title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: On 27–28 January 1911, Wilson visited Brussels, dining with members of the Belgian General Staff, and later exploring the part of the country south of the Meuse with the military attaché Colonel Tom Bridges. Between 17 and 27 February, he visited Germany, meeting Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg and Admiral Tirpitz at a dinner at the British Embassy. On the return journey he noted how many railway sidings were being built at Herstal on the Belgian frontier, and dined in Paris with Foch, whom he warned (26 February) against listening to Repington, and the French Chief of Staff General Laffort de Ladibat. Admiral John Fisher (letter to J. A. Spender 27 February 1911) was hostile to Wilson's plans to deploy forces to the continent. By 21 March Wilson was preparing plans to embark the BEF infantry by Day 4 of mobilisation, followed by the cavalry on Day 7 and the artillery on Day 9.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Refusing Nicholson's request (April 1911) that he help with Repington's new "Army Review", he declared him "a man devoid of honour, & a liar". He warned Robinson of "The Times" (24 May) against listening to him.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson sat up till midnight on 4 July (three days after the "Panthe"r arrived at Agadir in an attempt to overawe the French) writing a long minute to the CIGS. On 19 July he went to Paris for talks with Adolphe Messimy (French War Minister) and General Dubail (French Chief of Staff). The Wilson-Dubail memorandum, although making explicit that neither government was committed to action, promised that in the event of war the Royal Navy would transport six infantry and one cavalry divisions (totaling 150,000 men) to Rouen, Le Havre and Boulogne, and that the BEF would concentrate between Arras, Cambrai and St Quentin by the thirteenth day of mobilisation. In reality, the transport plans were nowhere near ready, although it is unclear that the French knew this. The French called the Expeditionary Force "l'Armee Wilson" although they seem to have been left with an inflated idea of the size of commitment which Britain would send.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson approved of Lloyd George's Mansion House speech (backing France), which he thought preferable to "the funk Edward Grey('s) procrastinat(ion)". He lunched with Grey and Sir Eyre Crowe (Assistant Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office) on 9 August, urging them that Britain must mobilise on the same day as France and send the whole six divisions. He thought Grey "the most ignorant & careless of the two … an ignorant, vain & weak man quite unfit to be the Foreign Minister of any country larger than Portugal". Wilson was perhaps unappreciative that Grey was not only trying to find a peaceful resolution but also had to consider the domestic political crisis as the Parliament Act was being pushed through and troops were being deployed against strikers in London, Liverpool and South Wales.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Hankey (letter to McKenna 15 August 1911) complained of Wilson's "perfect obsession for military operations on the Continent", scoffing at his bicycling trips of recent years around the French and Belgian borders, and accusing him of filling the War Office with like-minded officers. At Nicholson's request Wilson prepared a paper (dated 15 August), based on the evolution of his ideas over the previous ten years. He argued that British aid would be necessary to prevent Germany defeating France and achieving domination of the continent, and that this would have both a moral and a military effect on the outcome. He argued that by Day 13 of mobilisation France would have the upper hand, outnumbering the Germans by 63 divisions to 57 along the frontier, but by Day 17 Germany would outnumber France by 96 divisions to 66. However, because of road bottlenecks in the passable parts of the war theatre, the Germans would at most be able to deploy 54 divisions in the opening phase, allowing the 6 infantry divisions of the BEF a disproportionate effect on the outcome. Ernest R. May (in "Knowing One's Enemies: Intelligence Assessments Between the Two World Wars" 1984) later claimed that Wilson had "cooked" these figures, but his arguments were challenged by Edward Bennett, who argued that Wilson's numbers were not far wrong (Journal of Modern History, June 1988).


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: This became the General Staff position for the CID meeting on 23 August. This was attended by Cabinet Ministers Asquith, Haldane, McKenna, Churchill, Grey, Lloyd George, as well as Nicholson (CIGS), French (the likely commander of the BEF) and Wilson representing the Army, and Sir Arthur Wilson (First Sea Lord) and Alexander Bethell (Director of Naval Intelligence). Admiral Wilson gave a poor account of himself, proposing that 5 divisions guard Britain whilst one land on the Baltic coast, or possibly at Antwerp, believing that the Germans would be halfway to Paris by the time an Expeditionary Force was ready, and that the four to six divisions Britain was expected to be able to muster would have little effect in a war with 70-80+ divisions on each side. Wilson thought the Royal Navy plan "one of the most childish papers I ever read". Henry Wilson set out his own plans, apparently the first time the CID had heard them. Hankey recorded that Wilson's lucid presentation carried the day even though Hankey himself did not entirely agree with it. Prime Minister H. H. Asquith ordered the Navy to fall in with the Army's plans, although he preferred to send only four divisions. Hankey also recorded that even by 1914 French and Haig were not fully aware of what had been decided, Morley and Burns resigned from the Cabinet as they were unable to accept the decision, and Churchill and Lloyd George never fully accepted the implications of committing a large military force to France. After the meeting Hankey began to draw up the War Book detailing mobilisation plans, and yet the exact deployment of the BEF was still undecided as late as 4 August 1914.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson had recommended deploying at Maubeuge. He thought (wrongly, as it turned out) that the Germans would only violate Belgian territory south of the Meuse, whereas to attack further north would mean attacking Liege, Huy and Namur, possibly violating Dutch neutrality by crossing the Maastricht appendix, and would be more likely to attract Belgian resistance. Over the next few weeks Wilson had several meetings with Churchill (one of which lasted three hours), Grey and Lloyd George, who were keen to obtain an agreement with Belgium. This attracted the opposition of Haldane, who wrote to Churchill that Wilson was "a little impulsive. He is an Irishman & … knows little of the Belgian Army", and Nicholson, who suppressed a lengthy paper by Wilson (20 September 1911) arguing for an agreement with Belgium; the paper was eventually circulated to the CID by Nicholson's successor Sir John French in April 1912.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Throughout the Agadir Crisis Wilson was keen to pass on the latest intelligence to Churchill, e.g. that the Germans were deploying two divisions near Malmedy on the German-Belgian frontier, or were buying up stocks of wheat. Churchill and Grey came to Wilson's house (4 September) to discuss the situation until after midnight. Wilson (18 September) recorded four separate reports from spies of German troops massing opposite the Belgian frontier. Wilson was also responsible for Military Intelligence, then in its infancy. This included MO5 (under George Macdonogh, succeeding Edmonds) and the embryonic MI5 (under Colonel Vernon Kell) and MI6 (under "C", Commander Mansfield Cumming). It is unclear from the surviving documents just how much of Wilson's time was taken up by these agencies, although he dined with Haldane, Kell and Cumming on 26 November 1911.