.^[27] In January 1896 he seemed likely to be appointed brigade major of the 2nd brigade at Aldershot if the current incumbent, Jack Cowans, a notorious womaniser with a penchant for "rough trade", resigned, although in the event this did not happen until early September.^[28]

War Office

In 1901 Wilson spent nine months working under Ian Hamilton in the War Office, working to allocate honours and awards from the recent South African War. He himself received a Mentioned in Despatches^[41] as "an officer of considerable ability" who displayed "energy and success", and a Distinguished Service Order,^[8][42] which Aylmer Haldane later claimed Wilson had insisted on receiving out of jealousy that he had been awarded it.^[43] Wilson was also recommended for brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel on attaining a substantive majority.^[44] On 31 December, referring to the bruising of egos involved in the distribution of honours (Nicholson and Kelly-Kenny both felt that they had received insufficient recognition), he commented that the job had "lost some of my old friends, but I hope not many".^[43]

Between March and May 1901, at the behest of the Liberal Unionist MP Sir William Rattigan, and against the backdrop of St John Brodrick's proposed Army reforms, Wilson – writing anonymously as "a Staff Officer" – published a series of twelve articles on Army Reform in the Lahore Civil and Military Gazette. He argued that given the recent great growth in the size of the Empire Britain could no longer rely on the Royal Navy alone. Wilson argued that the three main roles of the Army were home defence, defence of India (against Russia), Egypt and Canada (against the US, with whom Wilson nonetheless hoped Britain would remain on friendly terms), and defence of major coaling stations and ports for the Royal Navy's use. Unlike St John Brodrick, Wilson at this stage explicitly ruled out Britain becoming involved in a European war. Without her major colonies, he argued, Britain would suffer "the fate of Spain". He wanted 250,000 men to be made available for overseas service, not the 120,000 proposed by Brodrick, and contemplated the introduction of conscription (which had been ruled out by the Liberal Opposition).^[45] In private Wilson – partly motivated by the poor performance of ill-trained Yeomanry units in South Africa – and other War Office officers were less complimentary about Brodrick's proposed reforms.^[46]

Battalion commander

Wilson gained both the substantive promotion to major and the promised brevet in December 1901,^[47] and in 1902 became Commanding Officer of the 9th Provisional Battalion, Rifle Brigade at Colchester,^[8][48] intended to supply drafts for the South African War, then still in progress. The battalion was disbanded in February 1903.^[49]

Military education and training

Wilson went back to the War Office as Rawlinson's assistant at the Department of Military Education and Training under General Sir Henry Hildyard. The three men led a committee which worked on a "Manual of Combined Training" and a "Staff Manual" which formed the basis of Field Service Regulations Part II, which was to be in force when the Army went to war in August 1914.^[50] With £1,600 borrowed from his father, Wilson bought a house off Marylebone Road.^[50] In 1903 he became an Assistant Adjutant-General.^[51]

In July 1903 he reflected, during the visit of French President Émile Loubet, on the need for a Franco-British alliance against the Germans who had "an increasing population & no political morals".^[52]

At this time Wilson was becoming friendly with political figures such as Arthur Balfour (Prime Minister), Winston Churchill (who had first met Wilson, "a haggard but jocular Major [sic]", at Iniskilling Hill in February 1900), Leo Amery and Leo Maxse.^[17] Some of St John Brodrick's proposed reforms were criticised by the Elgin Report in August 1903 (which Wilson thought "absolutely damning"). Brodrick was being attacked in Parliament by Conservative MPs, of whom Leo Amery was one, and to whom Wilson was feeding information.^[53]

Esher reforms and General Staff

On Leo Amery's suggestion Wilson's colleague Gerald Ellison was appointed Secretary of the War Office (Reconstitution) Committee (see Esher Report), which consisted of Esher, Admiral John Fisher and Sir George Clarke. Wilson approved of Esher's aims, but not the whirlwind speed by which he began making changes at the War Office. Wilson impressed Esher, and was put in charge of the new department which managed Staff College, RMA, RMC and officers' promotion exams.^[54] Wilson often travelled around Britain and Ireland to supervise the training of officers and examinations for promotion.^[55]

Wilson attended the first ever General Staff Conference and Staff Ride at Camberley in January 1905.^[56] He continued to lobby for a General Staff to be set up, especially after the Dogger Bank incident of October 1904. Repington also campaigned publicly for this from May 1905, which helped prod Brodrick's successor Arnold-Forster into action. He asked Wilson for his views – Wilson proposed a strong Chief of the General Staff who would be the Secretary of State for War's sole adviser on matters of strategy, ironically the position which would be held by Wilson's rival Robertson during the First World War.^[57] Despite pressure from Repington, Esher and Sir George Clarke, progress on the General Staff was very slow. In August Arnold-Forster issued a minute similar to Wilson's of three months previous. Lyttelton (Chief of the General Staff), unaware of Wilson's role, expressed support. In November Wilson released Arnold-Forster's memo to the press, claiming he had been ordered to do so; Arnold-Forster initially expressed "amazement" but then agreed that the leak had "done nothing but good".^[58]

The Wilsons had Christmas Dinner with Roberts in 1904 and 1905, while Roberts was fond enough of Wilson to discuss his will and his wish that his daughters marry to continue the family line. Wilson assisted Roberts with his House of Lords speeches, and the closeness of their relationship attracted disapproval from Lyttelton, and possibly French and Arnold-Forster. Relations with Lyttelton became more strained in 1905–06, possibly out of jealousy or influenced by Repington.^[59] Wilson had predicted a hung Parliament in January 1906, but to his disgust, "that traitor C.B." had won a landslide.^[56][60]

There was a war scare in May 1906 when the Turks occupied an old Egyptian fort at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. Wilson noted that Grierson (Director of Military Operations) and Lyttelton ("absolutely incapable … positively a dangerous fool") had approved the proposed scheme for military action, but neither the Adjutant-General nor the Quartermaster-General had been consulted.^[61] Repington wrote to Esher that Wilson was an "intriguing impostor" and "a low-class schemer whose sole aptitude is for worshipping rising suns – an aptitude expressed by those who know him in more vulgar language".^[62] On 12 September 1906 Army Order 233 set up a General Staff to supervise education and training and to draw up war plans (Wilson had drafted an Army Order late in 1905, but it had been held up by disputes over whether staff officers should be appointed by the Chief of the General Staff as Wilson preferred or by an eleven-man selection board).^[61]

Appointment

Wilson had hoped, as early as March 1905, to succeed Rawlinson as Commandant at Staff College, Camberley, when Rawlinson told him he had been offered a brigadier-general's staff position at Aldershot Command; however the move was postponed until the end of the year. In June 1905 Wilson learned that Arnold-Forster (Secretary of State for War) thought him the man for the job, but on 12 July Lyttelton (Chief of the General Staff), who appears to have disliked Wilson, raised the job to a brigadier-general's position, for which Wilson was not yet senior enough.^[63]

On 16 July 1906 Rawlinson told Wilson that he wanted him to succeed him at the end of the year, and the news appeared in the press in August amidst praise for Rawlinson, suggesting that he rather than Wilson had leaked it. In September and October 1906 Lyttelton favoured Colonel Edward ("Edna") May, Assistant Director of Military Operations; Ewart (Director of Military Operations) and Haig (Director of Military Training) opposed May's appointment, whilst Field Marshal Roberts wrote to Richard Haldane (Secretary of State for War from December 1905) and Esher recommending Wilson on the basis of his excellent staff work in South Africa, and as a strong character needed to maintain Rawlinson's improvements to training at Camberley. Wilson, who learned indirectly from Aylmer Haldane on 24 October that he was to get the job, wrote to thank Roberts, and was in little doubt that his support had clinched it for him. Wilson remained very close to Roberts, often joining him for Christmas Dinner and attending his Golden Wedding in May 1909.^[64] French (then commanding 1st Army Corps at Aldershot Command) had initially been suspicious of Wilson as a Roberts protégé, but now supported his candidacy, and by 1912 Wilson had become his most trusted adviser.^[65]

Wilson noted in his diary that he had gone from captain to brigadier general in five years and one month.^[66] He was promoted to substantive colonel on 1 January 1907^[67] and his appointment as temporary brigadier-general and Commandant Staff College, Camberley, was announced on 8 January 1907.^[68] He was at first short of money – he had to borrow £350 (£39391 in 2016) to cover the expense of moving to Camberley, where his official salary was not enough to cover the cost of entertaining expected – and initially had to cut back on foreign holidays and social trips to London but after inheriting £1,300 on his father's death in August 1907 was able to buy polo ponies and a second car in subsequent years.^[66] His pay as commandant rose from £1,200 in 1907 to £1,350 in 1910.^[69]

Doctrine

Wilson had argued as far back as a memo to Arnold-Forster in May 1905 that a "School of Thought" was needed. In his start-of-year speeches to students, he stressed the need for administrative knowledge ("the drudgery of staffwork"), physical fitness (in his mid-forties, Wilson was still able to keep up with much younger officers at sport), imagination, "sound judgement of men & affairs" and "constant reading & reflexion on the campaigns of the great masters". Brian Bond argued (in The Victorian Army and the Staff College) that Wilson's "School of Thought" meant not just common training for staff officers but also espousal of conscription and the military commitment to send a BEF to France in the event of war. Keith Jeffery argues that this is a misunderstanding by Bond: there is no evidence in Wilson's writings to confirm that he meant the phrase in that way, although his political views were shared by many officers.^[70]

Although Wilson was less obsessed about the dangers of espionage than Edmonds (then running MO5 – military intelligence), in March 1908 he had two German barbers removed as potential spies from Staff College.^[71]

Wilson was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the June 1908 Birthday Honours.^[69]

