Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell

The Rt Hon. The Earl Wavell
May 5, 1883(1883-05-05) – May 24, 1950(1950-05-24) (aged 67)
Sir Archibald Wavell in Field Marshal's uniform
Place of birth	Colchester, Essex, England
Place of death	London, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1901 - 1943
Rank	Field Marshal
Commands held	Middle East Command American-British-Dutch-Australian Command
Battles/wars	Second Boer War World War I Battle of Ypres Sinai and Palestine Campaign Arab revolt in Palestine World War II: North African campaign Pacific War
Awards	GCB (4 Mar 1941)[1] GCSI (Aug/Sept 1943) GCIE (Aug/Sept 1943) KCB (2 Jan 1939)[2] CB (1 Jan 1935)[3] CMG (1 Jan 1919)[4] Military Cross Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange Nassau (Netherlands) (1943)[5] Order of Stanislas (3rd Class) with Swords (Russia) 1917[6] Order of El Nahda, 2nd Class (Kingdom of Hejaz) (1920)[7] Croix de Guerre (Commandeur) (France) (1920)[8] Military Cross, 1st Class (Greece) (1942)[9] Military Cross (Czechoslovakia) (1943)[10] K. St. J (1944)[11]
Other work	Viceroy of India (1943 - 1947) Colonel of the Black Watch ( - 1950)[12] Lord Lieutenant of the County of London (1949 - 1950)[13] Constable of the Tower of London (1948 - 1950)[14]

Field Marshal Sir Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC, PC (5 May 1883 – 24 May 1950) was a British field marshal and the commander of British Army forces in the Middle East during World War II. He led British forces to victory over the Italians, only to be defeated by the German army. He was the penultimate Viceroy of India from 1943-47.

Early life

Wavell was born in Colchester but spent much of his childhood in India. Wavell's father (Archibald Graham Wavell) was a major-general in the British Army and Wavell followed his father's career choice. Wavell attended the preparatory boarding school Summer Fields, near Oxford, Winchester College, where he was a scholar, seventh on the roll, and Sandhurst.

Early career

After graduating from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst Wavell was commissioned on 8 May 1901 into the Black Watch^[15] and fought in the second Boer War. In 1903, he was transferred to India and fought in the Bazar Valley Campaign of February 1908.^[16] He was promoted to lieutenant in August 1904^[17] and was seconded in January 1909 from his regiment to be a student at the Staff College.^[18] In 1911, he spent a year as a military observer with the Russian Army to learn Russian,^[16] returning to his regiment in December of that year.^[19] In April 1912 he became a Staff Officer Grade 3 (GSO3) in the War Office.^[20] In July, he was granted the temporary rank of captain and became GSO3 at the Directorate of Military Training.^[21] In March 1913 Wavell was promoted to captain.^[22]

World War I

Wavell was working as a staff officer when World War I began. As a captain, he was sent to France to a posting at GHQ as General Staff Officer Grade 2 (GSO2), but shortly afterwards was appointed Brigade Major of 9th Infantry Brigade in November 1914.^[23] He was wounded in the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, losing his left eye^[24] and winning the Military Cross.^[25] After he recovered, he was appointed in December 1915 to the General Staff as a GSO2 in the rank of captain.^[26] He was promoted to Major in May 1916.^[27] In October 1916 Wavell was graded General Staff Officer Grade 1 (GSO1) as an acting lieutenant colonel,^[28] and was then assigned as a liaison officer to the Russian Army in the Caucasus.^[16] In June 1917, he was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel^[29] and continued to work as a staff officer (GSO1),^[30] as liaison officer with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force headquarters.^[16] In January 1918 he received a further staff appointment as Assistant Adjutant & Quartermaster General (AA&QMG)^[31] working at the Supreme War Council in Versailles.^[24] 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,^[24] part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force commanded by Sir Edmund Allenby, of whom he was later to write a biography.

