Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson Bart., G.C.B., D.S.O. — His Life And Diaries Vol. I

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FIELD-MARSHAL SIR HENRY WILSON BART., G.C.B., D.S.O. — HIS LIFE AND DIARIES

Volume I

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR C. E. CALLWELL K.C.B.

With a Preface by Marshal Foch

WITH EIGHT PLATES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

AUTHOR’S NOTE 5

PREFACE By MARSHAL FOCH 7

[TRANSLATION] 8

LIST OF PLATES 11

CHAPTER I — EARLY YEARS 21

The Wilsons of Currygrane—Henry Wilson’s childhood and schooldays—Failures to pass for Woolwich and Sandhurst—Joins the Longford Militia—Joins the Rifle Brigade in India—Severely wounded in Burma—Invalided home—Service at home— Passes for the Staff College. 21

CHAPTER II — FROM 1892 TO 1897 28

Wilson at the Staff College—First meeting with Lord Roberts— Posted to India, but saved from going by a Medical Board—At Aldershot for four months—Joins the Intelligence Department —Stirring times in 1896 — Appointed Brigade-Major at Aldershot—Army Manœuvres of 1898—The trouble in South Africa—Mobilization for war. 28

CHAPTER III — THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 39

Arrival in Natal—Spion Kop—Vaalkranz—The Relief of Ladysmith —Advance into the Transvaal—Wilson joins Army Headquarters at Pretoria—Return home with Lord Roberts. 39

CHAPTER IV — FROM 1901 TO 1906 52

At the War Office—Command of the 9th Provisional Battalion—Back at the War Office—The War Office Reconstitution Committee—The genesis of the General Staff—Lord Roberts and Wilson—The efforts of Wilson to establish the principle of an efficient General Staff—His success in the end—Appointed Commandant of the Staff College. 52

CHAPTER V — COMMANDANT OF THE STAFF COLLEGE 68

Staff Tours—Visits to battlefields and to the French north-eastern frontier—Expansion of the College—Wilson and the students —Views on conscription—He makes friends with General Foch—Selected to become Director of Military Operations— Farewell to the College. 68

CHAPTER VI — 1910-11. — DIRECTOR OF MILITARY OPERATIONS 82

Wilson dissatisfied at the lack of practical preparations for war—The horse question and railway question—He meets Bethmann-Hollweg and von Tirpitz in Berlin—The Imperial Conference of 1911—Agadir—Scare as to time required to mobilize the Expeditionary Force—The special meeting of the C.I.D. on August 23—Conference with Generals Joffre and de Castelnau in Paris—He learns that some of the Cabinet disapprove of him—Progress made since August, 1910. 82

CHAPTER VII — 1912. — DIRECTOR OF MILITARY OPERATIONS 99

The Admiralty begin examining the question of transporting the Expeditionary Force across Channel—Sir J. French C.I.G.S. vice Nicholson—Reduction of our naval strength in the Mediterranean—Wilson meets Bonar Law and Balfour—At the French Manoeuvres—Wilson visits Russia and Galicia—Start of the Balkan War—A plan for ensuring Compulsory Service. 99

CHAPTER VIII — 1913. — DIRECTOR OF MILITARY OPERATIONS 110

Meeting with Joffre, de Castelnau, and Foch—The Irish question—Colonel Seely’s statement as to General Staff views on invasion —Wilson proceeds to the Near East—Anxiety about the army and Ulster—Lectures in various places. 110

CHAPTER IX 121

Wilson’s task almost completed—The Ulster question, risk of the army being involved—The Curragh incident—Wilson takes the matter in hand—Political crisis—Resignation of Colonel Seely, the C.I.G.S. and the Adjutant-General—The European crisis—The scheme for transferring the Expeditionary Force to its war concentration area in France—The work just finished in time—7 Draycott Place becomes the mobilization centre of Unionist pressure on the Government—August 4. War. 121

CHAPTER XI 148

The Battle of the Marne—The Aisne—The move to Flanders—The First Battle of Ypres—Lord Roberts’s death at St. Omer—The December offensive—Appointment of Wilson to be C.G.S. of the B.E.F. vetoed at Home. 148

CHAPTER XII — 1915. — JANUARY TO MARCH 166

The Project of advancing on Zeebrugge—Sir W. Robertson becomes C.G.S. at St. Omer—Wilson, Chief Liaison Officer—His name struck out of list of KC.B.s for the Honours Gazette—His difficulties in preventing a breach between G.H.Q. and G.Q.G.—The Battle of Neuve Chapelle—Wilson and Joffre at Chantilly—Lord Kitchener comes over to meet Joffre and Millerand. 166

CHAPTER XIII — 1915. — APRIL TO JUNE 182

Plans of attack—Wilson pays a visit to England—The reverse north-east of Ypres—Opening of the Arras—La Bassée offensive—Fresh difficulties with the French—Further offensive in the Arras—La Bassée region, with little result—Wilson telegraphed for by Lord Kitchener. 182