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: In October 1911 Wilson went on another bicycle tour of Belgium south of the Meuse, also inspecting the French side of the frontier, also visiting Verdun, the battlefield of Mars-La-Tour, where he claimed to have laid (16 October) a small map showing the planned concentration areas for the BEF at the foot of the statue of France, then Fort St Michel at Toul (near Nancy). On his way home, still keen to "snaffle these Belgians" he visited the British military attaché in Brussels.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Radical members of the Cabinet (Morley, McKenna, Crewe, Harcourt) pushed for Wilson's removal, but he was staunchly defended by Haldane (16–18 November 1911), who had the backing of the most influential ministers: Asquith, Grey and Lloyd George, as well as Churchill.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: After Agadir the MO1 section under Harper became a key branch in preparing for war. Churchill, newly appointed to the Admiralty, was more receptive to Army-Navy cooperation. Intelligence suggested (8 January) that Germany was getting ready for war in April 1912. In February 1912 Wilson inspected the docks at Rouen, had meetings in Paris with Joffre, de Castelnau and Millerand (War Minister), visited Foch, now commanding a division at Chaumont, and inspected southern Belgium and the Maastricht appendix with Major Sackville-West ("Tit Willow") who had been on his directing staff at Camberley and now worked at MO2. Sir John French, the new CIGS (March 1912), was receptive to Wilson's wishes to prepare for war and to cooperate with Belgium, although in the end the Belgian Government refused to cooperate and remained strictly neutral until the outbreak of war, with the Belgians even deploying a division in 1914 to guard against British violation of Belgian neutrality. In April Wilson played golf at Ostend for two days with Tom Bridges, briefing him for talks with the Belgians, whom Wilson wanted to strengthen Liege and Namur.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Through his brother Jemmy, Wilson forged links with the new Conservative leader Bonar Law. Jemmy had been on the platform in Belfast in April 1912 when Law addressed a mass meeting against Home Rule, and in the summer of 1912 he came to London to work for the Ulster Defence League (run by Walter Long and Charlie Hunter). At Charlie Hunter's suggestion, Wilson dined with Law (23 June 1912). He was impressed by him and spent an hour and three-quarters discussing Ireland and defence matters. That summer he began having regular talks with Long, who used Wilson as a conduit to try to establish cross-party defence agreement with Churchill.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson (September 1912) thought Haldane a fool for thinking that Britain would have a time window of up to six months in which to deploy the BEF. In September 1912 he inspected Warsaw with Alfred Knox, British military attaché in Russia, then met Zhilinsky in St Petersburg, before visiting the battlefield of Borodino, and Kiev, then – in Austria-Hungary – Lemburg, Krakow and Vienna. Plans to visit Constantinople had to be shelved because of the First Balkan War, although Wilson recorded his concerns that the Bulgars had beaten the Turks a month after the declaration of war – evidence that the BEF must be committed to war at once, not within six months as Haldane hoped.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: By 14 November 1912 the railway timetables, drawn up by Harper's MO1, were ready, after two years of work. A joint Admiralty-War Office committee, including representatives of the merchant shipping industry, met fortnightly from February 1913, and produced a workable scheme by spring 1914. In the event the transport of the BEF from just three ports (Southampton for troops, Avonmouth for mechanical transport and Newhaven for stores) would proceed smoothly. Brian Bond argued that Wilson's greatest achievement as DMO was the provision of horses and transport and other measures which allowed mobilisation to proceed smoothly.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Repington and Wilson were still cutting one another dead whenever they met. In November 1912 Repington, who wanted to use the Territorial Army as a basis for conscription, urged Haldane (now Lord Chancellor) to have Wilson sacked and replaced by Robertson.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson again gave evidence to the CID (12 November 1912) that the presence of the BEF on the continent would have a decisive effect in any future war.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson's support for conscription made him friendly with Leo Amery, Arthur Lee, Charlie Hunter, Earl Percy, (Lord) Simon Lovat, Garvin of "The Observer", Gwynne of "The Morning Post" and F.S Oliver, owner of the Department Store Debenham and Freebody. Wilson briefed Oliver and Lovat, who were active in the National Service League. In December 1912 Wilson cooperated with Gwynne and Oliver in a campaign to destroy the Territorial Force.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: In the spring of 1913 Roberts, after previous urging by Lovat, arranged a reconciliation between Repington and Wilson. Repington wrote a letter to "The Times" in June 1913, demanding to know why Wilson was not playing a more prominent role in the CID "Invasion Inquiry" (debates of 1913–14 as to whether some British regular divisions should be retained at home to defeat a potential invasion). In May 1913 Wilson suggested that Earl Percy write an article against the "voluntary principle" for the "National Review" and helped him write it. He was also drafting pro-conscription speeches for Lord Roberts. Although Roberts was not a "whole hogger" – he favoured conscription only for home defence, not a full-scale conscript army on the continental model – Wilson advised other campaigners not to quarrel with him and risk losing his support.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson visited France seven times in 1913, including a visit in August with French and Grierson to observe French manoeuvres at Chalons, and Foch's XX Corps manoeuvres in September. Wilson spoke French fluently but not perfectly, and would sometimes revert into English for sensitive matters in order not to risk speaking inaccurately.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: In October 1913 Wilson visited Constantinople, in the company of Charlie Hunter MP. He saw the lines of Charaldhza, and the battlefields of Lule Burgaz and Adrianople. Wilson was unimpressed by the Turkish Army and road and rail infrastructure, and felt that the introduction of constitutional government would be the final blow to the Ottoman Empire. These views, although correct in the long term, may have contributed to the underestimation of Turkey's defence strength at Gallipoli.