Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: A Political Soldier (review)

On June 22, 1922, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, one of Britain's most acclaimed soldiers, was assassinated in London by two IRA gunmen at his doorstep at Eaton Place. Wilson had held many important positions during his illustrious military career, including Staff College Commandant, 1907-1910; Director of Military Operations, 1910-1914; Liaison Officer with the French Army, 1915; commander of a corps, 1916; British Permanent Military Representative on the new Supreme War Council, 1917-1918; and Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1918-1922. Five years after his assassination, however, his reputation was dealt a severe blow with the publication of his diaries and letters in an official biography by Sir C. E. Callwell. Within the army establishment Wilson had always been thought of as a "political" general. One British officer had famously said of him: "Whenever Wilson came within a mile of prominent politicians he suffered from a sexual disturbance." But Wilson also had many supporters who found him good company and enjoyed his wit. Callwell's biography, however, seemed to reveal the real Wilson. Rather than being a congenial colleague Wilson's own words indicted him as being petty and vindictive, perhaps even at times unbalanced. His letters and diary entries also underscored his love of intrigue and exploitation of his political relationships to further his career.

Two Wilson biographies were written in the 1960s, Brasshat (1961), by Basil Collier and The Lost Dictator (1968), by Bernard Ash. The book under review, which is based on research in archival sources unavailable to Collier and Ash in the 1960s, is written by an historian who is an authority on Ireland during the Great War and who has edited Wilson's military correspondence, 1918-1922, in a volume published by the Army Records Society. Jeffrey clearly has the background to write the definitive Wilson biography. And he has succeeded, winning the 2006 Templer Medal and Book Prize awarded by the Society for Army Historical Research. Jeffrey not only provides a deeply researched and balanced assessment of Wilson's career, he also sheds light on many other aspects of this period, including civil-military relations, imperial overreach and the limits of British power after the war, coalition warfare, the "Continental commitment," the ascendancy of Irish Protestants in the British military establishment, and Irish nationalism and Ulster unionism. The value of this work is also enhanced by a thorough index and footnotes rather than endnotes. I have only one quibble, the thin treatment of Wilson's leadership as Sir William Robertson's replacement as CIGS during the last ten months of the war. On the other hand, to Jeffrey's credit, he does not slight Wilson's role after the Armistice. Attempting to defend the war-enlarged Empire with declining economic and military resources, Wilson focused on what he termed the four "storm" centers, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ireland, and India. Ireland, according to Jeffrey, was one area where Wilson "proved utterly inflexible (p. 256)." Irish-born, Wilson rejected any accommodation with Irish separatists. Although he looked with distaste upon the ferocious tactics of the Black and Tans, he once suggested that the names of Sinn Féiners should be posted on church doors and "whenever a policeman is murdered, pick five by lot and shoot them" (p. 266).

This biography is highly recommended to both the scholar and to the general reader.