CHAPTER XIV — 1915, JULY TO SEPTEMBER 193

Wilson attends a Cabinet Meeting—Joffre insists on an offensive on the Western Front to help Russia—The Coalition Cabinet and the Dardanelles—Wilson’s advice to Kitchener—Difficulties in connexion with the contemplated offensive—Wilson accompanies Kitchener on a tour of the French lines— General Sarrail—The Battle of Loos. 193

CHAPTER XV — 1915. — OCTOBER TO DECEMBER 207

Allied troops sent to Salonika—Disappointing results of the offensive on the Western Front—Wilson summoned to London— Talks with Kitchener and Bonar Law—His anxiety as to the Greek attitude—Joffre’s visit to London and its results—The Salonika imbroglio—Question of quitting the Dardanelles— Resignation of Sir J. French—Wilson quits G.H.Q. 207

CHAPTER XVI — 1916. — IN COMMAND OF IVTH ARMY CORPS 222

The Corps—Wilson’s lectures—His temporary command of the First Army—The Corps loses some ground on the Vimy Ridge —Commencement of the Battle of the Somme—Wilson directed to prepare for an attack on the Vimy Ridge—IVth Corps Headquarters shifted farther south—Wilson and the Government Crisis—Learns that he is to go on mission to Russia. 222

CHAPTER XVII — THE MISSION TO RUSSIA 245

General situation in Russia at this time—Fall of Mr. Asquith’s Coalition Government—Wilson accompanies Lloyd George to Italy for a Conference about Salonika—The Mission starts for Russia—Conferences in Petrograd—Wilson makes a prolonged tour of the Russian Front—Return of the Mission— Wilson accepts the appointment of Liaison Officer between Haig and Nivelle. 245

CHAPTER XVIII — 1917. — LIAISON OFFICER WITH GENERAL NIVELLE AND GENERAL PÉTAIN 266

The situation on the Western Front—Nivelle’s plan—Nivelle and his Army Group Commanders—The French Government intervene—The offensive for all practical purposes fails—The—question of replacing Nivelle—Strange position—Pétain replaces Nivelle—Wilson and Pétain—His alarm at lack of co-ordination—Wilson in London—He resigns his appointment—Discouragement of the French Army and the French People. 266

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 294

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Henry Wilson kept a diary from the time of his joining the army in the year 1885, but the volumes prior to the year 1893 are missing. Subsequently to that date they provide a complete record of the Field-Marshal’s career, and they therefore form the foundation of this biography.

Up to the time of his taking up the appointment of Assistant Adjutant-General at the War Office in 1903, these records of his do not—expressing the matter in general terms—furnish many passages of such striking interest as to suggest their being freely quoted, with the exception of those that narrate events during the months when he was serving as brigade-major of an infantry brigade during the South African War. But although his daily jottings during the campaign of the Natal Army in 1899-1900 are of value from the historical point of view, very full accounts of those operations are already in existence, and their details, furthermore, are not readily followed without the use of large scale maps such as could not conveniently be included in a work of this kind. It is from 1903 onwards that Sir Henry’s diaries begin to assume a very real importance from the military, from the political and from the historical points of view. Then, after he became Director of Military Operations at the War Office in the year 1910 he was constantly coming into contact with leading men of this and of other countries, he was continuously engaged on labours of significance and concern to the State, and ne subsequently played a leading part in great events of a stirring time. Inasmuch as he, almost daily, recorded the substance of weighty conversations or noted what passed at Cabinet meetings, or jotted down the main points of what took place at memorable conferences, besides representing his own opinions as regards individuals of prominence and as regards subjects of moment, those habitual entries of his—often very voluminous entries—serve in reality for effective footnotes to the annals of the epoch. And so, all those chapters of this work which tell the tale of the last dozen years of his life consist largely, and indeed mainly, of quotations from his diaries.

Outspoken in conversation and outspoken by nature, Sir Henry was no less outspoken on paper—so much so that it has been found expedient to omit some passages, even though of undoubted interest, and that it has been thought desirable to exclude some of the forcible expressions concerning individuals which find a place in these records of his. He had contemplated compiling his memoirs himself so soon as he should find the requisite leisure for embarking on such a task, and he had looked forward to making a commencement in the autumn of the very year in which he was struck down by the assassin’s hand. That, as he methodically filled in the events and experiences of each succeeding day during all the later years of his life, he had such an undertaking constantly in mind is made evident by the elaboration which distinguishes the numerous entries that are concerned with events of public consequence of which he makes mention. But, however important might be the matters touched upon during any particular twenty-four hours, the register of events and discussions always also includes references to subjects of purely personal interest. References of that kind, it must be under-stood, have been excluded in the case of many of the quotations that appear in the following pages; nor has it been thought appropriate or necessary to signalize their excision by means of asterisks.