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Roberts had been lobbying French to promote Wilson to major-general, a rank appropriate to his job as DMO, since the end of 1912. In April 1913, with a brigade command about to fall vacant, Wilson was assured by French that he was to be promoted to major-general later in the year, and that not having commanded a brigade would not prevent him commanding a division later. Even before leaving the field of the manoeuvres (26 September 1913), French told Wilson that he was not satisfied with Grierson's performance. Wilson believed that French wanted him to become chief of staff designate of the BEF after the 1913 manoeuvres, but that he was too junior. Instead Murray was appointed.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson was promoted major general in November 1913. French confided that he intended to have his own term as CIGS extended by two years to 1918, and to be succeeded by Murray, at which point Wilson was to succeed Murray as sub-CIGS. After a 17 November 1913 meeting of BEF senior officers (French, Haig, Wilson, Paget, Grierson), Wilson privately recorded his concerns at French's lack of intellect and hoped there would not be a war just yet.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Early in 1914, at an exercise at Staff College, Wilson acted as Chief of Staff. Edmonds later wrote that Robertson, acting as Exercise Director, drew Wilson's attention to his ignorance of certain procedures, and said to French in a stage whisper "if you go to war with that operations staff, you are as good as beaten"


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson and his family had long been active in Unionist politics. His father had stood for Parliament for Longford South in 1885, whilst his older brother James Mackay ("Jemmy") had stood against Justin McCarthy for Longford North in 1885 and 1892, being defeated by a margin of over 10:1 each time.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: As far back as 1893, during the passage of Gladstone's Second Home Rule Bill, Wilson had been party to a proposal to raise 2,000–4,000 men, to drill as soldiers in Ulster, although he wanted Catholics also to be recruited. In February 1895 Henry and Cecil listened to and "enjoyed immensely" a "very fine" speech by Joseph Chamberlain about London municipal questions in Stepney, and Wilson listened to another speech by Chamberlain in May. In 1903 Wilson's father was part of the Landowners' Convention deputation to observe the passage of Irish land legislation through Parliament. In 1906 his younger brother Tono was Tory agent in Swindon.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson supported Ulster Unionist opponents of the Third Irish Home Rule Bill, which was due to become law in 1914. Wilson had learned from his brother Jemmy (13 April 1913) about plans to raise 25,000 armed men and 100,000 "constables", and to form a Provisional Government in Ulster to take control of banks and railways, which he thought "all very sensible". It is unclear whether he actually envisaged armed insurrection or hoped that the Government would back off. Asked by Roberts (16 April 1913) to be chief of staff to the "Army of Ulster", Wilson replied that if necessary he would fight for Ulster rather than against her.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: At a meeting at the War Office (4 November 1913), Wilson told French, who had recently been asked by the King for his views, that he for one "could not fire on the north at the dictates of Redmond" and that "England "qua" England is opposed to Home Rule, and England must agree to it … I cannot bring myself to believe that Asquith will be so mad as to employ force". It is unclear what Wilson meant by "England "qua" England", although he did believe that the Government should be forced to fight a General Election on the issue, which on the basis of recent by-elections the Conservatives might win. Each side thought the other was bluffing. French, whom Wilson urged to tell the King that he could not depend on the loyalty of the "whole" of the Army, was unaware that Wilson was leaking the contents of these meetings to the Conservative leader Bonar Law.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson (diary 6, 9 November) met Bonar Law and told him that he did not agree that the percentage of defections in the officer corps would be as high as 40%, the figure suggested by the King's adviser Lord Stamfordham. He passed on his wife Cecil's advice that the UVF should take the patriotic high ground by pledging to fight for King and Country in the event of war. Cecil, whose family had lost its livelihood in the nineteenth century, may well have felt more strongly about Ireland than Wilson himself. Bonar Law immediately attempted to reach Carson on the telephone to relay this suggestion. Wilson also advised Bonar Law – at this time the government were attempting to offer Counties Londonderry, Antrim, Armagh and Down an opt-out from Home Rule, the plan being that a refusal would make Carson look intransigent – to ensure that negotiations failed in way which made the Irish Nationalists look intransigent.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: He met Macready, Director of Personal Services, who told him (13 Nov) that he was being sent over to Ulster but that the Cabinet would not try to deploy troops. On 14 November he dined with Charlie Hunter and Lord Milner, who told him that any officers who resigned over Ulster would be reinstated by the next Conservative Government. Wilson also warned Edward Sclater (15 November) that the UVF should not take any action hostile to the Army. Wilson found Asquith's Leeds speech – in which the Prime Minister promised to "see this thing through" without an election – "ominous", and on 28 November John du Cane turned up at the War Office "furious" with Asquith and asserting that Ulster would have to be granted Belligerent status like the Confederate States of America.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: The Wilson and Rawlinson families spent Christmas with Lord Roberts, who was strongly opposed to the planned legislation, as was Brigadier Johnnie Gough, with whom Wilson played golf on Boxing Day, as was Leo Amery with whom he lunched at White's on New Year's Day. Wilson's main concern was "that the army should not be drawn in", and on 5 January he had "a long and serious talk about Ulster & whether we couldn't do something to keep the Army out of it" with Joey Davies (Director of Staff Duties since October 1913) and Robertson (Director of Military Training), and the three men agreed to take soundings of army opinion at the annual Staff College conference at Camberley the following week. At the end of February Wilson went to Belfast, where he visited the Unionist Headquarters at Old Town Hall. His mission was not secret – the official purpose was to inspect 3rd Royal Irish Rifles and give a lecture on the Balkans at Victoria Barracks, and he reported his opinion of the Ulster situation to the Secretary of State and to Sir John French – but attracted press speculation (5 March). Wilson was delighted by the Ulster Volunteers (now 100,000 strong), to whom he was also leaking information.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: After Paget had been told to prepare to deploy troops in Ulster, Wilson attempted in vain to persuade French that any such move would have serious repercussions not only in Glasgow but also in Egypt and India. Wilson helped the elderly Lord Roberts (morning of 20 March) draft a letter to the Prime Minister, urging him not to cause a split in the army. Wilson was summoned home by his wife to see Johnnie Gough, who had come up from Aldershot, and told him of Hubert Gough's threat to resign (see Curragh incident). Wilson advised Johnnie not to "send in his papers" (resign) just yet, and telephoned French, who when told of the news "talked windy platitudes till (Wilson) was nearly sick".


