Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell

59
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell bigraphy, stories - British Army General and Viceroy of India

Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell : biography

5 May 1883 – 24 May 1950

Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC, PC (5 May 1883 – 24 May 1950) was a senior commander in the British Army. He served in the Second Boer War, the Bazar Valley Campaign and the Great War, during which he was wounded in the Second Battle of Ypres. He served in the Second World War, initially as Commander-in-Chief Middle East, in which role he led British forces to victory over the Italians in western Egypt and eastern Libya during Operation Compass in December 1940, only to be defeated by the German army 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 ABDACOM) and then served as Viceroy of India until his retirement in February 1947.

Honours and awards

Ribbon bar (as it would look today)

100px 100px

British

  • Military Cross – 3 June 1915
  • Mention in Despatches 22 June 1915, 4 January 1917, 22 January 1919
  • Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) – 1 January 1919
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) – 4 March 1941 (KCB: 2 January 1939; CB: 1 January 1935)
  • Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India (GCSI) – 18 September 1943
  • Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (GCIE) – 18 September 1943
  • Knight of the Order of St. John – 4 January 1944

Others

  • Order of St Stanislaus, 3rd class with Swords (Russia)- 12 September 1916
  • Order of St. Vladimir (Russia) 1917
  • Croix de Guerre (Commandeur) (France) – 4 May 1920
  • Commandeur, Légion d’honneur (France) – 7 May 1920
  • Order of El Nahda, 2nd Class (Hejaz) – 30 September 1920
  • Grand Cross, Order of George I with Swords (Greece) – 9 May 1941
  • Virtuti Militari, 5th Class (Poland) – 23 September 1941
  • War Cross, 1st Class (Greece) – 10 April 1942
  • Commander, Order of the Seal of Solomon (Ethiopia) – 5 May 1942
  • Grand Cross, Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands) – 15 January 1943
  • War Cross (Czechoslovakia) – 23 July 1943

Early career

After graduating from Sandhurst, Wavell was commissioned on 8 May 1901 into the Black Watch and fought in the Second Boer War. In 1903, he was transferred to India and, having been promoted to lieutenant on 13 August 1904, he fought in the Bazar Valley Campaign of February 1908. In January 1909 was seconded from his regiment to be a student at the Staff College. He was one of only two in his class to graduate with an A grade.Schofield 2006, p33 In 1911, he spent a year as a military observer with the Russian Army to learn Russian, returning to his regiment in December of that year. In April 1912 he became a General Staff Officer Grade 3 (GSO3) in the Russian Section of the War Office. In July, he was granted the temporary rank of captain and became GSO3 at the Directorate of Military Training. On 20 March 1913 Wavell was promoted to the substantive rank of captain. 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.Schofield 2006, p39

Wavell was working at the War Office during the Curragh Incident. 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 Protestants, 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. Schofield 2006, p42-3

Early life

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 Boer WarSchofield 2006, p. 15) and Lillie Wavell (née Percival), Wavell attended the leading preparatory boarding school Summer Fields near Oxford, followed by Winchester College, where he was a scholar, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.Heathcote, p. 287 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”Schofield 2006, p15