C. E. C.

PREFACE By MARSHAL FOCH

Sir Henri Wilson a tenu les grands emplois de l’Etat-Major Impérial Britannique. Il a joué un rôle important dans la politique de l’Empire, notamment au cours des événements de la guerre de 1914, bientôt étendue au domaine des mers et devenant mondiale. De là l’intérêt que présente sa vie.

De bonne heure, et en présence de l’ambition croissante de l’Empire Allemand, il s’était rendu compte de la nécessité qui amènerait la France et l’Angleterre à unir leurs forces pour pouvoir tenir tête à la puissance militaire que l’Allemagne mettrait en ligne. C’est dominé par ces préoccupations qu’il était entré en relations avec moi. Je rencontrai en lui, dans une absolue droiture de relations, une profondeur de prévisions et une largeur de vues impressionnantes, en même temps qu’un patriotisme constamment en éveil et un attachement sans bornes à son Pajs. Il devait rester jusqu’à son dernier jour un de mes plus solides amis. Dès 1908, sa vigilance nous avait rapprochés. Elle devait par suite nous éclairer mutuellement et nous attacher l’un à l’autre. Elle allait le guider surtout dans les mesures préparatoires éventuelles à prendre à l’Etat-Major Britannique. Aussi peut-on affirmer sans acune exagération que c’est à sa prévoyance, à sa conviction éclairée et soutenue, à sa ténacité à faire régler les préparatifs d’une lutte possible, que l’Armée Britannique dut le pouvoir de débarquer rapidement en France en Août, 1914, et entrer utilement en campagne.

Au contact de sa nature chaude, droite, franche, et, par dessus tout, désintéressée, il était facile de travailler en parfait accord avec lui, et, si l’on ne partageait pas entièrement son sentiment sur certaines manières d’agir ou de penser, on n’en restait pas moins plein d’estime et d’attachement pour l’homme.

La guerre venue, il comprit mieux que tout autre la nécessité d’une entente absolue entre les Commandements des diverses Armées Alliées.

Ce n’est que par l’union à tout prix de forces étrangères, les unes aux autres et différant par leur formation, que l’on aurait raison de la formidable entreprise de guerre Allemande, de ces millions d’hommes organisés, entraînés, armés des engins les plus perfectionnés, conduits par un Etat-Major éprouvé dans l’exécution de plans bien étudiés.

A son rôle d’agent de liaison entre les Q.G. Alliés, quelle activité, quel dévouement, quelle intelligence, quel soin ne déployait pas Sir Henrj Wilson afin d’assurer l’entente dans les combinaisons, et de faire cesser entre les Chefs Alliés des résistances ou des divergences, nées souvent d’une éducation particulière des esprits mais que la rudesse de la lutte accentuait grandement.

Personnellement je ne puis oublier que pendant la bataille des Flandres, dès la zème quinzaine d’Octobre, 1914, et durant le violent assaut d’Y près, première quinzaine de Novembre, pendant toute la durée de nos actions Anglo-franco-belges, dès nos résistances improvisées dans une région confuse, avec des moyens insuffisants, et d’où pouvait naître à tout instant un désastre de notre coalition, il venait chaque soir à zi heures du Q.G. britannique de St. Orner me trouver à mon Q.G. de Cassel. Nous nous mettions réciproquement au courant des événements survenus dans la journée et nous convenions des dispositions à prendre pour aborder celle du lendemain.

Le récit de sa vie expose bien les difficultés, les moyens et les manières d’un gouvernement parlementaire comme celui de l’Empire ‘Britannique, lancé dans la guerre; leurs répercussions sur le choix des théâtres d’opérations à adopter, sur l’action principale à poursuivre et sur la conduite des Armées.

Il montre ce que deviennent ces difficultés dans une coalition, du fait des changements de gouvernements, quand la guerre se prolonge des années, s’étendant de plus en plus sur les mers comme sur les continents. Et quand, après la victoire, il s’agit pour cette coalition de préparer les bases d’une paix solide, d’en établir les conditions et de les imposer à l’adversaire, que d’équipes d’ouvriers et de Chefs d’équipes entrent successivement en scène, de plus en plus nouveaux dans le sujet l

Quoiqu’il en soit, Sir Henry Wilson, successivement mêlé à ces différentes affaires, restait bien l’homme capable, quelqu’en fussent la variété et l’ampleur, de les traiter pratiquement sans s’égarer dans des songes ni dans des visées chimériques. Il réalisait le type du Grand Anglais patriote, s’inspirant de traditions séculaires, mais clairvoyant et tenant compte des nécessités de l’époque moderne.

F. FOCH.

[TRANSLATION]

[Sir Henry Wilson occupied highly important positions on the British Imperial General Staff and he played a prominent rôle in influencing the policy of the British Empire. Notably was this the case during the progress of the War in the year 1914, when the struggle was soon to extend itself over the seas and to become a world-wide one. Hence the story of his life possesses an enthralling interest.