Between the wars

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 rank of brigadier general, reverting to brevet lieutenant colonel.^[32] In December 1921, still a brevet lieutenant colonel, he became an Assistant Adjutant General (AAG) at the War Office^[33] and in July 1923 was once again working as a GSO1,^[34] having been promoted full Colonel in July 1922, effective June 1921.^[35] Apart from a short period unemployed on half pay in 1926,^[36][37] Wavell continued to hold GSO1 appointments, latterly in the 3rd Infantry Division, until July 1930 when he was once again granted the rank of temporary brigadier and was given command of 6th Infantry Brigade.^[38] In March 1932, he was appointed ADC to the King,^[39] a position he held until October 1933 when he was promoted to major general.^[40][41] 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.^[42] By the end of the year, although still on half pay, he had been designated to command 2nd Infantry Division and was made CB.^[3] In March 1935, he took command of his division.^[43] 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^[44] and was promoted to lieutenant general in January 1938.^[45] In April 1938 he became General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Southern Command in the UK.^[46] In July 1939, he was named as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Middle East Command with the local rank of full general.^[47]

World War II military commands

Middle East Command

The Middle Eastern theatre was quiet for the first few months of the war until Italy's declaration of war in June 1940. 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 Libya, Eritrea 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.^[48] Furthermore, his troops in East Africa 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 occupation of the Italian colonies in Ethiopia and Somaliland.^[49]

Wavell (right) meets Lt. General Quinan, commander of British and Indian Army forces in Iraq in April 1941.

However, in February Wavell had been ordered to halt his advance into Libya and send troops to Greece where the Germans and Italians were attacking. He disagreed with this decision but followed his orders. The result was a disaster. The Germans were given the opportunity to reinforce the Italians in North Africa with the Afrika Korps and by the end of April the weakened Western Desert Force had been pushed all the way back to the Egyptian border, leaving Tobruk under siege.^[50] In Greece General Wilson's Force W was unable to set up an adequate defence on the Greek mainland and were forced to withdraw to Crete, suffering 15,000 casualties and leaving behind all their heavy equipment and artillery. Crete was attacked by German airborne forces on 20 May and as in Greece, the British and Commonwealth troops were forced once more to evacuate.^[50]

Events in Greece provoked a pro-Axis faction to take over the government of Iraq. Wavell, hard pressed on his other fronts, was unwilling to divert precious resources to Iraq and so it fell to Claude Auchinleck's India Command to send troops to Basra. Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, saw Iraq as vital to Britain's strategic interests and in early May, under heavy pressure from London, Wavell agreed to send a division-sized force across the desert from Palestine to relieve the besieged British air base at Habbaniya and to assume overall control of troops in Iraq. By the end of May Quinan's forces in Iraq had captured Baghdad and the Anglo-Iraqi War had ended with troops in Iraq once more reverting to the overall control of GHQ in Delhi. However, Churchill had been unimpressed by Wavell's reluctance to act.^[50]

In early June Wavell sent a force under General Wilson to invade Syria and Lebanon, responding to the help given by the Vichy France authorities there to the Iraq Government during the Anglo-Iraqi War. Initial hopes of a quick victory faded as the French put up a determined defence. Churchill determined to relieve Wavell and after the failure in mid June of Operation Battleaxe, intended to relieve Tobruk, he told Wavell on 20 June that he was to be replaced by Auchinleck, whose attitude during the Iraq crisis had impressed him.^[51] Rommel rated Wavell highly, despite Wavell's lack of success against him, and he carried an annotated translation of his book Generals and Generalship in his pocket throughout the North Africa Campaign.^[52]

Of Wavell, Auchinleck wrote: "In no sense do I wish to infer that I found an unsatisfactory situation on my arrival - far from it. Not only was I greatly impressed by the solid foundations laid by my predecessor, but I was also able the better to appreciate the vastness of the problems with which he had been confronted and the greatness of his achievements, in a command in which some 40 different languages are spoken by the British and Allied Forces."^[53]