In 1908 Wilson had his senior class prepare a scheme for the deployment of an Expeditionary Force to France, assuming Germany to have invaded Belgium. Questions were asked in the House of Commons when news of this leaked out, and the following year no assumption was made of a German invasion of Belgium, and students were sharply reminded that the exercise was "SECRET".^[72] Wilson first met Foch on a visit to the Ecole Superieur de Guerre (December 1909). They struck up a good rapport, and both thought the Germans would attack between Verdun and Namur.^[73][74] Wilson arranged for Foch and Victor Huguet to visit Britain in June 1910, and copied his practice of setting students outdoor exercises in which they were distracted by instructors shouting "Allez! Allez!" and "Vite! Vite!" at them whilst they were attempting to draw up plans at short notice.^[73]

Accompanied by Colonel Harper, Wilson reconnoitred the likely future theatre of war. In August 1908, along with Edward Percival ("Perks"), they explored south of Namur by train and bicycle. In August 1909, Harper and Wilson travelled from Mons then down the French frontier almost as far as Switzerland. In spring 1910, this time by motor car, they travelled from Rotterdam into Germany, then explored the German side of the frontier, noting the new railway lines and "many sidings" which had been built near St Vith and Bitburg (to allow concentration of German troops near the Ardennes).^[75][76]

Wilson privately supported conscription at least as early as 1905. He thought Haldane's scheme to merge Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteers into a new Territorial Army of 16 divisions would not be enough to match German training and efficiency. He was summoned to see Haldane (March 1909) after an article in the Liberal Westminster Gazette (inspired by Repington, Wilson assumed) claimed that he supported conscription. In a lecture to students (November 1909) he did not publicly oppose government policy but hinted that it might not be enough. His wife Cecil organised a National Service League meeting that month.^[77] Wilson successfully (November 1907) lobbied Haldane for an increase in the size of the Staff College in order to provide trained staff officers for the new Territorial Army. Haldane agreed an expansion after an inspection in March 1908. During Wilson's tenure the number of instructors rose from 7 to 16 and the number of students from 64 to 100. In total, 224 Army and 22 Royal Navy officers studied under him.^[69]

Wilson voted for Parliament for the first time in January 1910 (for the Unionists).^[78][79] He recorded that "the lies told by the Radicals from Asquith down are revolting".^[80]

Lecturing style

Launcelot Kiggell wrote that Wilson was a "spell-binding" lecturer as Commandant at Camberley.^[9] During his time as Commandant, Wilson gave 33 lectures. A number of students, of whom the most famous was Archibald Wavell, later contrasted Wilson's expansive lecturing, ranging widely and wittily over geopolitics, with the more practical focus of his successor Robertson. Many of these recollections are unreliable in their details, may well exaggerate the differences between the two men, and may have been influenced by Wilson's indiscreet diaries published in the 1920s.^[81]

Berkeley Vincent, who had been an observer in the Russo-Japanese War (he was a protégé of Ian Hamilton, whom Wilson appears to have disliked), took a more critical view of Wilson. He objected to Wilson's tactical views – Wilson was sceptical of claims that Japanese morale had enabled their infantry to overcome Russian defensive firepower – and his lecturing style: "a sort of witty buffoonery … a sort of English stage Irishman".^[82]

Succession

In May and June 1909 Wilson had been tipped to succeed Haig as Director of Staff Duties, although he would have preferred command of a brigade.^[69] In April and May 1910, with his term of office at Camberley still officially running until January 1911, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), William Nicholson, told Wilson that he was to succeed Spencer Ewart as Director of Military Operations that summer and vetoed him from accepting Horace Smith-Dorrien's offer of a brigade at Aldershot.^[83] King George V rounded off Wilson's tenure at Camberley in style with an official visit in July 1910.^[69]

Wilson recommended Kiggell as his successor and thought the appointment of William Robertson "a tremendous gamble", writing "my heart sinks when I think what it all may mean to the College & this house". He may have felt that Robertson's lack of private means did not suit him for a position which required entertaining.^[84] Robertson visited Camberley with Lord Kitchener (28 July 1910), who criticised Wilson; this may have been one of the causes of the poor relations between Wilson and Kitchener in August 1914.^[85] Edmonds later told a story of how Wilson had, perhaps as a joke or wanting to draw attention to Robertson's shortage of money, left a bill for £250 for furniture and improvements to the Commandant's residence, and that Wilson's predecessor Rawlinson, when approached by Robertson for advice, had been amused and had commented that many of these improvements had been made by his own wife or by previous Commandants. Whatever the truth of the matter, relations between Wilson and Robertson deteriorated thereafter.^[86]

Repington (whom Wilson thought a "dirty brute" and "lying brute") attacked the current standards of British staff officers in The Times on 27 September 1910, arguing that Wilson had educated staff officers to be "sucking Napoleons" and that Robertson was a "first rate man" who would sort it out.^[87] Wilson wrote to Lord Loch (27 September 1910) "we can comfort ourselves with the reflexion that to be abused by Repington is the highest praise an honest man can get".^[88]

Initial decisions

In 1910 Wilson became Director of Military Operations at the British War Office.^[76][89] As DMO Wilson headed a staff of 33, divided into five sections: MO1 was "Strategic & Colonial", MO2 "European", MO3 "Asiatic", and the others were "Geographic" and "Miscellaneous". He was initially impressed only by the mapping section. He soon restructured the sections into MO1 (responsible for the forces of the Crown, including those in India; the Territorial Army was deemed part of Home Defence and answered to the Director of Military Training), MO2 (France and Russia) and MO3 (the Triple Alliance).^[90]

Wilson believed his most important duty as DMO to be the drawing up of detailed plans for deployment of an expeditionary force to France, in accordance with the CID's decision of July 1909. Little progress had been made in this area since Grierson's plans during the First Moroccan Crisis.^[9][91] Maj-Gen Spencer Ewart (Grierson's successor as DMO) and William Nicholson (CIGS) had both avoided direct dealings with Victor Huguet, the French Military attache.^[92] Of the 36 papers which Wilson wrote as DMO, 21 were taken up by matters pertaining to the Expeditionary Force. He hoped also to get conscription brought in, but this came to nothing.^[93]

Wilson described the size of Haldane's planned Expeditionary Force (six divisions of three brigades each and a cavalry division of four brigades) as simply a "reshuffle" of the troops available in Britain, and often declared that "there was no military problem to which the answer was six divisions". Ferdinand Foch is supposed to have told Wilson that he would be happy for Britain to send just a corporal and four men, provided it was right from the start of the war, and that he promised to get them killed, so that Britain would come into the war with all her strength.^[94] Foch was concerned that France might not be able to count on Russian support in the event of war, and was more keen than ever to enlist British military aid. He invited Wilson and Colonel Fairholme, British military attaché in Paris, to his daughter's wedding in October 1910. On a visit to London (6 December 1910) Wilson took him for a meeting with Sir Arthur Nicolson, Permanent-Under Secretary at the Foreign Office.^[95]

In 1910 Wilson bought 36 Eaton Place on a 13-year lease for £2,100. His salary was then £1,500. The house was a financial burden and the Wilsons often let it out.^[96]

Wilson and his staff spent the winter of 1910–11 conducting a "great strategical War Game" to predict what the great powers would do when war broke out.^[90]

Early 1911

Wilson thought the existing plans for deployment of the BEF (known as the "WF" scheme – this stood for "With France" but was sometimes wrongly thought to stand for "Wilson-Foch") "disgraceful. A pure academic, paper arrangement of no earthly value to anyone." He sent Nicholson a long minute (12 January 1911) demanding authority to take transport planning in hand. He was given this after a lunch with Haldane, who had already consulted Foreign Secretary Grey (20 January).^[97]

On 27–28 January 1911, Wilson visited Brussels, dining with members of the Belgian General Staff, and later exploring the part of the country south of the Meuse with the military attaché Colonel Tom Bridges.^[98] Between 17 and 27 February, he visited Germany, meeting Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg and Admiral Tirpitz at a dinner at the British Embassy. On the return journey he noted how many railway sidings were being built at Herstal on the Belgian frontier, and dined in Paris with Foch, whom he warned (26 February) against listening to Repington, and the French Chief of Staff General Laffort de Ladibat.^[88] Admiral John Fisher was hostile to Wilson's plans to deploy forces to the continent.^[99] By 21 March Wilson was preparing plans to embark the BEF infantry by Day 4 of mobilisation, followed by the cavalry on Day 7 and the artillery on Day 9.^[100] Refusing Nicholson's request (April 1911) that he help with Repington's new Army Review, he declared him "a man devoid of honour, & a liar".^[88]

Second Moroccan crisis

Wilson sat up till midnight on 4 July (three days after the Panther arrived at Agadir in an attempt to overawe the French) writing a long minute to the CIGS. On 19 July he went to Paris for talks with Adolphe Messimy (French War Minister) and General Dubail (French Chief of Staff). The Wilson-Dubail memorandum, although making explicit that neither government was committed to action, promised that in the event of war the Royal Navy would transport six infantry and one cavalry divisions (totaling 150,000 men) to Rouen, Le Havre and Boulogne, and that the BEF would concentrate between Arras, Cambrai and St Quentin by the thirteenth day of mobilisation. In reality, the transport plans were nowhere near ready, although it is unclear that the French knew this.^[101][102] The French called the Expeditionary Force "l'Armee Wilson"^[103] although they seem to have been left with an inflated idea of the size of commitment which Britain would send.^[104]

Wilson approved of Lloyd George's Mansion House speech (backing France), which he thought preferable to "the funk Edward Grey('s) procrastinat(ion)".^[105] He lunched with Grey and Sir Eyre Crowe (Assistant Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office) on 9 August, urging them that Britain must mobilise on the same day as France and send the whole six divisions. He thought Grey "the most ignorant & careless of the two … an ignorant, vain & weak man quite unfit to be the Foreign Minister of any country larger than Portugal". Wilson was perhaps unappreciative that Grey was not only trying to find a peaceful resolution but also had to consider the domestic political crisis as the Parliament Act was being pushed through and troops were being deployed against strikers in London,^[106] Liverpool and South Wales.^[107]