Well aware of the growing ambitions of the German Empire, he had already at an early date come to recognize that France and England must unite their forces if they were to be in a position to make head against the fighting power which Germany could place in the field. He was dominated with this ideal when he first entered into an understanding with me. In the course of intimate relations, I experienced in him an amplitude of prevision and a breadth of view that were most impressive, coupled as they were with a patriotism that was ever alive and with an unbounded love for his country. To the end of his days he was to remain one of my dearest friends. His foresight had, ever since the year 1908, been bringing us closer and closer together. That foresight on his part was to help us to see clearly and it was to attach us one to the other. It was to serve as guide to him when deciding upon the measures that the British General Staff must take. I can affirm without the slightest exaggeration that it was entirely due to his prevision, to his convictions at once shrewd and consistently maintained as to what was required, to his tenacity in insisting that preparations for a possible conflict must be made, that the British Army was enabled to disembark rapidly in France in August, 1914, and to take part with effect in the campaign.

With a character so ardent, so honourable, so frank, and above all so disinterested, it was easy to work in perfect agreement, and, even if one did not always wholly share his views about certain matters of fact or opinion, one remained none the less full of regard and affection for the man himself.

When the War came, he realized more fully than anyone else how imperative was the need for an absolute understanding between the commanders of the Allied armies. It was only by a complete union between forces, which were strange to each other and which differed widely in their organization, that an undertaking so formidable as a conflict with Germany, with her millions of organized and trained men, fitted out with the most perfect appliances and controlled by a General Staff fully competent to carry out plans which had been thoroughly studied, could be effectually grappled with. In his capacity of intermediary between the Allied headquarters, what activity, what devotion, what intelligence and what solicitude did Sir Henry Wilson not display to ensure co-operation in the combinations, and to overcome divergences of view on the part of associated chiefs, divergences which were often due to the mentality of individuals but which the conditions of field service were apt gravely to accentuate.

I personally shall never forget how, during the progress of the Battle of Flanders from the second fortnight of October, 1914, to the violent attack on Ypres during the first fortnight of November, during the course of those Franco-British-Belgian operations, during the course of those improvised defensive measures carried out in an awkward terrain with insufficient means, during those days when disaster might at any moment have arisen to our coalition, he came night after night at 10 o’clock from British G.H.Q. at St. Omer to my headquarters at Cassel. It was at those meetings that we informed each other of what had been occurring, and that we agreed upon the dispositions which must be put in effect to meet events that might occur on the morrow.

The story of his life lays bare the extent of the difficulties, powers and methods of a parliamentary government such as exists in the British Empire, when plunged into war. It exposes the repercussions which such a system of government is apt to exert upon the choice of theatres of operations, upon the decision as to what is to be the main objective, and even upon the actual handling of the armies. It shows how difficult of solution become the problems that arise in the case of a coalition, and it illustrates the effect which changes of government may exert when a war lasts for years and when it spreads out over the seas and over continents. It shows, moreover, when after victory has been attained it becomes a question of preparing the basis of a lasting peace, of establishing what are to be the conditions of the pact and of imposing those conditions upon the enemy, what gangs of labourers and their foremen come upon the scene —agents who are for the most part new to the subjects which they are called upon to deal with.

Whatever happened, Sir Henry Wilson, in his handling of these diverse matters, always remained a man capable, be those matters never so varied and so important, of approaching them in practical fashion, without allowing himself to be led astray by dreams or by the allurements of visionary projects. Typical representative of great English patriots, he was ever inspired by traditions of the past, but he at the same time saw his way clearly and took full account of the requirements of the present day.]

LIST OF PLATES

Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, Bart., G.C.B., D.S.O.

LORD ROBERTS AND SIR A. MILNER, WITH SOME STAFF OFFICERS

GROVE END

AT THE FRENCH MANŒUVRES

GENERAL DE BRIGADE A. HUGUET

MARSHAL J. J. C. JOFFRE

TSARSKOE-SELO, FEBRUARY 3, 1917

GENERAL DE DIVISION R. NIVELLE

CHAPTER I — EARLY YEARS

The Wilsons of Currygrane—Henry Wilson’s childhood and schooldays—Failures to pass for Woolwich and Sandhurst—Joins the Longford Militia—Joins the Rifle Brigade in India—Severely wounded in Burma—Invalided home—Service at home— Passes for the Staff College.

THE Wilsons of Currygrane trace their ancestry back to a certain John Wilson, who landed in the suite of William III at Carrickfergus in the year 1690, and who, on being awarded by the King a grant of land at Rashee in County Antrim, settled down there, not many miles from Belfast Lough. John Wilson’s great-grandson, Hugh, towards the close of the eighteenth century, founded a business firm of shipowners in the rising city of Belfast, an undertaking which proved highly successful, and he was, in consequence, placed in a position to hand on a handsome fortune to either of his two sons. Of these, the elder, William Wilson, abandoning the shipping trade, laid out much of his acquired wealth in the judicious purchase of land, and he thus became possessor of extensive estates in the counties of Dublin, of Westmeath and of Longford.