India Command

Wavell in effect swapped jobs with Auchinleck, transferring to India where he became Commander-in-Chief, India and a member of the Governor General's Executive Council.^[54] Initially his command covered India and Iraq so that within a month of taking charge he launched Iraqforce to invade Persia in co-operation with the Russians in order to secure the oilfields and secure lines of communication to the Soviet Union.^[51]

Wavell once again had the misfortune of being placed in charge of an undermanned theatre which became a war zone when the Japanese declared war on the United Kingdom in December 1941. He was made Commander-in-Chief of ABDACOM (American-British-Dutch-Australian Command) covering Burma, Malaya, Dutch East Indies and the Philippines. Wavell, despite his abilities, did not have the resources to defend the territory he was responsible for and was unable to prevent the Japanese from capturing Singapore and Malaya. On 23 February 1942, with Malaya lost and the Allied position in Java and Sumatra precarious, ABDACOM was closed down and its headquarters in Java evacuated. Wavell returned to India to resume his position as C-in-C India where his responsibilities now included the defence of Burma.^[55]

Wavell (right) with Brooke-Popham in WW II

On 23 February British forces in Burma had suffered a serious setback when Major-General Jackie Smyth's decision to destroy the bridge over the Sittang river to prevent the enemy crossing had resulted in most of his division being trapped on the wrong side of the river. The Viceroy Lord Linlithgow sent a signal criticising the conduct of the field commanders to Churchill who forwarded it to Wavell together with an offer to send Harold Alexander, who had commanded the rearguard at Dunkirk. Alexander took command of Allied land forces in Burma in early March^[55] with William Slim arriving shortly afterwards from commanding a division in Iraq to take command of its principal formation, Burma Corps. Nevertheless, the pressure from the Japanese Armies was unstoppable and a withdrawal to India was ordered which was completed by the end of May before the start of the monsoon season which brought Japanese progress to a halt.^[56]

In order to wrest some of the initiative from the Japanese, Wavell ordered the Eastern Army in India to mount an offensive in the Arakan, which commenced in September. After some initial success the Japanese counter-attacked, and by March 1943 the position was untenable, and the remnants of the attacking force was withdrawn. Wavell relieved the Eastern Army commander, Noel Irwin, of his command and replaced him with George Giffard.^[56]

Viceroy of India

In January 1943 Wavell had been promoted to Field Marshal.^[57] When Linlinthgow retired as viceroy in the summer of 1943, Wavell was chosen to replace him,^[52] surprisingly, given his poor relationship with Churchill. He himself was again replaced in his military post in June by Auchinleck, who by this point had also experienced setbacks in North Africa. In 1943, Wavell was created a viscount (taking the style Viscount Wavell of Cyrenaica and of Winchester, in the county of Southampton)^[58] and in September, he was formally named Governor-General^[59] and Viceroy of India. He was also appointed as a Privy Counsellor.

One of his first actions in office was to address the Bengal famine of 1943 by ordering the army to distribute relief supplies to the starving rural Bengalis. He attempted with mixed success to increase the supplies of rice to reduce the prices and make it more affordable.

Wavell as Viceroy of India (centre), with the C-in-C of the Indian Army Auchinleck (right) and Montgomery.

Although Wavell was initially popular with Indian politicians, pressure mounted concerning the likely structure and timing of an independent India. He attempted to move the debate along but received little support from Churchill (who was against Indian independence), nor from Clement Attlee, Churchill's successor as Prime Minister. He was also hampered by the differences between the various Indian political factions. At the end of the war, rising Indian expectations continued to be unfulfilled and inter-communal violence became an increasing feature. Eventually, in 1947, Attlee lost confidence in Wavell and replaced him with Lord Mountbatten of Burma.^[52]

Later life

In 1947 Wavell returned to England and was made High Steward of Colchester. The same year, he was created Earl Wavell and given the additional title of Viscount Keren of Eritrea and Winchester.^[60] His titles passed to his son Archibald John Arthur Wavell, 2nd Earl Wavell upon his death in 1950.^{[nb 1]} The refusal of Churchill to attend Wavell's funeral inspired much sharp criticism.

