Earl Wavell

View more History, Politics, Society videos

Wavell, FM Archibald Percival, 1st Earl (1883-1950). Wavell was educated at Winchester, commissioned into the Black Watch, and served in South Africa and India. In 1917 he was sent to represent the CIGS on Allenby's staff in Egypt and became an admirer, later writing his biography. In 1939 he was appointed C-in-C Middle East, and it was under his command that O'Connor routed the Italian army, driving it from Egypt and across Libya. He could have concluded the campaign in North Africa had Churchill not ordered him to send troops to Greece. Having done so he then had to cope with the arrival of German forces under Rommel. Sent to the Far East in July 1941 he discovered a lack of trained men and modern aircraft, and when the Japanese attacked in December found himself presiding over a disaster. He remained C-in-C until June 1943, when he was appointed viceroy of India, retaining the appointment for the remainder of the war.

Famously taciturn, which induced Churchill to suspect his powers of decision, Wavell was in fact intelligent and sensitive. An outburst of ill temper on hearing of British collapse in the Burma campaign was entirely uncharacteristic. He wrote numerous books, and compiled a poetry anthology called Other Men's Flowers. When lecturing on generalship at Cambridge in 1939 he began with a definition from Socrates, and regarded Belisarius and Marlborough as prime examples of successful generals. He wrote that ‘the best soldier has in him … a seasoning of devilry’. Yet his historical grasp was not matched by real enthusiasm for making war, and he lacked that very seasoning of devilry which might have made him a great general.

— Richard Holmes

The English general, statesman, and writer Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883-1950), is best known for his devastating victories over the Italians in 1940 and 1941.

Archibald Percival Wavell, the son of Maj. Gen. Archibald Graham Wavell, was born on May 5, 1883, at Colchester. After spending 3 years in Summer Fields, the famous preparatory school at Oxford, he won a scholarship to Winchester and entered in 1896. As a student, he developed a well-disciplined and comprehensive intellectual ability. When he was 17 he passed on to Sandhurst; a year later he was commissioned into the Black Watch. In 1901 he was sent to South Africa, where he served as a subaltern in the later stages of the Boer War.

After the war Wavell continued his vigorous pursuit of a military career. In 1903 he went to India, where he remained for five years and served with distinction. Leaving there in 1908, he entered the staff college at Camberly, which, at that time, represented the stepping-stone to extraregimental promotion. He then spent several years in Russia studying the language and customs of the people and attending army maneuvers. In 1912, at the age of 29, he was appointed to the War Office.

When World War I broke out, Wavell was eager to serve in France, and in September 1914 his opportunity came. He spent most of the next two years in France, but in 1915 he managed a short leave to marry Eugenie Marie Quirk in England. In 1916 he was back in France and engaged in an attack at Ypres Salient, where he was wounded and lost his left eye. After a short convalescence he returned to France for another brief tour, and then later in the year he was sent to Russia to serve as the British military representative on the staff of the Grand Duke Nicholas. With the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, however, he was again reassigned and rounded out the war years serving in the Near East under Gen. Allenby, a man from whom he learned lasting lessons about conduct of war.

In the interwar years Wavell gained a wide reputation in public as well as professional quarters. In spite of some unorthodox ideas, such as his statement that "my ideal infantryman has the qualities of a successful poacher, a cat burglar and a gunman, " he advanced steadily. In 1930 he received command of the 6th Brigade at Blackdown, and in 1935 he was appointed commander of the 2d Division at Aldershot. Two years later he was appointed to assume the command in Palestine, and in 1938 he was called home to receive the important Southern Command. One year later, on the eve of World War II, he accepted the appointment of general officer commander in chief, Middle East, in which capacity all of his talents would be tested severely.

In the Middle East, Wavell not only commanded a vast area but also faced an enemy much larger and better supplied than his own forces. Once the war began, he was, moreover, under constant pressure from Prime Minister Winston Churchill to achieve victory immediately and at all cost. But Wavell possessed a quiet resolve, a sense of daring, and a grasp of strategy that made him equal to his task. When, on Sept. 12, 1940, the Italians invaded Egypt, he successfully defended his position and in December launched his own devastating counteroffensive. Under his direction the Italians were completely defeated; Tobruk and Benghazi were captured, and Mussolini's empire in Ethiopia was liquidated.

In the spring of 1941, however, the Germans were successful in Greece and Crete, and Wavell's counteroffensive in North Africa failed. Churchill, consequently, decided to replace Wavell with Sir Claude Auchinleck. Wavell, in turn, assumed Auchinleck's position as commander in chief in India. After Japan entered the war, he became allied commander of the Southwest Pacific, and, fighting again against great odds, he lost Malaya and Burma. From 1943 to 1947 he served as one of the last viceroys of India. In 1943 he also was promoted to field marshal and was created Viscount Wavell of Cyrenaica and Winchester. In 1947 he was created earl.