These estates were divided up between his four sons, and the Longford property passed in due course to the youngest of these, James G. Wilson, who afterwards became D.L., and who married Constance Grace Martha, daughter of J. F. Hughes, of The Grove, Stillorgan in County Dublin. For many years after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. James Wilson lived partly at Currygrane, near Edgeworthstown in County Longford, and partly at a small place called Frescati at Blackrock near Dublin. They had a family of four sons and three daughters. The eldest son, James Mackay, succeeded his father on the latter’s death in the year 1907, and the second son, Henry Hughes, who was born on May 5, 1864, is the subject of this biography.

There is little of special interest to record in respect to the very early days of the future Field-Marshal. One feature in the educational processes that he underwent as a child is, however, deserving of record here, for it was to prove of self, but also to his country, in This was that Mr. and Mrs. Wilson secured the services of a succession of French governesses for their children and that Henry and his elder brother, Jemmy, had learnt to speak their governess’s tongue fluendy while they were still quite little fellows. Henry was from the outset particularly fond of French, and he was to enjoy many opportunities in later life of perfecting himself in the language colloquially; but it was undoubtedly due to this very early nursery and schoolroom training that he came to be able to speak it—when he chose—almost like his mother tongue.

He went to Marlborough at Easter in 1877; but although his reports might speak well of his general conduct and might pay tribute to his abilities, they could not give him credit for application, nor did they convey the impression that he was ever to win a high place in the scholastic sense as a Marlburian. So that when, early in 1880, his father learnt that a considerable temporary increase was to occur in the number of vacancies at Woolwich, the powers that be decided that Henry must try to take advantage of this unexpected opening. He was, therefore, withdrawn from the great Wiltshire school at the age of sixteen, and was placed under tutors at home to be prepared for the coming test. But although a succession of instructors of unimpeachable credentials used to journey out from Dublin to Blackrock and strive to cram knowledge into the army candidate, the results proved disappointing. For, during the course of the years 1880, 1881 and 1882 he failed on two occasions to pass for Woolwich and on three occasions to pass for Sandhurst—the last occasion, in the summer of 1882, being his final chance.

The competition for entrance into Sandhurst was at this time very keen; but, even allowing for this, it is somewhat surprising that a youth, who was in later years to exhibit brain power and intellectual resources so much above the common, should have suffered reverses in what would not, in academic circles, have been adjudged a very crucial test. His discouraging succession of failures can only, indeed, be attributed to a lack of application, a lack of application of which there was to be no indication when, a few years later, he had made up his mind to win his way into the Staff College as a first step towards rising high in his chosen profession. He used often to laugh over these early educational mishaps of his, when the time came for him to hold prominent appointments in the army that were largely concerned with the supervision of military studies.

Balked in his endeavours to obtain a commission by passing through either Woolwich or Sandhurst, it was decided that he must attain his goal by way of what used in those days to be called the back-door, i.e. through the militia. That same November (1882) he passed the qualifying test which allowed of his presenting himself at a competitive examination for direct commission in the regulars when he had undergone two militia trainings, and in December he was gazetted a lieutenant in the Longford Militia (6th Battalion Rifle Brigade).

Mr. James Wilson had decided to place his son in the hands of crammers but, to start with, sent him out to spend a few weeks at Algiers for a first experience of foreign parts, and then, after a first training with the Longford Militia, dispatched him to Darmstadt, to study under a Colonel Wilson and at the same time to improve his knowledge of the German tongue. Henry became acquainted there, thanks to introductions, with the members of the reigning house, and he spent many hours that should have been devoted to study in playing lawn-tennis with the young princesses. The two elder, Princess Victoria, who afterwards married Prince Louis of Battenburg, and Princess Elizabeth, who afterwards married the Grand Duke Serge, were just grown up at this time, while Princess Irene, who afterwards married Prince Henry of Prussia, was somewhat younger. With Princess Alix, then still quite a little girl, Henry, who all his life long had a particular affection for children, made great friends; when next he met her thirty-four years later, as will be recorded in Chapter XVII, she was Empress of All the Russias.

The young militiaman, however, only spent a couple of months at Darmstadt, and he then returned to work under crammers in England during the winter of 1883-4. He underwent a second militia training, this time with the 15th Royal Munster Fusiliers, early in the summer, so as to secure the necessary certificate to enable him to go up for the competitive examination for direct commission in July. He presented himself for examination in London in due course, and on October 16 his name appeared fifty-eighth on the list of successful candidates. Few, suffering under no disability in respect of birth or fortune, or education, from amongst that select band who have reached the highest grade in the British Army, can have experienced greater difficulties in getting into that army at all than did the future Commandant of the Staff College and Chief of the Imperial General Staff. He was in the first instance gazetted to the 18th Royal Irish. But it was arranged that he should be transferred to the Rifle Brigade; this was notified in a Gazette that was dated November 26, 1884, and he shortly afterwards learnt that he had been posted to the 1st Battalion which was, at this time, quartered at Belgaum in India.