CID meeting

Hankey complained of Wilson's "perfect obsession for military operations on the Continent", scoffing at his bicycling trips of recent years around the French and Belgian borders, and accusing him of filling the War Office with like-minded officers.^[108] At Nicholson's request Wilson prepared a paper (dated 15 August), based on the evolution of his ideas over the previous ten years. He argued that British aid would be necessary to prevent Germany defeating France and achieving domination of the continent, and that this would have both a moral and a military effect on the outcome. He argued that by Day 13 of mobilisation France would have the upper hand, outnumbering the Germans by 63 divisions to 57 along the frontier, but by Day 17 Germany would outnumber France by 96 divisions to 66. However, because of road bottlenecks in the passable parts of the war theatre, the Germans would at most be able to deploy 54 divisions in the opening phase, allowing the 6 infantry divisions of the BEF a disproportionate effect on the outcome. Ernest R. May later claimed that Wilson had "cooked" these figures, but his arguments were challenged by Edward Bennett, who argued that Wilson's numbers were not far wrong.^[109]

This became the General Staff position for the CID meeting on 23 August. This was attended by Cabinet Ministers Asquith, Haldane, McKenna, Churchill, Grey, Lloyd George, as well as Nicholson (CIGS), French (the likely commander of the BEF) and Wilson representing the Army, and Sir Arthur Wilson (First Sea Lord) and Alexander Bethell (Director of Naval Intelligence). Admiral Wilson gave a poor account of himself, proposing that 5 divisions guard Britain whilst one land on the Baltic coast, or possibly at Antwerp, believing that the Germans would be halfway to Paris by the time an Expeditionary Force was ready, and that the four to six divisions Britain was expected to be able to muster would have little effect in a war with 70-80+ divisions on each side. Wilson thought the Royal Navy plan "one of the most childish papers I ever read".^[110] Henry Wilson set out his own plans, apparently the first time the CID had heard them.^[76] Hankey recorded that Wilson's lucid presentation carried the day even though Hankey himself did not entirely agree with it. Prime Minister H. H. Asquith ordered the Navy to fall in with the Army's plans, although he preferred to send only four divisions. Hankey also recorded that Morley and Burns resigned from the Cabinet as they were unable to accept the decision, and Churchill and Lloyd George never fully accepted the implications of committing a large military force to France. After the meeting Hankey began to draw up the War Book detailing mobilisation plans, and yet the exact deployment of the BEF was still undecided as late as 4 August 1914.^[103]

Wilson had recommended deploying at Maubeuge. He thought (wrongly, as it turned out) that the Germans would only violate Belgian territory south of the Meuse. Over the next few weeks Wilson had several meetings with Churchill, Grey and Lloyd George, who were keen to obtain an agreement with Belgium. This attracted the opposition of Haldane, who wrote to Churchill that Wilson was "a little impulsive. He is an Irishman & … knows little of the Belgian Army", and Nicholson, who suppressed a lengthy paper by Wilson (20 September 1911) arguing for an agreement with Belgium; the paper was eventually circulated to the CID by Nicholson's successor Sir John French in April 1912.^[111]

Late 1911

Throughout the Agadir Crisis Wilson was keen to pass on the latest intelligence to Churchill, e.g. that the Germans were deploying two divisions near Malmedy on the German-Belgian frontier, or were buying up stocks of wheat. Churchill and Grey came to Wilson's house (4 September) to discuss the situation until after midnight. Wilson (18 September) recorded four separate reports from spies of German troops massing opposite the Belgian frontier. Wilson was also responsible for Military Intelligence, then in its infancy. This included MO5 (under George Macdonogh, succeeding Edmonds) and the embryonic MI5 (under Colonel Vernon Kell) and MI6 (under "C", Commander Mansfield Cumming). It is unclear from the surviving documents just how much of Wilson's time was taken up by these agencies, although he dined with Haldane, Kell and Cumming on 26 November 1911.^[112]

Wilson visited the battlefield of Mars-La-Tour where the French and Prussian Armies had clashed in 1870

In October 1911 Wilson went on another bicycle tour of Belgium south of the Meuse, also inspecting the French side of the frontier, also visiting Verdun, the battlefield of Mars-La-Tour, where he claimed to have laid (16 October) a small map showing the planned concentration areas for the BEF at the foot of the statue of France, then Fort St Michel at Toul (near Nancy). On his way home, still keen to "snaffle these Belgians" he visited the British military attaché in Brussels.^[113][114]

Radical members of the Cabinet (Morley, McKenna, Crewe, Harcourt) pushed for Wilson's removal, but he was staunchly defended by Haldane, who had the backing of the most influential ministers: Asquith, Grey and Lloyd George, as well as Churchill.^[115]

1912

After Agadir the MO1 section under Harper became a key branch in preparing for war. Churchill, newly appointed to the Admiralty, was more receptive to Army-Navy cooperation. Intelligence suggested (8 January) that Germany was getting ready for war in April 1912.^[115] In February 1912 Wilson inspected the docks at Rouen, had meetings in Paris with Joffre, de Castelnau and Millerand (War Minister), visited Foch, now commanding a division at Chaumont, and inspected southern Belgium and the Maastricht appendix with Major Sackville-West who had been on his directing staff at Camberley and now worked at MO2.^[116] Sir John French, the new CIGS (March 1912), was receptive to Wilson's wishes to prepare for war and to cooperate with Belgium, although in the end the Belgian Government refused to cooperate and remained strictly neutral until the outbreak of war,^[117] with the Belgians even deploying a division in 1914 to guard against British violation of Belgian neutrality.^[118] In April Wilson played golf at Ostend for two days with Tom Bridges, briefing him for talks with the Belgians, whom Wilson wanted to strengthen Liege and Namur.^[119]

Through his brother Jemmy, Wilson forged links with the new Conservative leader Bonar Law. Jemmy had been on the platform in Belfast in April 1912 when Law addressed a mass meeting against Home Rule, and in the summer of 1912 he came to London to work for the Ulster Defence League (run by Walter Long and Charlie Hunter).^[120] At Charlie Hunter's suggestion, Wilson dined with Law (23 June 1912). He was impressed by him and spent an hour and three-quarters discussing Ireland and defence matters. That summer he began having regular talks with Long, who used Wilson as a conduit to try to establish cross-party defence agreement with Churchill.^[120]

Wilson thought Haldane a fool for thinking that Britain would have a time window of up to six months in which to deploy the BEF.^[119] In September 1912 he inspected Warsaw with Alfred Knox, British military attaché in Russia, then met Zhilinsky in St Petersburg, before visiting the battlefield of Borodino, and Kiev, then – in Austria-Hungary – Lemburg, Krakow and Vienna. Plans to visit Constantinople had to be shelved because of the First Balkan War, although Wilson recorded his concerns that the Bulgars had beaten the Turks a month after the declaration of war – evidence that the BEF must be committed to war at once, not within six months as Haldane hoped.^[119]

By 14 November 1912 the railway timetables, drawn up by Harper's MO1, were ready, after two years of work. A joint Admiralty-War Office committee, including representatives of the merchant shipping industry, met fortnightly from February 1913, and produced a workable scheme by spring 1914. In the event the transport of the BEF from just three ports (Southampton for troops, Avonmouth for mechanical transport and Newhaven for stores) would proceed smoothly.^[117] Brian Bond argued that Wilson's greatest achievement as DMO was the provision of horses and transport and other measures which allowed mobilisation to proceed smoothly.^[121]

Repington and Wilson were still cutting one another dead whenever they met. In November 1912 Repington, who wanted to use the Territorial Army as a basis for conscription, urged Haldane (now Lord Chancellor) to have Wilson sacked and replaced by Robertson.^[122]

In 1912 Wilson was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles.^[123]

1913

Wilson's support for conscription made him friendly with Leo Amery, Arthur Lee, Charlie Hunter, Earl Percy, (Lord) Simon Lovat, Garvin of The Observer, Gwynne of The Morning Post and F.S Oliver, owner of the Department Store Debenham and Freebody. Wilson briefed Oliver and Lovat, who were active in the National Service League. In December 1912 Wilson cooperated with Gwynne and Oliver in a campaign to destroy the Territorial Force.^[124]

In the spring of 1913 Roberts, after previous urging by Lovat, arranged a reconciliation between Repington and Wilson. Repington wrote a letter to The Times in June 1913, demanding to know why Wilson was not playing a more prominent role in the CID "Invasion Inquiry" (debates of 1913–14 as to whether some British regular divisions should be retained at home to defeat a potential invasion).^[122] In May 1913 Wilson suggested that Earl Percy write an article against the "voluntary principle" for the National Review and helped him write it. He was also drafting pro-conscription speeches for Lord Roberts. Although Roberts was not a "whole hogger" – he favoured conscription only for home defence, not a full-scale conscript army on the continental model – Wilson advised other campaigners not to quarrel with him and risk losing his support.^[124]

Wilson visited France seven times in 1913, including a visit in August with French and Grierson to observe French manoeuvres at Chalons, and Foch's XX Corps manoeuvres in September. Wilson spoke French fluently but not perfectly, and would sometimes revert into English for sensitive matters in order not to risk speaking inaccurately.^[125]

In October 1913 Wilson visited Constantinople, in the company of Charlie Hunter MP. He saw the lines of Charaldhza, and the battlefields of Lule Burgaz and Adrianople. Wilson was unimpressed by the Turkish Army and road and rail infrastructure, and felt that the introduction of constitutional government would be the final blow to the Ottoman Empire. These views, although correct in the long term, may have contributed to the underestimation of Turkey's defence strength at Gallipoli.^[126]