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: By the morning of Saturday 21 Wilson was talking of resigning and urging his staff to do the same, although he never actually did so and forfeited respect by talking too much of bringing down the government. With Parliament debating a Conservative motion of censure on the government for using the Army in Ulster, Repington telephoned Wilson (21 April 1914) to ask what line "The Times" should take. Fresh from a visit to Bonar Law (21 March), Wilson suggested prodding Asquith to take "instant action" to prevent general staff resignations. At the request of Seely (Secretary of State for War) Wilson wrote a summary of "what the army would agree to", namely a promise that the army would not be used to coerce Ulster, but this was not acceptable to the government. Despite Robertson's warm support, Wilson was unable to persuade French to warn the government that the Army would not move against Ulster.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Hubert Gough breakfasted with Wilson on 23 March, before his meeting with French and Ewart at the War Office, where he demanded a written guarantee that the Army would not be used against Ulster. Wilson was also present at the 4pm meeting at which Gough, on his advice, insisted on amending a Cabinet document to clarify that the Army would not be used to enforce Home Rule "on Ulster", to which French also agreed in writing. Wilson then left, telling people in the War Office that the Army had done what the Opposition had failed to do (i.e. prevent the coercion of Ulster). Wilson told French that he suspected he (French) would be sacked by the Government, in which case "the Army would go solid with him". To his brother's amusement, Johnnie Gough "hotted" (teased) Wilson by affecting to believe that he was actually going to resign.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson was worried that a future Dublin government might issue "lawful orders" to coerce Ulster. At the top of his diary page for 23 March he wrote: "We soldiers beat Asquith & his vile tricks".


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Asquith publicly repudiated the amendments to the Cabinet document (the "peccant paragraphs") (25 March), but at first refused to accept the resignations of French and Ewart, although Wilson advised French (mid-afternoon on 26 March) that he must resign "unless they were in a position to justify their remaining on in the eyes of officers". French eventually resigned after Wilson tested the climate at a Staff College point-to-point.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson telegraphed Gough twice and advised him to "stand like a rock" and hold onto the document, but received no reply to either telegram. Milner thought Wilson had "saved the Empire", which Wilson (29 March) thought "much too flattering". He thought (29 March) Morley (who had advised Seely) and Haldane (who advised French) would also have to resign, which would bring down the government. Gough was angry that Wilson had not himself offered to resign and ("Soldiering On" p171) blamed Wilson for having done nothing to stop the government's plans to coerce Ulster until Gough and his officers threatened to resign. The Gough brothers thereafter cut Wilson, and Johnnie Gough never spoke to Wilson again. The young Captain Archibald Wavell, then working at the War Office, wrote to his father that although he disapproved of the ultimatum which had been put to Gough and his officers by Paget, nonetheless he was disgusted by Wilson's blatant meddling in party politics and talk of bringing down the government.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Between 21 March and the end of the month, Wilson saw Law nine times (although he declined an invitation to dine with Law, Balfour and Austen Chamberlain on 22 March), Amery four times, Gwynne three times, and Milner and Arthur Lee twice. He does not seem to have regarded these contacts with the Opposition as particularly secret. Roberts was also leaking information which he was being fed by Wilson and the Gough brothers, whilst French was seeing Gwynne most days. Gough promised to keep the 23 March Treaty confidential, but it soon leaked to the press – it appears that both Gough and French leaked it to Gwynne, whilst Wilson leaked it to Amery and Bonar Law.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson visited France four times to discuss war plans between January and May 1914. With the CID having recommended that two of the BEF's six divisions be retained at home to guard against invasion in the event of war, Wilson successfully lobbied Asquith, who was Secretary of State for War since the Curragh incident, to send at least five divisions to France (6 May 1914).


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: During the July Crisis Wilson was mainly preoccupied with the apparent imminence of civil war in Ireland and vainly lobbied the new CIGS Charles Douglas to flood not just Ulster but the whole of Ireland with troops (29 June). By the end of July it was clear that the continent was on the brink of hostilities, with Wilson being lobbied by Milner and the diplomat Eyre Crowe about Edward Grey's reluctance to go to war. Wilson (1 August) called on de la Panouse (French Military Attaché) and Paul Cambon (French Ambassador) to discuss the military situation. Wilson may well have been keeping the Conservative leadership informed of discussions between Cambon and Foreign Secretary Grey. The German invasion of Belgium provided a "casus belli" and Britain mobilized on 3 August and declared war on 4 August.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Once the decision for war had been taken, Wilson promised de la Panouse that Britain would honour Asquith's decision to send five divisions to France. Wilson was present at the War Council (a meeting of politicians and military men on 5 August) at which Sir John French proposed deploying the BEF to Antwerp (Wilson had already argued against this as impractical), and Haig proposed holding it back for two or three months until more troops could be sent. After debate about whether to deploy the BEF to Maubeuge, Amiens or Antwerp, which Wilson likened to "our discussing strategy like idiots", it was decided to deploy five divisions to Maubeuge. The following day Kitchener scaled back this commitment to four divisions and lobbied to deploy them to Amiens.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson was initially offered the job of "Brigadier-General of Operations" but as he was already a major-general he negotiated an upgrade in his title to "Sub Chief of Staff". Edmonds, Kirke (in his memoir of Macdonogh) and Murray all claimed after the war that French had wanted Wilson as Chief of Staff, but this had been vetoed because of his role in the Curragh Mutiny, but there is no contemporary evidence, even in Wilson's diary, to confirm this.