Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell
Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC, PC (5 May 1883 – 24 May 1950) was a senior officer of the British Army. He served in the Second Boer War, the Bazar Valley Campaign and the First World War, during which he was wounded in the Second Battle of Ypres. In the Second World War, he served initially as Commander-in-Chief Middle East, in which role he led British forces to victory over the Italian Army in Eritrea-Abyssinia, western Egypt and eastern Libya during Operation Compass in December 1940, only to be defeated by Erwin Rommel's Panzer Army Africa in the Western Desert in April 1941. He served as Commander-in-Chief, India, from July 1941 until June 1943 (apart from a brief tour as Commander of American-British-Dutch-Australian Command) and then served as Viceroy of India until his retirement in February 1947.
The Earl Wavell
Winston Churchill (1943–45)
Clement Attlee (1945–47)
Peerage created
24 May 1950 (aged 67)
Westminster, London, England
4, including Archibald Wavell, 2nd Earl Wavell
United Kingdom
1901–1943
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
- Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India
- Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire
- Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Military Cross
- Knight of Justice of the Order of St. John
- Order of St Stanislaus, 3rd class with Swords (Russia)
- Order of St. Vladimir (Russia)
- Croix de Guerre (France)
- Commander of the Legion of Honour (France)
- Order of El Nahda, 2nd Class (Hejaz)
- Grand Cross of the Order of George I with Swords (Greece)
- Virtuti Militari, 5th Class (Poland)
- War Cross, 1st Class (Greece)
- Commander of the Order of the Seal of Solomon (Ethiopia)
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands)
- War Cross (Czechoslovakia)
- Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States)
Early life[edit]
Born the son of Archibald Graham Wavell (who later became a major-general in the British Army and military commander of Johannesburg after its capture during the Second Boer War[3] and Lillie Wavell (née Percival), Wavell attended Eaton House,[4] followed by the leading preparatory boarding school Summer Fields near Oxford, Winchester College, where he was a scholar, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.[5] His headmaster, Dr. Fearon, had advised his father that there was no need to send him into the Army as he had "sufficient ability to make his way in other walks of life".[3]
Early career[edit]
After graduating from Sandhurst, Wavell was commissioned into the British Army on 8 May 1901 as a second lieutenant in the Black Watch,[6] and joined the 2nd battalion of his regiment in South Africa to fight in the Second Boer War.[5] The battalion stayed in South Africa throughout the war, which formally ended in June 1902 after the Peace of Vereeniging. Wavell was ill, and did not immediately join the battalion as it transferred to British India in October that year; he instead left Cape Town for England on the SS Simla at the same time.[7] In 1903 he was transferred to join the battalion in India and, having been promoted to lieutenant on 13 August 1904,[8] he fought in the Bazar Valley Campaign of February 1908.[9] In January 1909 he was seconded from his regiment to be a student at the Staff College.[10] He was one of only two in his class to graduate with an A grade.[11] In 1911, he spent a year as a military observer with the Russian Army to learn Russian,[9] returning to his regiment in December of that year.[12] In April 1912 he became a General Staff Officer Grade 3 (GSO3) in the Russian Section of the War Office.[13] In July, he was granted the temporary rank of captain and became GSO3 at the Directorate of Military Training.[14] On 20 March 1913 Wavell was promoted to the substantive rank of captain.[15] After visiting manoeuvres at Kiev in summer 1913, he was arrested at the Russo-Polish border as a suspected spy, following a search of his Moscow hotel room by the secret police, but managed to remove from his papers an incriminating document listing the information wanted by the War Office.[16]
Wavell was working at the War Office when Army officers refused to act against Ulster unionists in March 1914; the government was expecting Unionist paramilitary opposition to introduction of devolved government in Ireland. His letters to his father record his disgust at the government's behaviour in giving an ultimatum to officers – he had little doubt that the government had been planning to crush the Ulster Scots, whatever they later claimed. However, he was also concerned at the Army's effectively intervening in politics, not least as there would be an even greater appearance of bias when the Army was used against industrial unrest.[17]