A great lover of literature, Wavell, while Viceroy, compiled and annotated an anthology of great poetry, Other Men's Flowers, which was published in 1944; the last poem in the anthology he wrote himself and described it as a "...little wayside dandelion of my own".^[62] He had a great memory for poetry and often quoted it at length. He is depicted in Evelyn Waugh's novel "Officers and Gentlemen", part of the Sword of Honour trilogy, reciting poetry in public. He was a member of the Church of England.

Wavell is buried in the old mediaeval cloister at Winchester College, next to the Chantry Chapel. His tombstone simply bears the inscription "Wavell". St Andrew's Garrison Church, Aldershot^[63], an Army church, contains a large wooden plaque dedicated to Lord Wavell.

Wavell Heights, a suburb in Brisbane, Queensland, was named in his honour in 1941, after a request by the Brisbane City Council to rename an area which had been previously known as West Nundah. In addition, Wavell Avenue in Colchester, Essex, is named after him.

Styles

• 1883-1901: Archibald Percival Wavell
• 1901-1904: Second Lieutenant Archibald Percival Wavell
• 1904-July 1912: Lieutenant Archibald Percival Wavell
• July 1912-1913: Lieutenant (Temp. Captain) Archibald Percival Wavell
• 1913-1915: Captain Archibald Percival Wavell
• 1915-1916: Major Archibald Percival Wavell, MC
• 1916-1917: Major (Actg. Lieutenant-Colonel) Archibald Percival Wavell, MC
• 1917-1918: Major (Bvt. Lieutenant-Colonel) Archibald Percival Wavell, MC
• 1918-1919: Major (Bvt. Brigadier-General) Archibald Percival Wavell, MC
• 1919-1920: Major (Bvt. Brigadier-General) Archibald Percival Wavell, CMG, MC
• 1920-1922: Major (Bvt. Lieutenant-Colonel) Archibald Percival Wavell, CMG, MC
• 1922-1930: Colonel Archibald Percival Wavell, CMG, MC
• 1930-1932: Colonel (Temp. Brigadier) Archibald Percival Wavell, CMG, MC
• 1932-1933: Colonel (Temp. Brigadier) Archibald Percival Wavell, CMG, MC, ADC
• 1933-1935: Major-General Archibald Percival Wavell, CMG, MC
• 1935-1938: Major-General Archibald Percival Wavell, CB, CMG, MC
• 1938- January 1939: Lieutenant-General Archibald Percival Wavell, CB, CMG, MC
• January-July 1939: Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Percival Wavell, KCB, CMG, MC
• July 1939-1941: Lieutenant-General (Local General) Sir Archibald Percival Wavell, KCB, CMG, MC
• 1941-January 1943: General Sir Archibald Percival Wavell, GCB, CMG, MC
• January-July 1943: Field Marshal Sir Archibald Percival Wavell, GCB, CMG, MC
• July-September 1943: Field Marshal The Right Honourable the Viscount Wavell, GCB, CMG, MC
• September 1943-1947: His Excellency Field Marshal The Right Honourable the Viscount Wavell, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC
• 1947-1950: Field Marshal The Right Honourable the Earl Wavell, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC

Quotes

• "I think he (Benito Mussolini) must do something, if he cannot make a graceful dive he will at least have to jump in somehow; he can hardly put on his dressing-gown and walk down the stairs again." ^[64]
• "After the 'war to end war' they seem to have been pretty successful in Paris at making a 'Peace to end Peace.'" (commenting on the treaties ending World War I; this quote was the basis for the title of Fromkin, David (1989), A Peace to End All Peace, New York: Henry Holt, ISBN 0-8050-6884-8)
• "Let us be clear about three facts: First, all battles and all wars are won in the end by the infantryman. Secondly, the infantryman always bears the brunt. His casualties are heavier, he suffers greater extremes of discomfort and fatigue than the other arms. Thirdly, the art of the infantryman is less stereotyped and far harder to acquire in modern war than that of any other arm."[5] Field Marshal Earl Wavell