Roberts had been lobbying French to promote Wilson to major-general, a rank appropriate to his job as DMO, since the end of 1912. In April 1913, with a brigade command about to fall vacant, Wilson was assured by French that he was to be promoted to major-general later in the year, and that not having commanded a brigade would not prevent him commanding a division later.^[127] Even before leaving the field of the manoeuvres (26 September 1913), French told Wilson that he was not satisfied with Grierson's performance. Wilson believed that French wanted him to become chief of staff designate of the BEF after the 1913 manoeuvres, but that he was too junior. Instead Murray was appointed.^[128]

Wilson was promoted major general in November 1913.^[129] French confided that he intended to have his own term as CIGS extended by two years to 1918, and to be succeeded by Murray, at which point Wilson was to succeed Murray as sub-CIGS.^[127] After a 17 November 1913 meeting of BEF senior officers (French, Haig, Wilson, Paget, Grierson), Wilson privately recorded his concerns at French's lack of intellect and hoped there would not be a war just yet.^[130]

Early in 1914, at an exercise at Staff College, Wilson acted as Chief of Staff. Edmonds later wrote that Robertson, acting as Exercise Director, drew Wilson's attention to his ignorance of certain procedures, and said to French in a stage whisper "if you go to war with that operations staff, you are as good as beaten"^[131]

Family political tradition

Wilson and his family had long been active in Unionist politics. His father had stood for Parliament for Longford South in 1885, whilst his older brother James Mackay ("Jemmy") had stood against Justin McCarthy for Longford North in 1885 and 1892, being defeated by a margin of over 10:1 each time.^[132]

As far back as 1893, during the passage of Gladstone's Second Home Rule Bill, Wilson had been party to a proposal to raise 2,000–4,000 men, to drill as soldiers in Ulster, although he wanted Catholics also to be recruited. In February 1895 Henry and Cecil listened to and "enjoyed immensely" a "very fine" speech by Joseph Chamberlain about London municipal questions in Stepney, and Wilson listened to another speech by Chamberlain in May. In 1903 Wilson's father was part of the Landowners' Convention deputation to observe the passage of Irish land legislation through Parliament. In 1906 his younger brother Tono was Tory agent in Swindon.^[133]

Crisis brews

Wilson supported Ulster Unionist opponents of the Third Irish Home Rule Bill, which was due to become law in 1914.^[2] Wilson had learned from his brother Jemmy (13 April 1913) about plans to raise 25,000 armed men and 100,000 "constables", and to form a Provisional Government in Ulster to take control of banks and railways, which he thought "all very sensible". It is unclear whether he actually envisaged armed insurrection or hoped that the Government would back off. Asked by Roberts (16 April 1913) to be chief of staff to the "Army of Ulster", Wilson replied that if necessary he would fight for Ulster rather than against her.^[134]

At a meeting at the War Office (4 November 1913), Wilson told French, who had recently been asked by King George V for his views, that he for one "could not fire on the north at the dictates of Redmond" and that "England qua England is opposed to Home Rule, and England must agree to it … I cannot bring myself to believe that Asquith will be so mad as to employ force". It is unclear what Wilson meant by "England qua England", although he did believe that the Government should be forced to fight a General Election on the issue, which on the basis of recent by-elections the Conservatives might win. Each side thought the other was bluffing. French, whom Wilson urged to tell the King that he could not depend on the loyalty of the whole of the Army, was unaware that Wilson was leaking the contents of these meetings to the Conservative leader Bonar Law.^[135][136]

Wilson met Bonar Law and told him that he did not agree that the percentage of defections in the officer corps would be as high as 40%, the figure suggested by the King's adviser Lord Stamfordham. He passed on his wife Cecil's advice that the UVF should take the patriotic high ground by pledging to fight for King and Country in the event of war.^[137] Bonar Law immediately attempted to reach Carson on the telephone to relay this suggestion. Wilson also advised Bonar Law – at this time the government were attempting to offer Counties Londonderry, Antrim, Armagh and Down an opt-out from Home Rule, the plan being that a refusal would make Carson look intransigent – to ensure that negotiations failed in way which made the Irish Nationalists look intransigent.^[138]

He met Nevil Macready, Director of Personal Services, who told him that he was being sent over to Ulster but that the Cabinet would not try to deploy troops. On 14 November he dined with Charlie Hunter and Lord Milner, who told him that any officers who resigned over Ulster would be reinstated by the next Conservative Government. Wilson also warned Edward Sclater that the UVF should not take any action hostile to the Army. Wilson found Asquith's Leeds speech – in which the Prime Minister promised to "see this thing through" without an election – "ominous", and on 28 November John du Cane turned up at the War Office "furious" with Asquith and asserting that Ulster would have to be granted Belligerent status like the Confederate States of America.^[139]

The Wilson and Rawlinson families spent Christmas with Lord Roberts, who was strongly opposed to the planned legislation, as was Brigadier Johnnie Gough, with whom Wilson played golf on Boxing Day, as was Leo Amery with whom he lunched at White's on New Year's Day. Wilson's main concern was "that the army should not be drawn in", and on 5 January he had "a long and serious talk about Ulster & whether we couldn't do something to keep the Army out of it" with Joey Davies (Director of Staff Duties since October 1913) and Robertson (Director of Military Training), and the three men agreed to take soundings of army opinion at the annual Staff College conference at Camberley the following week. At the end of February Wilson went to Belfast, where he visited the Unionist Headquarters at Old Town Hall. His mission was not secret – the official purpose was to inspect 3rd Royal Irish Rifles and give a lecture on the Balkans at Victoria Barracks, and he reported his opinion of the Ulster situation to the Secretary of State and to Sir John French – but attracted press speculation.^[140] Wilson was delighted by the Ulster Volunteers (now 100,000 strong),^[141] to whom he was also leaking information.^[142]

The incident

Curragh Camp, scene of the Curragh incident

After Paget had been told to prepare to deploy troops in Ulster, Wilson attempted in vain to persuade French that any such move would have serious repercussions not only in Glasgow but also in Egypt and India.^[143] Wilson helped the elderly Lord Roberts (morning of 20 March) draft a letter to the Prime Minister, urging him not to cause a split in the army. Wilson was summoned home by his wife to see Johnnie Gough, who had come up from Aldershot, and told him of Hubert Gough's threat to resign (see Curragh incident). Wilson advised Johnnie not to "send in his papers" (resign) just yet, and telephoned French, who when told of the news "talked windy platitudes till (Wilson) was nearly sick".^[144][145]

By the morning of Saturday 21 Wilson was talking of resigning and urging his staff to do the same, although he never actually did so and forfeited respect by talking too much of bringing down the government.^[146][147] With Parliament debating a Conservative motion of censure on the government for using the Army in Ulster,^[147] Repington telephoned Wilson (21 April 1914) to ask what line The Times should take.^[122] Fresh from a visit to Bonar Law (21 March), Wilson suggested prodding Asquith to take "instant action" to prevent general staff resignations. At the request of Seely (Secretary of State for War) Wilson wrote a summary of "what the army would agree to", namely a promise that the army would not be used to coerce Ulster, but this was not acceptable to the government. Despite Robertson's warm support, Wilson was unable to persuade French to warn the government that the Army would not move against Ulster.^[148]

Hubert Gough breakfasted with Wilson on 23 March, before his meeting with French and Ewart at the War Office, where he demanded a written guarantee that the Army would not be used against Ulster.^[149] Wilson was also present at the 4pm meeting at which Gough, on his advice, insisted on amending a Cabinet document to clarify that the Army would not be used to enforce Home Rule on Ulster, to which French also agreed in writing. Wilson then left, telling people in the War Office that the Army had done what the Opposition had failed to do (i.e. prevent the coercion of Ulster). Wilson told French that he suspected he (French) would be sacked by the Government, in which case "the Army would go solid with him".^[150] To his brother's amusement, Johnnie Gough "hotted" (teased) Wilson by affecting to believe that he was actually going to resign.^[151] Wilson was worried that a future Dublin government might issue "lawful orders" to coerce Ulster. At the top of his diary page for 23 March he wrote: "We soldiers beat Asquith & his vile tricks".^[152]

Asquith publicly repudiated the amendments to the Cabinet document (the "peccant paragraphs") (25 March), but at first refused to accept the resignations of French and Ewart, although Wilson advised French (mid-afternoon on 26 March) that he must resign "unless they were in a position to justify their remaining on in the eyes of officers". French eventually resigned after Wilson tested the climate at a Staff College point-to-point.^[142][153]

Effects

Wilson telegraphed Gough twice and advised him to "stand like a rock" and hold onto the document, but received no reply to either telegram. Milner thought Wilson had "saved the Empire", which Wilson (29 March) thought "much too flattering". He thought (29 March) Morley (who had advised Seely) and Haldane (who advised French) would also have to resign, which would bring down the government. Gough was angry that Wilson had not himself offered to resign and (Soldiering On p171) blamed Wilson for having done nothing to stop the government's plans to coerce Ulster until Gough and his officers threatened to resign.^[146] The Gough brothers thereafter cut Wilson, and Johnnie Gough never spoke to Wilson again.^{[142][153][154]} The young Captain Archibald Wavell, then working at the War Office, wrote to his father that although he disapproved of the ultimatum which had been put to Gough and his officers by Paget, nonetheless he was disgusted by Wilson's blatant meddling in party politics and talk of bringing down the government.^[155]

Between 21 March and the end of the month, Wilson saw Law nine times (although he declined an invitation to dine with Law, Balfour and Austen Chamberlain on 22 March), Amery four times, Gwynne three times, and Milner and Arthur Lee twice. He does not seem to have regarded these contacts with the Opposition as particularly secret. Roberts was also leaking information which he was being fed by Wilson and the Gough brothers, whilst French was seeing Gwynne most days. Gough promised to keep the 23 March Treaty confidential, but it soon leaked to the press – it appears that both Gough and French leaked it to Gwynne, whilst Wilson leaked it to Amery and Bonar Law.^[156]