The future Field-Marshal sailed for India on February 12, 1885, in the old Indian trooper, H.M.S. Malabar, and he arrived at Belgaum about six weeks later. Brigadier-General the Hon. Sir H. Yarde-Buller, with whom he was much associated on the staff in years to come, joined the 1st Battalion at the same time, and the pair went through their recruits’ drill together. Two of his brother subalterns of 1881, both of whom were to come to the front in the future, were General Sir J. Cowans, nearly four years his senior, and General Sir W. Congreve, who joined from Sandhurst shortly after him.

A comparatively small station in the Bombay Presidency, situated to the south of Poona, Belgaum proved to be an excellent sporting centre, and Wilson, who was already a good horseman, soon became an adept at polo, a pastime of which he was a devotee in later years when circumstances admitted of it; he, moreover, found many opportunities for enjoying the rough shooting which India so generally provides, while in the meantime entering keenly into his military duties. He soon became a prime favourite with officers and men, and

Major H. A. N. Fyers, one of his brother subalterns at this time, writes of him that he was then a tall, gaunt youth, with very long, bony arms and legs, a merry eye, and a most delightful laugh that carried you with him. Yarde-Buller, Fyers, and others of the Rifle Brigade who were in the 1st Battalion in those days, all agree that he kept a diary from the date of his joining, if not before; but any diaries of his that may have existed previous to the year 1893 cannot be found.

A year after his joining, he went on an expedition after big game with his friend Yarde-Buller, who writes of their experiences:—

We obtained two months’ leave in April, 1886, and we went off together into Mysore in hopes of getting some tiger. We were, however, unfortunate in respect to locating any of these, so we turned our attention to bison instead; and we both were fairly successful in tracking and killing some. Henry bagged five or six of them, and he also shot a bear. It was towards the end of our leave that one day, when he was tracking a bison, he suddenly came face to face with a tiger and a tigress. He got the tiger, and he told me, when he returned to our modest little camp, that he nearly got a right and left. Anyone who has been after a tiger in the Indian jungle will allow that killing them, on finding oneself confronted with them quite unexpectedly in such country, is a fine performance.

I recollect that most of us in the 1st Battalion very speedily came to look upon him as a man of quite exceptional brain power. I, personally, having been quite alone with him for two months in the jungle of Mysore, realized early that, concealed behind a somewhat boisterous manner and an unusually sunny disposition, there lay an unbounded ambition. This, added to a rare quickness of perception and to his natural gift of Irish eloquence, convinced me even in those very early days that he was a man who was destined to make his mark in the world.

Shortly after their return to Belgaum from this sporting excursion, the regiment received orders to proceed to Burma, where the dacoits were giving serious trouble and where harassing guerrilla warfare had been in progress for several months. The position was that, although Sir H. Prendergast had in the preceding year moved up the Irrawaddy to Mandalay, had dethroned and deported King Thebaw, and had disposed of the Burmese army, the settlement of this huge region as a sequel had been hedged about with all manner of difficulties. Its extensive jungles soon became infested with robber bands, its topography was but little known, and its climate proved to be such as to try sorely British, and even native, soldiers, when these came to be conducting operations in the field within its confines. Sir George White was now in command, and the considerable forces acting under his orders were for the most part split up into exiguous nomadic columns. These columns were engaged in avoiding—and in sometimes failing to avoid—ambuscades, and in seeking out bands of fugitive dacoits scattered over a wide area of country, which was largely overgrown with scrub and patches of forest, was intersected by watercourses, and was often found to be almost impassable owing to the swampy character of the soil.

On reaching Lower Burma the 1st Rifle Brigade were conveyed in steamers up the Irrawaddy to some distance below Mandalay. Then, no sooner were they disembarked, than one of the first responsibilities to confront the battalion staff was the formation of a detachment of mounted infantry. Ponies were procured, volunteers were called for from the rank-and-file, and Captain H. L. Rokeby was, to start with, placed in command, with Lieutenants Burnett Ramsay and Wilson as his subalterns. Rokeby was, however, obliged to give up command owing to sickness, and the little improvised unit was then worked as two distinct detachments under Ramsay and Wilson respectively. Wilson was in his element while struggling with such, often comical, adversities as only determination and an unfailing gaiety could effectually over-come. His long legs proved a great convenience to him in a service which consisted largely of scrambling off, and on to, the backs of the very small chargers which Burma produces. In a short space of time, therefore, his little detachment could fairly claim to rank as a going concern, and was on the war-path in the vicinity of Mimbu, engaged on rounding up individual dacoits and dacoits in parties, when their presence was detected or reported.

His troop had more than one lively brush with the freebooters, and in March, 1887, it was increased to a strength of fifty riflemen. Its young commander met with occasional personal adventures of a hectic kind. On one occasion, for instance, he picked up a huge basket and found a dacoit reposing under it, who incontinently bolted. Had his diary been available, stories of other thrilling experiences encountered by him in these unconventional guerrilla operations would, no doubt, have been found set down in his own expressive phraseology. This, his first taste of active service, was, however, brought to an abrupt conclusion by an episode which for him very nearly ended fatally.