Publications

• Tsar Nicholas II by Andrei Georgievich Elchaninov, translated by Archibald Percival Wavell (Hugh Rees, London, 1913).^[16]
• Official Middle East Despatches December 1940 to February 1941 published in London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 37628, pp. 3261–3269, 25 June 1946.
• Official Middle East Despatches February 1941 to July 1941 published in London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 37638, pp. 3423–3444, 2 July 1946.
• Official Iran, Iraq and Syria Despatches April 1941 to January 1942 published in London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 37685, pp. 4093–4101, 13 August 1946.
• Official India Despatches March 1942 to December 1942 published in London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 37728, pp. 4663–4671, 17 September 1946.
• Other men's flowers; an anthology of poetry. London: J. Cape. 1977. OCLC 10681637. 
• Wavell: the viceroy's journal. London: Oxford University Press. 1973. ISBN 0192117238. 
• Generals and generalship; the Lees Knowles lectures delivered at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1939. London: Times Publishing. 1941. OCLC 5176549. 
• Soldiers and soldiering; or, Epithets of war. London: J. Cape. 1953. OCLC 123277730. 
• The good soldier. London: MacMillan. 1948. OCLC 6834669. 
• The Palestine campaigns. London: Constable. 1933. OCLC 221723716. 
• Allenby, a study in greatness : the biography of Field-Marshall Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and Felixstowe, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.. London: Harrap. 1940-43. OCLC 224016319. http://www.archive.org/details/allenbyastudying012106mbp. 
• Allenby, soldier and statesman. London: White Lion. 1974 [1946]. ISBN 0856174084. 
• Speaking generally; broadcasts, orders and addresses in time of war (1939-43). London: MacMillan. 1946. OCLC 2172221. 

Footnotes and citations

footnotes

citations

References

• Auchinleck, Claude (1946). Despatch on Operations in the Middle East From 5th July, 1941 to 31st October 1941. London: War Office.  in London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 37695, pp. 4215–4230, 20 August 1946. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
• Houterman, Hans; Koppes, Jeroen. "World War II unit histories and officers". http://www.unithistories.com/default.asp. Retrieved 2008-12-20. 
• Mead, Richard (2007). Churchill's Lions: A biographical guide to the key British generals of World War II. Stroud (UK): Spellmount. pp. 544 pages. ISBN 978-1-86227-431-0. 
• "AIM25 archive website". Research Support Libraries Programme. http://www.aim25.ac.uk/intro.stm. Retrieved 2008-12-20. 
• Wavell, Archibald (1946). Official despatch: Operations in East Africa, November 1940 - 12th July 1941. London: War Office.  in London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 37645, pp. 3527–3599, 10 July 1946. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
• Wavell, Archibald (1946). Despatch on Operations in Iraq, East Syria and Iran from 10th April, 1941 to 12th January, 1942. London: War Office.  in London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 37685, pp. 4093–4102, 13 August 1946. Retrieved 2009-10-14.

External links

• "Official despatch: Operations in East Africa, November 1940 - 12th July 1941.". Supplement to the London Gazette, Number 37645. July 10, 1946. http://www.ibiblio.net/hyperwar/UN/UK/LondonGazette/37645.pdf. Retrieved November 23, 2007. 
• "Despatch on Operations in Iraq, East Syria, and Iran From 10th April, 1941 to 12th January 1942.". Supplement to the London Gazette, Number 37685. August 13, 1946. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/LondonGazette/37685.pdf. Retrieved September 26, 2009. 
• "Claude Auchinleck's Despatch on Operations in the Middle East From 5th July, 1941 to 31st October 1941.". Supplement to the London Gazette, Number 37695. August 20, 1946. http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/37695/pages/4215. Retrieved November 6, 2009.