1914

Sub Chief of Staff, BEF: deployment

Wilson was initially offered the job of "Brigadier-General of Operations" but as he was already a major-general he negotiated an upgrade in his title to "Sub Chief of Staff".^[165] Edmonds, Kirke and Murray all claimed after the war that French had wanted Wilson as Chief of Staff, but this had been vetoed because of his role in the Curragh Mutiny; no contemporary evidence, even Wilson's diary, confirms this.^[166]

Wilson met with Victor Huguet (7 August), a French liaison officer summoned to London at Kitchener's request, and sent him back to France to obtain more information from Joffre, having told him of British plans to start movement of troops on 9 August. Kitchener, angry that Wilson had acted without consulting him, summoned him to his office for a rebuke. Wilson was angry that Kitchener was confusing the mobilisation plans by deploying troops from Aldershot to Grimsby in case of German invasion, and recorded in his diary that "I answered back as I have no intention of being bullied by him especially when he talks such nonsense … the man is a fool … He is a d---- fool". On Huguet's return (12 August) he met with French, Murray and Wilson. They agreed to deploy the BEF to Maubeuge, but Kitchener, in a three-hour meeting which was, according to Wilson, "memorable in showing K's colossal ignorance and conceit", tried to insist on a deployment to Amiens where the BEF would be in less danger of being overrun by the Germans coming north of the Meuse.^[167] Wilson wrote not just of the difficulties and delays which Kitchener was making but also of "the cowardice of it", although historian John Terraine later argued that Kitchener's opposition to a forward deployment was proven entirely correct by the nearness which the BEF came to disaster.^[168] The clash of personalities between Wilson and Kitchener worsened relations between Kitchener and Sir John French, who often took Wilson's advice.^[169]

Wilson, French and Murray crossed to France on 14 August.^[170] Wilson was sceptical of the German invasion of Belgium, feeling that it would be diverted to meet the French thrusts into Lorraine and the Ardennes.^[171] Reconnoitring the area with Harper in August 1913, Wilson had wanted to deploy the BEF just east of Namur. Although Wilson's prediction of the German advance was less prescient than Kitchener's, had this been done, it is possible that Anglo-French forces could have attacked north, threatening to cut off the German Armies moving westwards north of the Meuse.^[170]

Like other British commanders Wilson, at first, underestimated the size of German forces opposite the BEF, although Terraine and Holmes are very critical of the advice which Wilson was giving Sir John on 22 August, encouraging further BEF advances and "calculating" that the BEF was faced only by one German corps and a cavalry division, although Macdonogh was providing more realistic estimates.^[172][173] Wilson even issued a rebuke to the Cavalry Division for reporting that strong German forces were heading on Mons from Brussels, claiming that they were mistaken and only German cavalry and Jaegers were in front of them.^[174]

British troops retreating after the Battle of Mons

On 23 August, the day of the Battle of Mons, Wilson initially drafted orders for II Corps and the cavalry division to attack the following day, which Sir John cancelled (after a message was received from Joffre at 8pm warning of at least 2 ½ German corps opposite^[175] – there were in fact three German corps opposite the BEF with a fourth moving around the British left flank, and then a retreat was ordered at 11pm when news came that Lanrezac's Fifth Army on the right was falling back). On 24 August, the day after the battle, he bemoaned that no retreat would have been necessary had the BEF had 6 infantry divisions as originally planned. Terraine describes Wilson's diary account of these events as "a ridiculous summary … by a man in a responsible position", and argues that although Kitchener's fears of a German invasion of Britain had been exaggerated, his consequent decision to hold back two divisions saved the BEF from a greater disaster which might have been brought on by Wilson's overconfidence.^{[172][173][176]}

1915–16

Corps Commander: summer and autumn 1916

With the major offensive on the Somme imminent, Foch told Wilson in May that until the Allies had far more guns and ammunition such an attack was "suicidal", worries which were shared by Clemenceau, who apparently came to Rouen especially to see Wilson. Like many British generals, Wilson himself was overly impressed by the amount of artillery now available and wrote (22 June 1916) "we run a serious chance of doing something considerable here (on the Somme)." IV Corps did not directly participate in the Somme under Wilson's command.^[222]

In August Haking, Wilson's junior and a favourite of Haig, was made acting Army Commander when Monro left to become Commander-in-Chief, India. Wilson claimed in his diary that Monro had recommended him to command First Army but this was vetoed by Haig. Despite the hopes of his many political friends Wilson was blocked from further promotion.^[223]

The captured High Street at Guillemont

By August Wilson had two elite divisions under his command, 63rd (Royal Naval) Division and 9th (Scottish) Division, but resisted pressure from Haig to conduct another attack until after 1 September. Wilson was aware that the greater success of French attacks on the Somme was largely owed to more concentrated artillery fire, and that British attacks at High Wood and Guillemont (late July) were less successful. It was decided to use a short traditional bombardment rather than a gas attack, and Wilson's men experimented (in vain) with a flamethrower (in May he had been impressed by an explosive device, a sort of prototype Bangalore torpedo, to clear wire). Wilson was displeased at the poor state of air support but impressed by the early artillery sound ranging device which he was shown. With Haig convinced he was going to "smash the Bosh on the Somme" in September, GHQ now postponed Wilson's attack until October, and now wanted the whole of Vimy Ridge taken, which would mean a joint attack with XVII Corps. Some of Wilson's artillery was moved down to the Somme. Wilson continued to work on air-artillery coordination and mining, but rejected a proposal to dig jumping-off trenches into No Mans Land, as this would give away the attack.^[224]

In September 1916 Lloyd George, now Secretary of State for War, visited the Western Front and asked Wilson (he had already put the same questions to Foch) why the British had performed so much more poorly than the French on the Somme. In reply Wilson stressed the inexperience of the British Army. On his visit Lloyd George had been told (falsely) that Wilson had not wanted to counterattack in May.^[225]

Wilson then had the 63rd and 9th Divisions taken away, then (10 October) heard his whole Corps was to be transferred to Gough's Reserve Army, a prospect which did not please him.^[226] In October Gough "hauled him over the coals over the state of IV Corps".^[227] By 18 October IV Corps had no divisions at all, and Wilson had to take 2 weeks leave in the UK in early November. Edmonds later wrote that Wilson's preparations had laid the foundations for the successful capture of Vimy Ridge in April 1917.^[226]

Wilson thought that "to slog on at one spot" on the Somme was "dreadfully lacking in imagination" and would have preferred a joint offensive by Russia, Italy and Romania in Spring 1917 to draw off 15 or 20 German divisions, allowing the BEF to "completely smash the Boch line". Summoned to see Lloyd George (13 November 1916) and asked if Britain could still hope to defeat Germany, Wilson advised him that she could, provided Haig were given enough men to fight "two Sommes at once", but that in reality Haig should be firmly told how many men he was to receive and told to plan accordingly. He thought at the end of 1916 that both sides were claiming victory from that year's fighting, but victory "inclined to us", and that Germany might be driven to sue for peace in 1917.^[228]

1917

Chief of British Mission, French Army

During the Calais Affair (whilst Wilson was away in Russia) Lloyd George had attempted to sideline Haig, whilst Nivelle, the French Commander-in-Chief (who spoke fluent English),^[231] would exercise operational command of the British Forces, through a British staff officer – Wilson was probably earmarked for this job. This plan fell through after Haig and Robertson threatened resignation. Wilson confessed to Derby that he did not get on with Haig or Robertson and told Robertson he wanted to return to commanding a corps. Hankey brokered an agreement whereby Haig would be subordinate to Nivelle only for the duration of the coming offensive and Wilson would do the liaison job but reporting to Haig. Haig asked him to accept "as a favour", but Robertson was "staggered" by Wilson demanding and getting a formal invitation from Haig, Nivelle and the War Cabinet, and a clear statement of his own and Haig's status. Nivelle came to Wilson's London house to beg him to accept. Wilson was appointed Chief of British Mission to the French Army on 17 March, with a promotion to permanent lieutenant-general which Robertson had blocked in November 1916. Gough wrote a damning letter to Stamfordham (i.e. for the King to see) complaining of how Wilson had made little impact either as a staff officer in 1914 or as a corps commander, but had a great reputation throughout the army for intrigue and for "talk". However, the appointment was welcomed by Curzon, and the King and Esher also urged Haig and Robertson to accept the deal.^[232]

The new French War Minister Painlevé had a low opinion of Nivelle's plan to achieve a decisive "rupture", and after it failed he clearly wanted to sack Nivelle (contrary to Wilson's advice on 26 April) and replace him with Pétain, who favoured abstaining from major offensives until the Americans were present in strength. Wilson did not agree with this, although the alternatives were whirlwind attacks like those Nivelle had launched at Verdun in late 1916 or – Wilson's preference – a major attritional offensive like the Somme but "with intelligence".^[233] He compared "the school of the Great Offensive, of large numbers on long fronts, for unlimited objectives" with the alternative of small and sudden offensives, and opined that "both schools were wrong, and have been proved wrong over and over again". He urged "a middle course of big operations on long fronts for limited objectives" which would cause "maximum of damage to the enemy with a minimum of loss to ourselves" and keep the Germans "in a state of constant tension and anxiety". (30 April 1917).^[234] Wilson was pleased with the promotion of his friend Foch to be French Chief of Staff but not the promotion of Pétain as French Commander-in-Chief (10 May) – Wilson was seen as pro-Nivelle and Petain soon began to deal directly with Haig, leaving little justification for Wilson's job.^[233]