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson met with Victor Huguet (7 August), a French liaison officer summoned to London at Kitchener's request, and sent him back to France to obtain more information from Joffre, having told him of British plans to start movement of troops on 9 August. Kitchener, angry that Wilson had acted without consulting him, summoned him to his office for a rebuke. Wilson was angry that Kitchener was confusing the mobilisation plans by deploying troops from Aldershot to Grimsby in case of German invasion, and recorded in his diary that "I answered back as I have no intention of being bullied by him especially when he talks such nonsense … the man is a fool … He is a d---- fool". On Huguet's return (12 August) he met with French, Murray and Wilson. They agreed to deploy the BEF to Maubeuge, but Kitchener, in a three-hour meeting which was, according to Wilson, "memorable in showing K's colossal ignorance and conceit", tried to insist on a deployment to Amiens where the BEF would be in less danger of being overrun by the Germans coming north of the Meuse. Wilson wrote not just of the difficulties and delays which Kitchener was making but also of "the cowardice of it", although historian John Terraine later argued that Kitchener's opposition to a forward deployment was proven entirely correct by the nearness which the BEF came to disaster. The clash of personalities between Wilson and Kitchener worsened relations between Kitchener and Sir John French, who often took Wilson's advice.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson, French and Murray crossed to France on 14 August. Wilson was sceptical of the German invasion of Belgium, feeling that it would be diverted to meet the French thrusts into Lorraine and the Ardennes. Reconnoitring the area with Harper in August 1913, Wilson had wanted to deploy the BEF just east of Namur. Although Wilson's prediction of the German advance was less prescient than Kitchener's, had this been done, it is possible that Anglo-French forces could have attacked north, threatening to cut off the German Armies moving westwards north of the Meuse.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Like other British commanders Wilson, at first, underestimated the size of German forces opposite the BEF, although Terraine and Holmes are very critical of the advice which Wilson was giving Sir John on 22 August, encouraging further BEF advances and "calculating" that the BEF was faced only by one German corps and a cavalry division, although Macdonogh was providing more realistic estimates. Wilson even issued a rebuke to the Cavalry Division for reporting that strong German forces were heading on Mons from Brussels, claiming that they were mistaken and only German cavalry and Jaegers were in front of them.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: On 23 August, the day of the Battle of Mons, Wilson initially drafted orders for II Corps and the cavalry division to attack the following day, which Sir John cancelled (after a message was received from Joffre at 8pm warning of at least 2 ½ German corps opposite – there were in fact three German corps opposite the BEF with a fourth moving around the British left flank, and then a retreat was ordered at 11pm when news came that Lanrezac's Fifth Army on the right was falling back). On 24 August, the day after the battle, he bemoaned that no retreat would have been necessary had the BEF had 6 infantry divisions as originally planned. Terraine describes Wilson's diary account of these events as "a ridiculous summary … by a man in a responsible position", and argues that although Kitchener's fears of a German invasion of Britain had been exaggerated, his consequent decision to hold back two divisions saved the BEF from a greater disaster which might have been brought on by Wilson's overconfidence.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: The BEF staff, who had not rehearsed their roles, performed poorly over the next few days. Various eyewitnesses reported that Wilson was one of the calmer members of GHQ, but he was concerned at Murray's medical unfitness and French's apparent inability to grasp the situation. Wilson opposed Smith-Dorrien's decision to stand and fight at Le Cateau (26 August). However, when told by Smith-Dorrien – Wilson had had to travel to the nearest village, his gaiters still unfastened, to use a public telephone – that it would not be possible to break off and fall back until nightfall, by his own account he wished him luck and congratulated him for his cheerful tone. Smith-Dorrien's slightly different recollection was that Wilson had warned that he risked being encircled like the French at Sedan in 1870.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Baker-Carr recalled Wilson's standing in dressing gown and slippers uttering "sardonic little jests to all and sundry within earshot" as GHQ packed up to evacuate, behaviour which historian Dan Todman comments was probably "reassuring for some but profoundly irritating for others". Macready recorded Wilson (27 August) "walking slowly up and down" the room at Noyon which had been commandeered as headquarters with a "comical, whimsical expression", clapping his hands and chanting "We shall never get there, we shall never get there … to the sea, to the sea, to the sea", although he also recorded that this was probably intended to keep up the spirits of more junior officers. His infamous "sauve qui peut" order to Snow, GOC 4th Division, (27 August) ordering unnecessary ammunition and officers' kits to be dumped so that tired and wounded soldiers could be carried, was, according to Swinton, probably intended out of concern for the soldiers rather than out of panic. Smith-Dorrien was later rebuked by French for countermanding it. Lord Loch thought the order showed "GHQ had lost their heads" whilst General Haldane thought it "a mad order" (both in their diaries for 28 August). Major-General Pope-Hennessey later alleged (in the 1930s) that Wilson had ordered the destruction of orders issued during the retreat to hide the degree of panic.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: After the war (at a dinner party in March 1920) Wilson claimed that the Germans ought to have won in 1914 but for bad luck. Bartholomew, who had been a staff captain at the time, later told Liddell Hart that Wilson had been "the man who saved the British Army" for ordering Smith-Dorrien to retreat southwards after Le Cateau, thus breaking contact with the Germans who had expected him to retreat southwest. Wilson played an important role liaising with the French, and also appears to have dissuaded Joffre against further attacks by Lanrezac, with which the British would not have been able to assist (29 August). Whilst Murray was having an important meeting (4 September) with Gallieni (Military governor of Paris) and Maunoury (commander, French Sixth Army) to discuss the planned Allied counterattack which would become the First Battle of the Marne, Wilson was having a simultaneous meeting with Franchet d'Esperey (Fifth Army, on the British right), which envisaged Sixth Army attacking "north" of the Marne. Wilson later persuaded Sir John French to cancel his orders to retreat further south (4 September) and helped persuade him to join in the Battle of the Marne (6 September).