Wavell was a likable and many-sided man who always had the respect and confidence of his men. As a soldier, he was uncomplaining and professional. His reputation survived all of his misfortunes; he was a general of exceptional quality. He also was a scholar and a talented writer. He published The Palestine Campaigns (1928), Allenby: A Study in Greatness (1940), Generals and Generalship (1941), Allenby in Egypt (1943), Other Men's Flowers: An Anthology of Poetry (1944), Speaking Generally (1946), The Good Soldier (1947), and Soldiers and Soldiering (1954). In 1947 he retired to London, where he died on May 24, 1950.

Further Reading

The best book on Wavell is John H. Robertson (John Connell, pseudonym), Wavell: Scholar and Soldier (1964), a brilliant, exciting biography that thoroughly relates Wavell's career up to June 1941. Winston Churchill's The Grand Alliance (1950) and The Hinge of Fate (1950), along with Anthony Eden, The Reckoning (1965), provide interesting reflections on Wavell. Useful specialized studies include Correlli Barnett, The Desert Generals (1960); Anthony Heckstall-Smith and H. T. Baillie-Grohman, Greek Tragedy: 1941 (1961); and B. N. Pandey, The Break-up of British India (1969). For a full appreciation of Wavell his own works should be consulted.

Additional Sources

Lewin, Ronald, The chief: Field Marshall Lord Wavell, Commander-in-Chief and Viceroy, 1939-1947, New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1980.

Wavell, Archibald Percival (1883-1950). British general, commander-in-chief Middle East from July 1939, he directed campaigns against Italians after June 1940. In Cyrenaica he won a series of spectacular victories from December 1940 to February 1941, taking prisoner 130, 000 Italians. He was then ordered to give priority to helping Greece. There, and in Africa, German contingents inflicted defeat and in spring 1941 both Cyrenaica and Greece were lost. In July Auchinleck took over and Wavell became C.-in-C., India. He could not stop the loss of Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, and Burma to the Japanese. Promoted field marshal and viscount, he became viceroy of India in June 1943.

Wavell, Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl (wā'vəl), 1883-1950, British field marshal and viceroy of India. Wavell first saw service in the South African War and in India. During World War I he fought in France (and lost an eye) and in Palestine, where, under the command of General Allenby, he first learned the desert strategy that he was to employ so successfully later. He returned to Palestine as commander of the British forces to keep order during the Arab-Jewish riots of 1937-39. In World War II, Wavell was commander in chief of the Middle East, in which capacity he put to rout the Italian forces in Cyrenaica (see North Africa, campaigns in), only to be forced back later in 1941 by the Axis drive. He then exchanged commands with General Auchinleck, becoming commander in chief of India. After Japan entered the war, he was for some months (1942) supreme commander of the Allies in East Asia, but the command was abolished as the Allies lost control of the area. Resuming his command in India, Wavell became viceroy and governor-general in 1943. From that time until his resignation in 1947, his main concern was the preparation of India for self-rule; toward this end he worked continuously with the numerous Indian factions. He was created Viscount Wavell of Cyrenaica and Winchester in 1943 and earl in 1947. He wrote The Palestine Campaigns (1928), Allenby (1940), Generals and Generalship (1941), Allenby in Egypt (1943), Speaking Generally (1946), and The Good Soldier (1947). He also edited an anthology of poetry, Other Men's Flowers (1944).

Bibliography

See biography by J. H. Robertson (2 vol., 1964-69).

1883 - 1950

Commander in chief of British forces in the Middle East; British general in World War II; Viceroy of India, 1943 - 1947.

Archibald Percival Wavell was born in Colchester, England, and graduated from Sandhurst, the British military academy. He served under General Edmund Allenby in Palestine in World War I. In 1937 he was again sent to Palestine to deal with the unrest between the Arabs and Jews. He successfully quelled the Palestine Arab Revolt and returned to Britain in 1938. In 1939, he became commander in chief for all British forces in the Middle East, where he defeated the Italian forces in North and East Africa (1940 - 1941). He was not successful in preventing the fall of Greece and Crete, and when he succumbed to General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps in 1941, he was reassigned to Southeast Asia. Wavell concluded his career as viceroy of India (1943 - 1947), the last viceroy before Lord Mount-batten, who helped ease India into independence from the British Empire.

Bibliography

Collins, Robert J. Lord Wavell. London, 1947.

— DANIEL E. SPECTOR

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)