A howitzer at the Battle of Messines

Robertson suggested once again that Wilson should return to commanding a corps, but Foch thought this a poor use of his talents. Haig's diary states that Painlevé had told Lloyd George that Wilson was no longer persona grata with the French government. Wilson returned to London to sound out opinion about resigning and nobody tried to dissuade him. Whilst he was in London Lloyd George asked him to brief the War Cabinet individually then collectively with his advice that Britain try for some military or diplomatic success to drive Turkey or Bulgaria out of the war. On return to France Wilson declined Haig's offer to command XIII Corps. Wilson then took a tour of the French line all the way down to the Swiss frontier, and was concerned that revolution seemed a possibility in France. He attempted to get a final interview with Painlevé but left after being kept waiting in a lobby with "a pronounced whore". He had a meeting with Haig, who was encouraged by the recent success at Messines, and agreed with Haig's plan for a major offensive in Flanders provided the weather remained favourable (Wilson was "absolutely convinced that we should attack all we could right up to the time of the mud") .^[235]

Chief of the Imperial General Staff: 1918

L'Illustration magazine, showing General Henry Wilson, February 23, 1918

Spring battles

Operation Michael: British troops retreat, March 1918

Wilson thought that Irish conscription would gain an extra 150,000 men, as well as helping to round up political malcontents. As recently as January Lloyd George had been opposed, worried that it would cause trouble in Ireland and weaken the position of John Redmond's party (worries shared by the administration in Dublin) and about the effect on Irish American and Irish Australian opinion. During the German "Michael" Offensive Lloyd George changed his mind and with Milner's support, but over the reservations of the head of the RIC, announced at the War Cabinet (25 March) that conscription was to be extended to Ireland, partly to placate British trade unions at the extension of conscription to British war industries. When he announced the measure in the House of Commons (9 April), he announced that Home Rule was also to be introduced in Ireland, although Wilson was convinced that the southern nationalists would never accept it if Ulster was given the "safeguards" promised by Lloyd George. Irish conscription was never implemented but the threat galvanised Irish politics and led to Sinn Féin's victory in December 1918.^[287]

The War Cabinet met (8 April) to discuss, in Hankey's words, "the desirability of getting rid of Haig", who had recently offered to resign. Hankey recorded that sentiment was "unanimously against Haig" but Wilson's opinion was that there was no obvious successor and that he suggested waiting for Haig's report on the March retreat before making a decision. However, in his own diary Wilson later claimed (11 May) he had urged that Haig be sacked, and told Haig so (20 May). Haig and Wilson gradually established a warily respectful relationship, and Lloyd George was soon complaining that one was Scotch and one Irish, but both were whiskies.^{[256][288][289][290][291]}

The German "Georgette" Offensive began on 9 April. Wilson travelled to France and that day he met with Haig and then with Foch, with whom he broached the idea of appointing Lt-Gen Du Cane as liaison officer between the two (this would take effect on 12 April).^[292] Wilson met Clemenceau in Paris the next morning (10 April) to warn that there was a danger of the BEF losing the Channel ports. He also wrote to Foch (10 April) urging him to send French reinforcements or to flood the coastal areas around Dunkirk, and impressing on him the need to keep contact with the British right flank if the BEF felt compelled to retreat on the Channel Ports. At a meeting with Clemenceau, Foch, Milner and Haig on 27 April, Wilson pressed Foch on whether the priority was to hold onto the Channel ports or to keep the British and French armies united was priority. Foch indicated that the latter was the priority. Reassured by the British Admiralty that if necessary Calais and Boulogne could be abandoned, Wilson finally agreed (2 May 1918) that the British could retreat south-west if attacked again, but this decision never had to be implemented.^{[293][294][295]}

Like many British leaders, Wilson soon became disillusioned with Foch. In May 1918 he complained that the French wanted to get control of the British Army, bases, food, merchant marine, and the Italian and Salonika fronts.^[296]

Allied victory

The Hindenburg line at Bullecourt at end of the War

When Haig's forces began to advance towards the Hindenburg Line Wilson sent him a supposedly "personal" telegram (31 August), warning that he was not to take unnecessary losses in storming these fortifications (i.e. hinting that he might be sacked if he failed), later claiming that the government wanted to retain troops in the UK because of the police strike.^[305]

Haig believed that the aim should be to win the war that year, and by spring 1919 at the latest, not July 1919 as the politicians had in mind, and urged that all available able-bodied men and transportation in the UK be sent, as well as men earmarked for the Royal Navy and for munitions production, even at the cost of reducing future munitions output. Milner warned Haig that manpower would not be available for 1919 if squandered now.^[306] Although Wilson agreed with Haig that "there was ample evidence of the deterioration of the Boch" (Wilson diary 9 September)^[307] Milner told Wilson that Haig was being "ridiculously optimistic", might "embark on another Paschendal [sic]" and that he "had grave doubts whether he had got inside of DH's head" (Wilson diary 23 September); Wilson thought the War Cabinet would have to "watch this tendency & stupidity of DH".^[306][308]

Wilson was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) on 17 December 1918.^[309]

Demobilisation and defence cuts

In January 1919 there were riots as 10,000 soldiers at Folkestone and 2,000 at Dover refused to return abroad, as well as disturbances in army camps abroad. This was of grave concern as revolution in Russia and Germany had been spearheaded by mutinous soldiers. Wilson, aware that peace had not yet been signed, blamed Lloyd George for promising quick demobilisation during the 1918 General Election campaign, and estimating that 350,000–500,000 men would be needed for peacekeeping duties, pressed for the continuation of conscription, despite press pressure, e.g. from the Daily Herald, that it should end. Churchill (now War Secretary) replaced the existing plans for demobilisation of men with jobs to go to with a new system of "first in, first out", and extended service for the most recent conscripts until April 1920 so that current soldiers could be demobilised.^[310]

The Army dropped in size from 3.8 million men (November 1918) to 2 million at the start of 1919, then 890,000 (November 1919) then 430,000 (November 1920). Lloyd George, wanting to spend more money on domestic programmes and concerned at persuading an electorate recently tripled in size that high defence spending was needed, launched a defence review in summer 1919 after peace was signed. He wanted to know why, with no major enemies on the horizon, so many more men were needed than in 1914 when the Army had numbered 255,000. Defence spending was £766m in 1919–20, this was to be reduced to £135m of which £75m was to be on the army and air force. Wilson supported the Ten Year Rule which was also formulated at this time.^[311]

Versailles Treaty

Wilson, at this stage still enjoying cordial relations with Lloyd George, spent the equivalent of four months at Versailles as Britain's chief military adviser at the Paris Peace Conference. His staff included Richard Meinertzhagen, James Marshall-Cornwall working in intelligence, the historian Major Charles Webster as secretary, the Duke of Devonshire's son Lord Hartington (like his father, a Conservative politician) and the Prime Minister's son Major Gwilym Lloyd George.^[312]

Wilson advised that the German Reichswehr be a voluntary rather than a conscript force (the French preference), and that the French Occupation of the Rhineland be temporary rather than permanent. Hankey was impressed by advice from Wilson that harsh financial terms might drive Germany to Bolshevism and thence to alliance with Russia and Japan, and had Wilson repeat his presentation to the Prime Minister at a special "away weekend" at Fontainebleau (March 1919), where he was sceptical of the League of Nations and urged a strong Anglo-French Alliance, perhaps even accompanied by the building of a Channel Tunnel. These proposals were written up as the "Fontainebleau Memorandum" outlining Lloyd George's preferred peace terms.^[313]

Wilson advised that Foch's force of 39 divisions was sufficient to occupy Germany if she refused to sign the peace treaty, although he advised against a prolonged occupation, and continued to be concerned at the sporadic warfare between the small newly independent countries of Eastern Europe. Clemenceau eventually agreed to sign the Treaty of Versailles (June 1919) on condition Britain guaranteed to defend France against unprovoked German aggression (President Woodrow Wilson did the same but the USA did not ratify the agreement).^[314]

Promotion and honours

In June 1919, Wilson accepted promotion (official 31 July) to field marshal, after Churchill had offered him a choice of promotion or a peerage.^[315] At a dinner for 200 MPs in Wilson's honour, Lloyd George stated that Wilson had earned the promotion for his role in war preparation, for his work in smoothing Anglo-French relations, and for his work in setting up a unified Allied command late in the war. At 55 he was the youngest non-royal field marshal since Wellington (Harold Alexander in 1944 has since been younger).^[316] Private A S Bullock, a port official at Le Havre, recalled Wilson, a tall man, arriving at his office with his assistant General Walter Pitt-Taylor and lounging across a doorway because Bullock, unaware of his identity, failed to offer him a seat!^[317]

Wilson was also made a baronet.^[318] He was appointed a Grand Officier of the Belgian Order of Leopold^[319] and awarded the Belgian Croix de guerre,^[320] and was given the Chinese Order of Chia-Ho (Golden Grain), 1st Class "Ta-Shou Pao-Kuang",^[321] the American Distinguished Service Medal,^[322] the Siamese Order of the White Elephant, first class,^[323] the Grand Cordon of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun (later "with flowers of the Paulownia"),^[324][325] the Grand Cross of the Greek Order of the Redeemer,^[326] and promoted to Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur.^[327]

Wilson received a grant of £10,000 (his field marshal's pay was £3,600 per annum). Money was still tight – in the summer of 1920 he briefly let out his house at Eaton Place. His estate at his death was £10,678, which included his yacht worth nearly £2,000. Over the next few years he received honorary degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, Trinity College Dublin and Queens University Belfast.^[316]

When he took his GCB he had as supporters on his coat of arms a private of the Rifle Brigade and a female figure representing Ulster.^[328]

Labour unrest and Anglo-Soviet trade talks

A wave of labour unrest had begun with the London police strike of August 1918. Wilson had approved the deployment of troops as strike breakers in September 1918 but regretted the concessions granted to striking railwaymen in December 1918.^[329] During another railway strike in September 1919, Wilson was concerned he would be left in future with only 40,000 infantry of whom 12,000 were conscripts, and of which even the "regular" NCOs were young and inexperienced – a police report at the time warned that for the first time in British history the rioters (many of them ex-soldiers) would be better trained than the authorities. Wilson, along with Churchill and Walter Long (First Lord of the Admiralty), wanted military action. Lloyd George, Bonar Law and Hankey did not. Early in 1920 Wilson drew up plans for 18 battalions (10 of them Guards) to protect London, concentrating troops near the sea so they could be moved by the Royal Navy rather than by rail.^[330]