First World War[edit]
Wavell was working as a staff officer when the First World War began.[18] As a captain, he was sent to France to a posting at General HQ of the British Expeditionary Force as General Staff Officer Grade 2 (GSO2), but shortly afterwards, in November 1914, was appointed brigade major of 9th Infantry Brigade.[19] He was wounded in the Second Battle of Ypres of 1915, losing his left eye[20] and winning the Military Cross.[21] In October 1915 he became a GSO2 in the 64th Highland Division.[5]
In December 1915, after he had recovered, Wavell was returned to General HQ in France as a GSO2.[22] He was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 8 May 1916.[23] In October 1916 Wavell was graded General Staff Officer Grade 1 (GSO1) as an acting lieutenant-colonel,[24] and was then assigned as a liaison officer to the Russian Army in the Caucasus.[9] In June 1917, he was promoted to brevet lieutenant-colonel[25] and continued to work as a staff officer (GSO1),[26] as liaison officer with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force headquarters.[9]
In January 1918 Wavell received a further staff appointment as Assistant Adjutant & Quartermaster General (AA&QMG)[27] working at the Supreme War Council in Versailles.[20] In March 1918 Wavell was made a temporary brigadier general and returned to Palestine where he served as the brigadier general of the General Staff (BGGS) with XX Corps, part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.[20]
Between the world wars[edit]
Wavell was given a number of assignments between the wars, though like many officers he had to accept a reduction in rank. In May 1920 he relinquished the temporary appointment of Brigadier-General, reverting to lieutenant-colonel.[28] In December 1921, he became an Assistant Adjutant General (AAG) at the War Office[29] and, having been promoted to full colonel on 3 June 1921,[30] he became a GSO1 in the Directorate of Military Operations in July 1923.[31]
Apart from a short period unemployed on half pay in 1926,[32][33] Wavell continued to hold GSO1 appointments, latterly in the 3rd Infantry Division, until July 1930 when he was given command of 6th Infantry Brigade with the temporary rank of brigadier.[34] In March 1932, he was appointed aide-de-camp (ADC) to King George V,[35] a position he held until October 1933 when he was promoted to Major-General.[36][37] However, there was a shortage of jobs for Major-Generals at this time and in January 1934, on relinquishing command of his brigade, he found himself unemployed on half pay once again.[38]
By the end of the year, although still on half pay, Wavell had been designated to command 2nd Division and appointed a CB.[39] In March 1935, he took command of his division.[40] In August 1937 he was transferred to Palestine, where there was growing unrest, to be General Officer Commanding (GOC) British Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan[41] and was promoted to Lieutenant-General on 21 January 1938.[42]
In April 1938 Wavell became General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Southern Command in the UK.[43] In July 1939, he was named as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Middle East Command with the local rank of full general.[44] Subsequently, on 15 February 1940, to reflect the broadening of his oversight responsibilities to include East Africa, Greece and the Balkans, his title was changed to Commander-in-Chief Middle East.[45]
Second World War military commands[edit]
Middle East Command (incl. North and East Africa)[edit]
The Middle Eastern theatre was quiet for the first few months of the war until Italy's declaration of war in June 1940.[46] The Italian forces in North and East Africa greatly outnumbered the British and Wavell's policy was therefore one of "flexible containment" to buy time to build up adequate forces to take the offensive. Having fallen back in front of Italian advances from their colonies Libya and Eritrea towards (respectively) Egypt and Ethiopia, Wavell mounted successful offensives into Libya (Operation Compass) in December 1940 and Eritrea and Ethiopia in January 1941. By February 1941, his Western Desert Force under Lieutenant-General Richard O'Connor had defeated the Italian Tenth Army at Beda Fomm taking 130,000 prisoners and appeared to be on the verge of overrunning the last Italian forces in Libya, which would have ended all direct Axis control in North Africa.[47] His troops in East Africa also had the Italians under pressure and at the end of March his forces in Eritrea under William Platt won the decisive battle of the campaign at Keren which led to the liberation of Ethiopia and the British occupation of the Italian colonies of Eritrea and Somaliland.[48]