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Like many Allied leaders, Wilson believed after the victory at the Marne that the war was as good as won. He told Joffre's staff officer General Henri Mathias Berthelot (13 September) that the Allies would be in Elsenborn on the German-Belgian frontier in four weeks (Berthelot thought three). Wilson also helped to persuade Joffre (late September) to allow the BEF to redeploy further to the left of the Allied line. When French, Murray and Wilson arrived to confer with Foch (then commanding the French Armies in that sector) in early October 1914, Foch greeted Sir John with a handshake but threw his arms around Wilson's neck and kissed him on both cheeks.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson acted as chief of staff for the BEF when Murray visited the War Office in October. Like many senior Allied officers, Wilson believed that the war would be won by the following spring, especially if the Russians won the Battle of Lodz then in progress, and felt that Kitchener was jeopardising the chances of victory by withholding trained officers and NCOs in Britain to build up what Wilson called his "shadow armies" which would not be ready for another two years. Wilson at this stage did not envisage British troops fighting under French command and (4 November 1914) opposed Foch's request that Allenby and 2 battalions take part in a French attack. Murray (4–5 November) complained and threatened to resign when Wilson amended one of his orders without telling him.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson was present at the deathbed of his old patron Lord Roberts, who died after catching a chill visiting his beloved Indian troops. Returning home for the funeral at St Paul's Cathedral, he had a chance to catch up (17–20 November 1914) with Kitchener ("who talked some sense & much nonsense") and senior Conservatives Chamberlain, Bonar Law, Milner and Long.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: At the end of November and again in mid-December French told Wilson he was thinking of moving Murray to a corps command and insisting on Wilson replacing him, but Asquith, as he put it in a letter to Venetia Stanley (20 December), summoned French to London for "a little talk" and forbade him to promote "that poisonous tho' clever ruffian Wilson who behaved … so badly … about Ulster". Wilson claimed to have heard Joffre, on a visit to GHQ (27 December), complain that it was "a pity" that Murray had not been removed, but when he heard of this Asquith put it down to "the constant intriguing of that serpent Wilson" whom he and Kitchener were determined to block. Asquith felt he was too Francophile and too fond of "mischief" (political intrigue), but despite Wilson's advising French that the reasons for their objections were largely personal, he was not able to dissuade them from blocking the appointment. On a visit to London in early January Wilson heard from the King's assistant secretary Clive Wigram that it was Asquith rather than Kitchener who was blocking the promotion, which Carson and Law were eager for him to have.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Jeffery argues that there is little "specific" evidence that Wilson intrigued to replace Murray, simply that he was widely suspected of having done so, and that his pro-French stance was regarded with deep suspicion by other British officers (Haig's staff officer Charteris likened Wilson's alleged request to the French, to lobby on his behalf for him to replace Murray, to "mental adultery"). When Murray was at last removed as chief of staff BEF in January 1915, his job went to the BEF Quartermaster-General "Wully" Robertson. Robertson refused to have Wilson as his deputy, so Wilson was instead appointed Principal Liaison Officer with the French, and promoted to temporary lieutenant general. French technically had no authority to make this promotion, but told Wilson he would resign if the Cabinet or War Office objected. The French had been lobbying so hard for Wilson's appointment that even Sir John thought they should mind their own business. Asquith (letter to Venetia 26 Jan) and Haig (diary 5 Feb) both remarked that this was putting Wilson out of mischief.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson was "rather upset by the changes made in his absence" (Sidney Clive diary, 28 January 1915) whilst he was touring the French front – Robertson removed Wilson's ally, Brigadier General George Harper "in a very untactful way" (Rawlinson diary 29 January & 8 February 1915). Wilson's diary makes several references throughout February, March and May of Robertson being "suspicious and hostile" towards him. French invited Wilson (April 1915) to carry on eating with him in the mess, and Wilson was suspected of intriguing for Robertson's removal (General Haldane diary 30 June 1915).


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson saw Foch every 2 to 3 days and sometimes smoothed tense meetings by creative (mis)translation. e.g. by not translating a threat (12 May 1915) by Joffre to appeal to the British government and not translating literally a demand (15 July) that the British attack with 10 divisions.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: As a "Westerner" Wilson opposed the Gallipoli Campaign, as it would simply give Constantinople to Russia, and (18 March) hoped it would be "a fiasco" to "help get rid of Winston". He also recorded his anger that, after shells had had to be sent to Gallipoli, the BEF, then numbering 12 divisions, barely had enough High Explosive shell for the Battle of Festubert, which he thought (13 May) could be "one of the decisive actions of the war" and complained (17 May) of Kitchener's holding back the New Armies with decisive victory, in Wilson's view, imminent. In May he told Lord Derby that the 100,000 troops at Gallipoli could have made Neuve Chapelle into a decisive victory, and on 10 June he wrote "how they will laugh in Berlin" at news that another 4 divisions were to be sent. He deplored the botched Landing at Suvla Bay in August, writing that "Winston first & others after" should be tried for murder.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the June 1915 King's Birthday Honours, having been passed over for the honour in February. He was invited to speak at a Cabinet meeting in summer 1915. In the summer of 1915 Wilson believed that the French government might fall, or France herself seek peace, unless the British committed to the mooted Loos offensive. He declined French's offer of a corps command (20 August) claiming it would be unfair to divisional commanders who deserved promotion. His efforts to be the main go-between of French and Joffre ended in September 1915, when it was decided that these contacts should go through Sidney Clive, the British liaison officer at GQG.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: However, the failure of the Gallipoli Campaign, and the Shell Shortage to which it contributed, led to Conservative ministers joining the new Coalition Government, which boosted Wilson's prospects. Leo Maxse, H. A. Gwynne and the radical Josiah Wedgwood MP, impressed by Wilson's support for conscription and the abandonment of Gallipoli, tipped him as a potential CIGS in place of James Wolfe-Murray, but Archibald Murray was appointed instead (September 1915). Wilson's personal relations with Asquith and Kitchener also appear to have become more cordial around this time. From July 1915 Asquith and Kitchener began to consult him regularly.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: After the Battle of Loos, Sir John French's days as Commander-in-Chief were numbered. Robertson told the King on 27 October that Wilson should be removed for not being "loyal" – Robertson had earlier criticised Wilson to Kitchener's secretary for his closeness to the French. Wilson was seen as "an unofficial adviser" of "similar rank" but "totally different temperament" to Robertson (Clive diary, 30 October 1915).


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Sir John French, Milner, Lloyd George and Arthur Lee (4–5 November, during a 10-day visit by Wilson to London) all raised the possibility of Wilson becoming Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) in place of Murray. Hankey thought he might have become CIGS were it not for lingering mistrust over the Curragh incident, but there is no explicit evidence in Wilson's diary that he coveted the job. Joffre suggested that Wilson should replace Kitchener as Secretary of State for War.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson thought Kitchener's New Armies "ridiculous and preposterous" and "the laughing stock of every soldier in Europe" and (so wrote Game to his wife, 21 November 1915) "a roughish lot with hardly a gentleman among the officers".