Wilson privately suspected Lloyd George of being "a traitor & a Bolshevist" (15 January 1920 – he expressed similar concerns on 27 May and 23 July – Calwell omitted most of these entries from his published version of Wilson's diaries). He was particularly concerned by the presence in May of a Soviet trade delegation led by Krasin, who on his second visit in August 1920 was accompanied by Kamenev, who was keen to make contacts in the UK and who was subsidising the Daily Herald.^[331] This was against the backdrop of the Battle of Warsaw in summer 1920.^[332]

By September 1920 a national coal strike seemed imminent, along with possible involvement by railwaymen and transport workers (the "Triple Alliance") and unrest amongst unemployed ex-servicemen, coinciding with rebellion in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Tanks were deployed to Worcester, York, Aldershot and Scotland.^[330] By 31 December 1920 Wilson thought that Lloyd George was, for reasons which included his attempt at détente with the Soviets, "totally unfit to govern" (this was one of the few such entries which Calwell would later publish). The Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement was eventually signed on 16 March 1921.^[332]

Wilson was particularly cross, early in 1921, that with only 10 Guards and 18 Line (8 of them Irish) battalions in the UK to meet another threatened Triple Alliance strike, 4 battalions were being sent from the Rhine to supervise the Upper Silesia plebiscite: he asked Lloyd George if he wanted to be "Prime Minister of England or Silesia". The Cabinet eventually agreed to let Wilson recall battalions from Silesia, Malta and Egypt, mobilise sailors and an 80,000 strong paramilitary "Defence Force". In the event the miners struck without the support of other unions ("Black Friday"), and the sharp slump took the sting out of labour unrest.^[330]

World commitments

Wilson wanted to concentrate troops in Britain, Ireland, India and Egypt – rather than what he saw as excessive commitments to the Rhine and in Mesopotamia, Persia and Palestine, later writing (11 August 1921) that interfering in other countries followed by having to make "peace" was "like buggery: once you take to it, you cannot stop". However, Keith Jeffery argues that he failed to realise that the granting of self-government to Ireland and Egypt was also necessary, such concession keeping Egypt (like Iraq to a certain extent) pro-British for another generation.^[333]

Wilson favoured limited involvement in the Russian Civil War – temporary deployment of troops to Murmansk and Archangel. He agreed with Lloyd George that Churchill's desire to wage active war on Bolshevik Russia was unwise and impractical. Wilson told Churchill that he was "tired of constantly nursing children (the White forces) who resolutely refuse to grow up". Rawlinson was sent out in August 1919 to supervise British withdrawal.^[334]

An entire British division had occupied Batum on the Black Sea supervising German and Turkish withdrawal. Wilson thought the Caucasus "a hornet's [sic] nest" and wrote a paper which Churchill circulated to the Cabinet (3 May 1919) urging retreat from non-vital parts of the world. At the end of August 1919 the British withdrew from Baku on the Caspian. In February 1920 Wilson persuaded the Cabinet to withdraw the remaining 3 battalions from Batum, but the Foreign Secretary Curzon had the decision reversed on his return from holiday, although to Curzon's fury (he thought it "abuse of authority") Wilson gave the local commander permission to withdraw if necessary. After a British garrison at Enzeli (on the Persian Caspian coast) was taken prisoner by Bolshevik forces on 19 May 1920, Lloyd George finally insisted on abandonment of Batum early in June 1920. Churchill and Wilson opposed Curzon's aspirations for a permanent British presence in Persia, and financial retrenchment forced a British withdrawal in the spring of 1921.^[335]

By February 1920 Wilson's Staff wanted to reduce commitment to Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), despite inevitable loss of prestige, as occupation of the whole country was not necessary to safeguard the southern Persian oilfields. In May 1920 Wilson submitted a joint paper with Churchill and Trenchard (Chief of Air Staff) complaining about the cost of keeping 10,000 British and 50,000 Indian troops there. When revolt broke out in Mesopotamia, Wilson asked (15 July 1920) to pull out of Persia to send reinforcements (he also needed troops for Ireland and the rest of the UK), but Lloyd George said that Curzon "would not stand it". By October 1920 the local British commander Sir Aylmer Haldane managed to restore order but on 10 December Wilson minuted his agreement to an appraisal by the Director of Military Operations that "we ran things too fine and that a great disaster was only narrowly avoided". Wilson was privately scathing about what he called "Hot Air, Aeroplanes & Arabs" – Trenchard's plan for Air Defence backed by Arab levies, announced by Churchill at the Cairo Conference in July 1921 – although glad at the reduction in military commitment, and wrote to Rawlinson that when trouble came Churchill would "hop into an aeroplane and fly away, waving Ta-Ta to any poor bloody native who is stupid enough to back us".^[336]

Wilson and his staff did not agree with Lloyd George's insistence on retaining an occupation force in Turkey and his support for Greek territorial ambitions in Asia Minor (Treaty of Sèvres, 1920). Wilson argued that Anglo-Turkish conflict was antagonising "the whole Mussulman world" and that Britain should instead "make love to" Turkey. In June 1921 Wilson told a cabinet committee that Turkey and Ireland were essentially similar, Britain had either to "knock (them) on the head or come out". Turkish power revived under Kemal, and after Wilson's death the Chanak Crisis triggered Lloyd George's fall. Peace was not signed with Turkey until Lausanne in 1923.^[337]

Wilson was pro-Zionist after a meeting with Chaim Weizmann in May 1919, believing that Jews could police the area for Britain. He wanted to withdraw from the British Mandate of Palestine (which at that time included the Emirate of Transjordan), as Britain did not have the troops to keep both Jews and Arabs under its thumb.^[338]

Wilson wanted to retain Egypt as part of the British Empire. After a nationalist rising in the spring of 1919 Milner was appointed to head an inquiry, and in summer 1920 he proposed that Egypt be granted autonomy. Wilson agreed with Churchill, who thought that granting Egypt sovereign independence (even if still as a British puppet state) would set a bad example for India and Ireland. In the end, despite the reservations of Allenby, High Commissioner in Cairo, who also thought (September 1920) that it would make "another Ireland" out of Egypt, the Allenby Declaration of February 1922 was based on the Milner proposals whilst reserving Britain's "special interest" in the country. Wilson was concerned about the British garrison being restricted to the Suez Canal area and wrote that "the white flag is once more up over 10 Downing Street".^[339]

Ireland

Escalating crisis

The Birth of the Irish Republic by Walter Paget

Wilson wrote to Robertson (13 June 1919) that "Ireland goes from bad to worse and" that "a little bloodletting" was needed, but in 1919 the fighting was sporadic and highly localised, seemingly no worse than in the land agitation of the early 1880s. 15 police (out of 9,000 RIC) were killed in 1919, and Ireland was at first very low down the UK political agenda.^[340]

In October 1919 Wilson warned Churchill that the planned introduction of Irish Home Rule that autumn would lead to trouble and, given concerns that Robertson lacked the subtlety for the Irish Command which Churchill had offered him, asked him to consult the Prime Minister, perhaps in the knowledge that Lloyd George disliked Robertson. Lloyd George preferred Macready, as he had experience of peacekeeping duties in South Wales and Belfast as well as having served as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in London, and he was appointed early in 1920.^[341]

The Cabinet agreed (11 May 1920) to Macready's request for vehicles and extra technical personnel, but on Wilson's advice agreed only to hold the 8 requested extra battalions "in readiness". Churchill proposed a force of 8,000 old soldiers be raised to reinforce the RIC, but Wilson thought this force of "scallywags" (the Auxiliary Division as it became, whose numbers peaked at 1,500 in July 1921) would be ill-trained, poorly led and split up into small groups across Ireland, fears which proved wholly justified. Wilson would have preferred a special force of 8 "Garrison Battalions" under full military discipline, and a robust military campaign in Ireland, which he regarded as a proxy war for anti-British movements in "New York & Cairo & Calcutta & Moscow", but this was politically unacceptable.^[342] Wilson is sometimes credited with creating the Cairo Gang – there is no evidence for this, and indeed the gang may not even have existed.^[343]

Wilson became increasingly concerned that Henry Hugh Tudor, with the connivance of Lloyd George, who loved to drop hints to that effect, was operating an unofficial policy of killing IRA men in reprisal for the deaths of pro-Crown forces. Wilson wrote to Macready (June 1920) that "the discipline and good name of the Army is worth half a dozen Irelands" – although sympathetic, he had been deeply concerned to hear of troops smashing up Fermoy in reprisal for the kidnapping of General Cuthbert. However, Macready also told Wilson that the Army was arranging "accidents" for suspected IRA men, but not telling the politicians as he did not want them "talked and joked about after dinner by Cabinet Ministers". Lloyd George refused to formally declare martial law, not least because in July 1920 the Amritsar Massacre (of April 1919) was being debated by Parliament.^[344]

Alleged Michael Collins involvement

T. Ryle Dwyer suggests that the shooting of Wilson was ordered by Irish Free State General and Commander-in-Chief Michael Collins^[369] in retaliation for the continuing troubles in Northern Ireland. He returned to Dublin before the incident and jubilantly announced the news to the appalled defence minister, Richard Mulcahy who threatened to resign.^[370] By 1923 Scotland Yard investigations centred around the involvement of Sam Maguire, Collins's chief intelligence officer in London. Maguire was tipped off and fled to Dublin.^[371]

