Wavell, Archibald Percival, 1883-1950, 1st Earl Wavell, Field Marshal

Person

Wavell, Archibald Percival, 1883-1950, 1st Earl Wavell, Field Marshal

1883-1950

Born 1883; educated at Summer Fields, Oxford, Winchester College and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned into The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment), 1901; served in the Second Boer War, South Africa, with 2 Bn, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment), 1901-1902; service in India with 2 Bn, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment), 1903-1908, including Bazar Valley campaign, North West Frontier, 1908; Lt, 1904; graduated from Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1910; visited Russia to learn Russian language, 1911; acting Capt, 1912; General Staff Officer 3, Russian Section, Directorate of Military Operations, War Office, 1912-1914; Capt, 1913; service in World War One, 1914-1918; appointed Bde Maj, 9 Infantry Bde, 3 Div, 2 Corps, British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Belgium and France, 1914; served on Western Front, 1914-1916, seriously wounded and awarded MC, Ypres, Belgium, 1915; General Staff Officer 2, 64 (Highland) Div, Territorial Force, UK, 1915; General Staff Officer 2, General Headquarters, France, 1915-1916; Maj, 1916; temporary Lt Col, 1916; British Military Representative to Russian Gen Grand Duke Nicholas (Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov), Commander-in-Chief and Governor, Caucasus, 1916-1917; Brevet Lt Col, 1917; Liaison Officer between Gen Sir William Robert Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and Gen Sir Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, General Officer Commanding in Chief Egyptian Expeditionary Force, 1917-1918; Staff Officer, Allied Supreme War Council, Versailles, France, 1918; Brig Gen General Staff, 20 Corps, 1918-1919; awarded CMG, 1919; Brig Gen General Staff, Egypt and Palestine, 1919-1920; service with 2 Bn, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment), Germany, 1921; Col, 1921; Assistant Adjutant General, Adjutant General's Department, War Office, 1921-1923; General Staff Officer 1, Military Operations 1, Operations Directorate, War Office, 1923-1926; placed on half pay, 1926; General Staff Officer 1, 3 Div, UK, 1926-1930; temporary Brig, 1930; commanded 6 Infantry Bde, Aldershot, Hampshire, 1930-1934; Aide de Camp to HM King George V, 1932-1933; Maj Gen, 1933; placed on half pay, 1934-1935; awarded CB, 1935; General Officer Commanding 2 Div, Aldershot, 1935-1937; Head of British Military Delegation to observe Red Army manoeuvres, Minsk, USSR, 1936; General Officer Commanding, Palestine and Transjordan, 1937-1938; Lt Gen, 1938; General Officer Commanding in Chief Southern Command, 1938-1939; Lees Knowles Lecturer, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, 1939; created KCB, 1939; Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, 1939-1941; Gen, 1940; appointed GCB, 1941; Commander-in-Chief, India, 1941-1943; Aide de Camp General to HM King George VI, 1941-1943; Supreme Allied Commander, South West Pacific, ABDA (American, British, Dutch and Australian) Command, 1942; FM, 1943; appointed GCSI and GCIE, and created Viscount Wavell of Cyrenaica and of Winchester, 1943; Privy Councillor, 1943; Viceroy and Governor General of India, 1943-1947; Chancellor of Aberdeen University, 1945-1950; Honorary Col, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment), 1946-1950; created 1st Earl Wavell, 1947; High Steward of Colchester, Essex, 1947-1950; Constable of the Tower of London, 1948-1950; Lord Lieutenant of the County of London, 1949; Governor, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, 1949-1950; died 1950.

Publications: Tsar Nicholas II by Andrei Georgievich Elchaninov, translated by Archibald Percival Wavell (Hugh Rees, London, 1913); The Palestine campaigns (Constable, London, 1928); Allenby: a study in greatness (Harrap, London, 1940); Generals and Generalship. The Lees Knowles Lectures delivered at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1939 (The Times, London, 1941); Allenby in Egypt (Harrap, London, 1943); The war in the Far East. Address...at a meeting of the Study Committees of the Empire Parliamentary Association...1943 (Printed for private circulation, London, 1943); Other men's flowers. An anthology of poetry compiled by A P Wavell (Jonathan Cape, London, 1944); Allenby: soldier and statesman (Harrap, London, 1946); Speaking Generally. Broadcasts, orders and addresses in time of war, 1939-1943 (Macmillan, London, 1946); The good soldier (Macmillan, London, 1948); Speeches by Earl Wavell. From 26th October 1943 to 21st March 1947 (New Delhi, India, 1948); The triangle of forces in civil leadership (WalkerTrust Lectures on Leadership, Oxford University Press, London, 1948); Minerva's owl or education in the Army (Haldane Memorial Lecture, London, 1948); Arms and the man [Presidential address delivered to the Virgil Society, 1948] (Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1949); National and international history (Stevenson Memorial Lecture, Oxford University Press, London, 1949); Soldiers and soldiering, or Epithets of war, compiled by Maj Archibald John Arthur Wavell, 2nd Earl Wavell (Jonathan Cape, London, 1953).

0099 KCLMA

Final

Partial

Further information is available at the National Archives (F60074)