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson was also given the honorary appointment of Colonel of the Royal Irish Rifles on 11 November 1915, and was made a Commander and later Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur for his services. Wilson attended the Anglo-French Chantilly Conference (6–8 December 1915) along with Murray (CIGS), French and Robertson, as well as Joffre, Maurice Pellé and Victor Huguet for France, Zhilinski and Ignatieff for Russia, Cadorna for Italy and a Serb and Belgian representative. Wilson disapproved of large meetings – a view he shared with Joffre – and thought the British and French War Ministers, C-in-Cs and foreign ministers (6 men in total) should meet regularly which might discourage ventures like Antwerp, Gallipoli and Salonika. During the conference Wilson passed a note to a colleague describing it as "a mass meeting between two vomits".


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: With French's "resignation" imminent, Wilson, who appears to have remained loyal to him, attempted to resign and go on half pay (10 December) as he felt he could not serve under Haig or Robertson; Bonar Law and Charles E. Callwell attempted to dissuade him. Haig thought this unacceptable for such an able officer in wartime, and Robertson advised him that Wilson would "do less harm" in France than in England.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Haig thought (12 December) Wilson should command a division before he commanded a corps, despite his belief that Wilson had criticised himself and other British generals, and had instigated an article in "The Observer" suggesting that the BEF be placed under General Foch (commander, French Northern Army Group) (Charteris wrote to his wife (12 December) apropos the articles that "neither DH nor Robertson wants Wilson anywhere near them").


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Rawlinson, rumoured to be in line for promotion to succeed Haig as GOC First Army, offered Wilson the chance to succeed him as GOC IV Corps, but Wilson preferred not to serve under Rawlinson, preferring instead the new XIV Corps, part of Allenby's Third Army and including the 36th (Ulster) Division. Asquith summoned Wilson to London and personally offered him a corps, and Kitchener told him the corps command was to be "only temporary pending something better", although Wilson thought impractical his suggestion that he simultaneously continue to perform Anglo-French liaison duties. Jeffery suggests Kitchener may have seen Wilson as a potential ally against Robertson.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Like many Conservatives Wilson was dissatisfied at Asquith's lack of firm leadership and at the delay in bringing in conscription, and from December 1915 he urged Bonar Law to bring down the government (Law refused, pointing out that the resulting General Election would be divisive and the support of Radical and Irish MPs would be lost to the war effort).


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson was given command of IV Corps, which he noted was almost the same size (four divisions, totalling nearly 70,000 men) as the original BEF of August 1914. Given the difference in quality between his divisions, he took a keen interest in training and gave many lectures to officers. Wilson's two ADCs, Godfrey Locker-Lampson and Viscount Duncannon (son of the Earl of Bessborough, a major landowner in Kilkenny) were both Conservative MPs in uniform, and on visits to London he kept up his links with politicians like Carson, Law, Austen Chamberlain and Milner.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Like many, Wilson initially thought the Easter Rising (26 April 1916) was German-inspired. Bonar Law tentatively suggested him as a possible commander to put down the Rising, but his Ulster record made this unwise. Wilson hoped the events would lead to Asquith's fall and wanted Augustine Birrell "arrested and tried for his life". Wilson thought that the crushing of troublemakers would prevent them infecting the supposed silent Unionist majority, and regretted the removal of General Maxwell later in the year "to placate that giant fraud Redmond".


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson, in temporary command of First Army in Monro's absence from 9 to 22 May, had to take over some more trench from Byng's XVII Corps (part of Allenby's Third Army) opposite Vimy Ridge. Two divisional commanders, William Walker (2nd, sick) and Barter (47th, on leave) were away until 22 May, further disrupting the chain of command as various officers were required to act in their seniors' place. A surprise German attack on the evening of Sunday 21 May moved forward 800 yards, capturing 1,000 yards of the British front line. Wilson appears to have done all he could, arranging the assembly of artillery from First Army and neighbouring Third Army, but the planned counterattack was postponed until 23 May by Monro, who had just returned from leave. At a major meeting at Wilson's HQ (23 May) Monro and Allenby insisted the IV Corps counterattack must proceed, over the objection of John Headlam (artillery) and Tavish Davidson (Director of Military Operations) from GHQ, who passed on Haig's wishes that the counterattack be postponed by a fortnight.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: The counterattack failed, as two battalions in the centre found the German shelling too heavy for them to attack, and Monro eventually ordered a halt. Wilson wanted to court martial the two acting battalion commanders for "funk", after hearing the view of one of the actual COs (who had been acting in command of the brigade) that the attack had been feasible. Major Armytage, a staff officer from GHQ, visited the sector on 25 May and reported back that Brigadier-General Kellett (99th Brigade, but acting GOC of 2nd Division) was incompetent and "in complete ignorance of the situation". Haig wrote to Monro (27 May) that Wilson should be asked to explain and that IV Corps, formerly "the most efficient in the army" "had much decreased in military value" and Wilson "had failed as a commander in the field". Charteris also visited IV Corps HQ on 27 May, and reported back that officers there were "downhearted" and thought the Germans and French better fighters than the British – Wilson later claimed that the officers had been "pulling Charteris' leg" as he talked of "sweeping victories" within two months. Wilson was almost "degummed" (sacked) but was saved by a strong report in his favour by Monro. The two acting battalion commanders were not court-martialled, but Kellett was never promoted to command a division. Jeffery argues that Wilson was, like many "unsuccessful" corps commanders, largely in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that Haig's animosity for Wilson was a factor.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: With the major offensive on the Somme imminent, Foch told Wilson in May that until the Allies had far more guns and ammunition such an attack was "suicidal", worries which were shared by Clemenceau, who apparently came to Rouen especially to see Wilson. Like many British generals, Wilson himself was overly impressed by the amount of artillery now available and wrote (22 June 1916) "we run a serious chance of doing something considerable here (on the Somme)." IV Corps did not directly participate in the Somme under Wilson's command.