According to an associate of Collins, Joseph Sweeney, after the shooting of Wilson he saw Collins looking "very pleased" and asked "where do we stand on the shooting?". Collins replied "It was two of ours that did it". He then told Sweeney that he had told Tom Cullen, a colleague of Collins, to plan a rescue attempt but that such an attempt was impossible.^[372]

However, this claim has been challenged by Peter Hart. According to Hart any order to assassinate Wilson would have had to have been relayed to them by Rory O'Connor (then in charge of British IRA operations) and the last assassination attempt contrived against Wilson had been set to be executed in 1921, not 1922.^[373] Tim Pat Coogan has suggested that Reginald Dunne, who had the confidence of both Michael Collins and Rory O'Connor, undertook the shooting as a last-ditch effort to provoke the British Government into retaliating, thereby uniting both sides of the Nationalists.^[374] The killers had only decided to attack the previous evening, and even on the day Sullivan had been at work until 1pm; the killers had no getaway plan.^[375]

Government reaction

The guns used by the assassins were sent to David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill in the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street; "There was no Henry Wilson. The Prime Minister and I faced each other, and on the table between us lay the pistols which an hour before had taken this loyal man's life".^[376] The House of Commons was immediately adjourned as a mark of respect and King George V sent his equerry, Colonel Arthur Erskine, to Eaton Place to convey the royal sympathy to Lady Wilson. A dinner to celebrate the Prince of Wales's birthday, arranged at Buckingham Palace for the evening, was also cancelled.^[377]

Cabinet Ministers held a conference at 10 Downing Street on 5pm on the day of the assassination. They suspected Anti-Treaty forces (who had recently seized the Four Courts in Dublin) might be responsible – this was in fact not the case – and thought the Irish Provisional Government "should be pressed to deal with the matter". Macready was summoned to London, where he found the Cabinet worried about their personal safety but also keen for a dramatic gesture of retaliation, and was asked whether it was possible for British troops to seize the Four Courts – he said that it was but cautioned against precipitate action which might reunite the two Irish factions, and on his return to Dublin deliberately delayed taking such action. Nonetheless, suspicion of Anti-Treaty complicity in Wilson's murder, and perceived British pressure to do something about it, was one of several triggers of the Irish Civil War.^[378]

The assassination was greeted with horror in the UK, and compared to the Phoenix Park killings of 1882, which had – it was said – set back the cause of Irish Home Rule by a generation. It was the first assassination of an MP since Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in 1812 and the last until Airey Neave's assassination by the INLA in 1979.^[379]

Funeral

Wilson's widow blamed the government for his death – when Conservative leader Austen Chamberlain called on the evening of his death to offer his condolences, he was by one account greeted by her with the word "murderer" and by another simply asked to leave by Wilson's niece – and she was only persuaded to allow government representation at the funeral on the grounds that not to do so would be disrespectful to the King. Wilson's mother wrote to Bonar Law (former Conservative leader and increasingly seen as an alternative if the Coalition ended) complaining that, in a noisy Commons debate, Lloyd George had claimed to have been a personal friend of Wilson's.^[380]

Wilson's funeral was a public affair attended by Lloyd George and the cabinet, Foch, Nivelle and Weygand from France as well as many of his former army colleagues including French, Macready, Haig and Robertson. The field marshal was buried in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral.^[360]

Personality

Wilson was widely regarded by his contemporaries as a charming man, describing him as a "delightful whirlwind" and writing that "there was something spectacular and theatrical about him".^[200] Many politicians enjoyed his levity – Kiggell said he was the only general who could talk to the "Frocks" on level terms – as did the French, who called him "General Dooble-Vay". Some senior British officers believed that his sympathy for the French amounted almost to treason.^[9]

Wilson's popularity was not universal, however: Sir Sam Fay, a railway official who worked at the War Office 1917–19, enjoyed cordial face-to-face relations with Wilson but wrote that he could argue with total conviction that a horse chestnut was the same thing as a chestnut horse, and that an unnamed senior general said he suffered a "sexual disturbance" whenever he came within a mile of a politician (Fay recorded that the general had in fact used "vulgar and obscene" language – Walter Reid simply writes that exposure to politicians gave Wilson an erection).^[9][381] Edward Spears – also a senior Anglo-French liaison officer, but junior to Wilson – compared him to Quint, the sinister valet in Henry James' The Turn of the Screw.^[9]

For much of the war Wilson had a poor relationship with Haig, although relations eased somewhat when Wilson became CIGS. Esher said that he was always loyal to the man he was serving, and Walter Reid believes Wilson did not actively plot against Haig.^[9] When French asked Wilson, late in 1915, if he had heard of Haig, Rawlinson and Gough intriguing against him, Wilson replied, perhaps somewhat naively, that "Haig was too good a fellow" for that kind of thing.^[205] After the disaster of 1 July 1916 Wilson wrote (5 July) that Haig was "a good stout hearted defensive soldier with no imagination & very little brains & very little sympathy". That same day Foch, who had declined an invitation from Haig to lunch with Wilson, thought Haig "was stupid & lacked stomach for the fight" which Wilson thought "not quite fair".^[382][383]

Haig's private views of Wilson were less cordial: he thought him "a politician, and not a soldier".^[190] After a meeting on 23 June 1916, following the failed counterattack at Vimy Ridge, Haig wrote that Wilson "seems to acquire a more evil look each time I see him".^[221]

Obituaries

Memorial in Winchester Cathedral

On the day of his funeral General "Tim" Harington held a memorial service for him at Constantinople, declaring "he died for Ireland ... It may be that this sacrifice may save Ireland". Carson sent a message to the Ulster Unionist Council praising him as "Ireland's greatest son … He died for Ulster's liberty".^[384] The Times praised Wilson as "a warrior Irishman". The Morning Post, a paper which strongly supported the abandoned southern Unionists, pointed out that "a great Irishman" had been murdered on the anniversary of King George V's Belfast speech which had marked, as they saw it, the British "surrender". However the Liberal "Daily News" argued that Wilson must bear some responsibility for stirring up bloodshed in Belfast of which his death was part and the "New Statesman" claimed that in his "fanatical Orangeism" and devotion to "force and force alone" he was the British counterpart to Cathal Brugha. Lord Milner, Irish nationalist MP T. P. O'Connor and the military correspondent Repington wrote obituaries which were generous about his warm personality, and in Repington's case about his role in war preparations.^[385]

Immediate assessments

Callwell's 2 volume "Life and Diaries" in 1927 damaged Wilson's reputation – the New Statesman thought they showed him to be "the typically stupid militarist…fundamentally a fool." Sir Charles Deedes, who had studied under him at Staff College and later served on his staff, commented that Wilson came across in the diaries as "an ambitious, volatile and even fatuous character, an intriguer concerned mainly with his own career" and that this was "far from the truth" – Deedes commented that Wilson's ability to see both sides of a question and inability to make a decision and stick to it made him a poor corps commander but a "patient, lucid and fair" adviser. Lloyd George's view in his own "War Memoirs" was essentially similar,^[386] although he wrote that Wilson was reluctant to take responsibility for decisions.^[256]

Both Archibald Wavell in the 1930s and Sir John Dill as CIGS in 1941 (who commented that he no longer condemned Wilson "so heartily as one used to") commented that Wilson had illustrated that a general must be able to work effectively with politicians, and his modern biographer Keith Jeffery comments that this, rather than Robertson's acrimonious insistence on military autonomy, has been the model since Wilson's time.^[387]

Policies

Jeffery comments that for all Wilson's reputation for intrigue he was mainly an inveterate gossip (a feature which endeared him to some politicians), whose closeness to the French alienated Robertson, and whose behaviour was no worse than the intrigues of Robertson, Haig, Rawlinson and Gough to remove Sir John French.^[205] His reputation for political intrigue was acquired for his involvement in the arguments over conscription and Ireland in 1912–14.^[381] Esher (in his life of Kitchener) later blamed Wilson's "Irish blood, exuberant with combative malice" for having drawn him into the latter quarrel, which had earned him the reputation of "a pestilential fellow".^[146]

Sir Charles Deedes later (in September 1968) wrote that Wilson's energy and foresight in 1910–14 had ensured that Britain would take her place alongside France when war came. An alternative view, aired as early as the 1920s, is that Wilson locked Britain into a continental commitment which Kitchener would rather have avoided or minimised.^[388] Jeffery is critical of some historians – e.g. Zara Steiner in Britain and the Origins of the First World War, Gerhard Ritter in The Sword and the Sceptre – who take an oversimplified view of Wilson as a supporter of the French position. Although Wilson's verbal fluency and charm brought him great influence, his position was also supported by most of his military colleagues and by the most influential members of the Cabinet. Furthermore, this ignores Wilson's interest in reaching a military agreement with Belgium.^[389]

Modern biographies and popular culture

A. J. P. Taylor, reviewing Collier's biography Brasshat (The Times 10 August 1961) wrote that Wilson was "too absurd to be a donkey".^[390]

The Lost Dictator by Bernard Ash (1968) argued that had he lived Wilson might have become leader of the Tory Diehards and become a dictatorial ruler. This is implausible, as the Diehards were never more than about 50 in number and Wilson lacked the political skills or even the understated personality needed by Conservative leaders of that era.^[390] Robert Blake commented that this claim "leaves the reader ... with an impression of silliness which is very far from being warranted by the rest of the book".^[391]

Wilson (Michael Redgrave) features – incorrectly shown as a full general – in the satirical film Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), travelling in a car in August 1914 with a cretinous Sir John French (Laurence Olivier) who rejects his offer to arrange an interpreter as it might breach the need for "absolute secrecy", but later being passed over in favour of Robertson for a staff promotion.^[390]

For many years a portrait of Wilson by Sir Oswald Birley hung in the "Prime Minister's room" at Stormont, along with a framed set of his medal ribbons left by his widow to Sir James Craig. A number of Orange lodges were named after him, although he had never joined the Orange Order.^[392]