The policy encouraged by those in authority was that officers in charge of detachments should endeavour to capture dacoits alive, if that should prove possible. Wilson and some of his riflemen had one day tracked a couple of these cut-throats down, had fairly cornered them, and the bearing of the two brigands left their intentions in doubt. He made his men stand back; unarmed but for a bamboo walking-stick he advanced to take the pair himself, and he was about to do so when one of them suddenly slashed at his head with a previously concealed dah. Wilson partially parried the blow with the stick; but he was hit just over the eye, and the consequence was that a very serious injury was inflicted.{1} He did not report himself as wounded at first,{2} but when he did and he was examined by the doctor, he was promptly sent down country. The eye itself most fortunately was not damaged; but several small bones behind it had been chipped or broken; the wound proved most painful and difficult to heal at the time, and it was frequently to cause Wilson grave discomfort in future years. It moreover created a slight disfigurement, and this he carried with him for the remainder of his life.

In view of the severity of the injury he was granted sick leave to Calcutta, where an operation was performed, and from there he proceeded to Darjeeling; but he suffered much from the wound and from its effect on his eye, so that eventually he was brought before a medical board and this recommended his being sent home on sick leave. He sailed from Bombay for England and arrived at the Wilsons’ place, Frescati, near Dublin, on November 22, after an absence of nearly three years from England. He had been recommended for the newly created Distinguished Service Order, but he was not awarded it; and at a later date he received the Burma medal and clasp for his services at the front.

He spent practically the whole of the following year on sick leave in Ireland, staying for most part of the time either at Frescati or at Currygrane, and he suffered a good deal of pain and inconvenience from his wound. He was now a member of the Royal St. George Yacht Club at Kingstown, and during the summer he was often out sailing in his father’s yacht the Saraband. He kept some polo ponies and played much tennis. The Fitzwilliam Square Lawn-tennis week had recendy become a most important social and sporting gathering in Dublin; he and his brother Jemmy were notable figures at it, and Sir W. Orpen in his Stories of Old Ireland and Myself makes due mention of the pair going up to it from Blackrock:—

I remember well (he writes) how, when they appeared on the platform of the little railway station in the morning to take the train to Dublin, a sort of hush spread over a little crowd waiting to be taken to the city for their daily tasks. Such perfect figures, such perfect clothes, spats to wonder at, boots to dream of. Sir Henry always with a rain-coat thrown over one shoulder, always with his yellow gloved hands clasped behind him. Him we called Rake-faced Wilson and his brother Droop-eyed Wilson. Yes. Truly they were different from the little crowd; it was as if the Assyrian Princes mentioned in Ezekiel had arrived amongst us from the unknown world far beyond our ken. What a joyful creature Sir Henry was! His laugh ever made one laugh, though no one had any idea what he was laughing at. We kept our proper distance in those days.

Wilson had become practically engaged to Miss Cecil Mary Wray, daughter of Mr. George C. G. Wray, of Ardnamona, in County Donegal, whom he had known for some years, and during this prolonged period of leisure he starred studying for the Staff College. Being still a subaltern in a somewhat expensive regiment, with no prospect of promotion for five or six years to come, he was stimulated in his desire to reach the haven of Camberley by the knowledge that the marriage which he hoped for would to some extent depend on his succeeding in securing admission. All this time he remained on the books of the 1st Battalion of his regiment, and, on his passing a medical board as fit for duty early in 1889, he joined the Rifle Brigade depot at Winchester as a preliminary to his proceeding back to the East. He was, however, very anxious to remain in the United Kingdom; he could fairly put forward a claim to stay at home on the grounds of the serious wound that he had been suffering from and that he was to some extent still suffering from, and so it was arranged that he should join the 2nd Battalion at Woolwich. The battalion moved on to Dover early in the autumn, where it had to be split up, two of the companies, D and H, finding themselves quartered in Fort Burgoyne, above the Castle, whereas headquarters and the other companies occupied South Front Barracks on the farther side of the town. Wilson was one of the subalterns of D company, Cowans being the other; H company had Fyers as one of its subalterns, who writes of this time:—

We spent, I remember, a very peaceful and pleasant time there. Both Henry and Cowans were working hard for the Staff College. Henry was also engaged to be married, and I remember his once saying to me in one of his earnest moods; For me two things are certain. The first is that I am going to pass into the Staff College, and the second is that I am going to marry Cecil Wray. When he had made up his mind to obtain a given thing he was the most unyielding man I ever met. Jack Cowans passed for the Staff College that year and joined it at the beginning of 1890.{3}

Although Henry was working very hard, he always allowed himself to relax when he joined our little mess. His unbounded high spirits, his keen sense of humour and his invariable geniality made him the life and soul of the party. His sympathetic ways, coupled with his ever ready wit and his brilliant conversation, endowed him with a charm that acted like a tonic on his messmates. People who did not know him were perhaps disposed on first acquaintance to set him down as a wild Irishman of equally wild spirits. I remember, for instance, one day on the musketry ranges a staff officer coming to watch us, who presently drew me aside to ask, Who is that officer standing over there, and what is his rank? That is Mr. Wilson, said I, a subaltern like myself. The staff officer gazed at him with a puzzled countenance for a moment or two and then turned away with the remark, He seems a very comic fellow. Henry gloated over it when I told him, and he used to refer to the incident years afterwards.

But those who came to know him well soon realized that, underneath all this superficial gaiety and cheery chaff lay a deep and enduring purpose. He was determined to rise in his profession and, full of ambition as he was, he in reality concentrated all his energies to achieve that end. Work under the circumstances came natural to him. He was fitted out with a wide imagination, and he possessed a good deal of what I should call the dramatic sense. He thought in armies, army corps and divisions, and he was full of admiration for Napoleon and his marshals. It was delightful to listen when, with rugged eloquence, he told us the story of some Napoleonic masterpiece of soldiership.

The battalion moved to Aldershot to form part of a flying column during the drill season of 1890, but they returned to Dover in August to embark for Belfast, there to be stationed. It was at this time commanded by Colonel (now Major-General Sir L. V.) Swaine, who had been Military Secretary to Lord Wolseley during the campaign of Tel-el-Kebir and the Nile Expedition, and who in later years proved an influential friend to Wilson.

In anticipation of the Staff College examination which was to be held in the coming month of May, Wilson spent the winter following, hard at work; and it was while quartered in the great Ulster city that an incident occurred which he used to relate in after years with the utmost gusto. A telegraph boy came up to him one day when he happened to be in the barrack square, and handed him one of the familiar orange-coloured envelopes. It was addressed The Ugliest Officer in the Army, Victoria Barracks, Belfast. On opening the envelope, Wilson found it to contain a humorous message to him from Cowans; and he always declared that the boy, furnished with that precocious intelligence which is so commonly displayed by the city-bred young, had at once on meeting him realized that he must be the warrior for whom the missive was intended. The boy had no doubt accosted some other officer or officers, who had guessed that Wilson was meant and had directed the youth accordingly.

The result of the examination was published on August 1, when his name appeared as No. 15 on the list—the order of passing and the marks obtained used to be announced in those days. There was consequently nothing to prevent his marriage with Miss Wray taking place, and the wedding was celebrated at Christ Church, Kingstown, on October 3, 1891.

CHAPTER II — FROM 1892 TO 1897

Wilson at the Staff College—First meeting with Lord Roberts— Posted to India, but saved from going by a Medical Board—At Aldershot for four months—Joins the Intelligence Department —Stirring times in 1896 — Appointed Brigade-Major at Aldershot—Army Manœuvres of 1898—The trouble in South Africa—Mobilization for war.

IN view of the two years’ course at the Staff College, the Wilsons had leased a small house, Grove End, at Bagshot, about two miles from Camberley. The period between the conclusion of their honeymoon and the reopening of the college towards the end of January had admitted of their making themselves very comfortable in this, their first joint home. A modest residence, Grove End none the less had much to recommend it to a newly-married pair of restricted means. The house, if relatively small, offered a considerable amount of accommodation, and it stood in its own grounds of four acres, of which about three-quarters of an acre formed the garden, while the rest made a paddock. He and Mrs. Wilson became very fond of the place, they did much to improve its amenities, and they were glad to occupy it again for considerable periods several years after their first tenancy had come to an end.

They started with an establishment of three Irish servants, who remained with them for a long time and the most engaging of whom undoubtedly was one, Brown, who assumed office as groom, but who also served as a handy-man and gardener and who could be classed as a typical representative of the Emerald Isle. Brown was, in his horticultural capacity, aided by Alfie, the garden boy, and Wilson from the outset took an absorbing interest in the garden; there were few days that he did not spend at least a short time grubbing in the ground and planting and planning, devoting particular care to the vegetable portion. He and Brown were often at work together at such times, and the pleasaunce would resound with Wilson’s peals of laughter at his countryman’s quaint sayings. But when he tried lectures on the art of war on Brown the effort proved a failure, for, after his expatiating at length on certain of Napoleon’s more dramatic achievements—the Bridge of Lodi, the wonder-stroke of Austerlitz, and so forth—all that he could exact from his hearer was a grudging admission that them English is a clever people. Mrs. Wilson proved herself to be a masterly administrator, furnished with quite exceptional gifts for setting a newly-acquired house in order. She was to be provided with ample opportunities for displaying her talents in the latter direction during the years to come, for the Wilsons, after leaving Grove End, were constantly changing their residences until the time came for them to occupy Staff College House (the Commandant’s abode) at Camberley. The young couple were by no means well off; only by skilful management were they able to make both ends meet, and the shifts and expedients to which they were put from time to time are illustrated by one of their earliest experiences when settling down. Neighbours