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: In August Haking, Wilson's junior and a favourite of Haig, was made acting Army Commander when Monro left to become Commander-in-Chief, India. Wilson claimed in his diary that Monro had recommended him to command First Army but this was vetoed by Haig. Despite the hopes of his many political friends Wilson was blocked from further promotion.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: By August Wilson had two elite divisions under his command, 63rd (Royal Naval) Division and 9th (Scottish) Division, but resisted pressure from Haig to conduct another attack until after 1 September. Wilson was aware that the greater success of French attacks on the Somme was largely owed to more concentrated artillery fire, and that British attacks at High Wood and Guillemont (late July) were less successful. It was decided to use a short traditional bombardment rather than a gas attack, and Wilson's men experimented (in vain) with a flamethrower (in May he had been impressed by an explosive device, a sort of prototype Bangalore torpedo, to clear wire). Wilson was displeased at the poor state of air support but impressed by the early artillery sound ranging device which he was shown. With Haig convinced he was going to "smash the Bosh on the Somme" in September, GHQ now postponed Wilson's attack until October, and now wanted the whole of Vimy Ridge taken, which would mean a joint attack with XVII Corps. Some of Wilson's artillery was moved down to the Somme. Wilson continued to work on air-artillery coordination and mining, but rejected a proposal to dig jumping-off trenches into No Mans Land, as this would give away the attack.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: In September 1916 Lloyd George, now Secretary of State for War, visited the Western Front and asked Wilson (he had already put the same questions to Foch) why the British had performed so much more poorly than the French on the Somme. In reply Wilson stressed the inexperience of the British Army. On his visit Lloyd George had been told (falsely) that Wilson had not wanted to counterattack in May.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson then had the 63rd and 9th Divisions taken away, then (10 October) heard his whole Corps was to be transferred to Gough's Reserve Army, a prospect which did not please him. In October Gough "hauled him over the coals over the state of IV Corps". By 18 October IV Corps had no divisions at all, and Wilson had to take 2 weeks leave in the UK in early November. Edmonds later wrote that Wilson's preparations had laid the foundations for the successful capture of Vimy Ridge in April 1917.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson thought that "to slog on at one spot" on the Somme was "dreadfully lacking in imagination" and would have preferred a joint offensive by Russia, Italy and Romania in Spring 1917 to draw off 15 or 20 German divisions, allowing the BEF to "completely smash the Boch line". Summoned to see Lloyd George (13 November 1916) and asked if Britain could still hope to defeat Germany, Wilson advised him that she "could", provided Haig were given enough men to fight "two Sommes at once", but that in reality Haig should be firmly told how many men he was to receive and told to plan accordingly. He thought at the end of 1916 that both sides were claiming victory from that year's fighting, but victory "inclined to us", and that Germany might be driven to sue for peace in 1917.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Lloyd George's accession to the Premiership (December 1916) restarted Wilson's career. In January 1917 Wilson accompanied Lloyd George to a conference at Rome (Lloyd George had rejected Robertson's suggestion that he take Haig). Despite the growing alliance between Wilson and the Prime Minister, Wilson was a "Westerner" and agreed with Robertson that British heavy guns should not be sent to Italy or to the Salonika front, where an Anglo-French army was supporting Serbia after Bulgaria had joined the Central Powers in October 1915.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Lloyd George wanted Russia persuaded to make the maximum possible effort, a necessity again stressed at the second Chantilly Conference in December 1916. Wilson was sent as Senior Military Representative (Robertson had refused to go) on a British mission to Russia in January 1917 (delayed from November 1916), the object of which was to keep the Russians holding down at least the forces now opposite them, to boost Russian morale and see what equipment they needed with a view to coordinating attacks. The party of 50 included British (led by Milner and including a banker and two munitions experts), French (led by de Castelnau) and Italian delegations. The War Office briefing advised that Russia was close to revolution. Wilson met the Tsar but thought him "as devoid of character & purpose as our own poor miserable King". Even senior Russian officials were talking openly of assassinating the Tsar or perhaps just the Tsarina. Wilson was impressed by Generals Ruzski and Danilov, although he may have been influenced too much by the views of Knox, who had been British military attaché since 1911. He toured Petrograd, Moscow (where he was concerned at the food shortages) and Riga, which he predicted the "Boches" would never capture (they would do so in late 1917), and thought that even if Tsar and Tsarina were assassinated – the Tsar was toppled a few weeks after he left – Russia would not make a separate peace. His official report (3 March) said that Russia would remain in the war and that they would solve their "administrative chaos". However, many other observers at the time, e.g. the young Archibald Wavell in the Caucasus, felt that the advent of democracy in Russia would reinvigorate her war effort, so Wilson's views were not entirely unusual.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: During the Calais Affair (whilst Wilson was away in Russia) Lloyd George had attempted to sideline Haig, whilst Nivelle, the French Commander-in-Chief (who spoke fluent English), would exercise operational command of the British Forces, through a British staff officer – Wilson was probably earmarked for this job. This plan fell through after Haig and Robertson threatened resignation. Wilson confessed to Derby that he did not get on with Haig or Robertson and told Robertson he wanted to return to commanding a corps. Hankey brokered an agreement whereby Haig would be subordinate to Nivelle only for the duration of the coming offensive and Wilson would do the liaison job but reporting to Haig. Haig asked him to accept "as a favour", but Robertson was "staggered" by Wilson demanding and getting a formal invitation from Haig, Nivelle and the War Cabinet, and a clear statement of his own and Haig's status. Nivelle came to Wilson's London house to beg him to accept. Wilson was appointed Chief of British Mission to the French Army on 17 March, with a promotion to permanent lieutenant-general which Robertson had blocked in November 1916. Gough wrote a damning letter to Stamfordham (i.e. for the King to see) complaining of how Wilson had made little impact either as a staff officer in 1914 or as a corps commander, but had a great reputation throughout the army for intrigue and for "talk". However, the appointment was welcomed by Curzon, and the King and Esher also urged Haig and Robertson to accept the deal.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: The new French War Minister Painlevé had a low opinion of Nivelle's plan to achieve a decisive "rupture", and after it failed he clearly wanted to sack Nivelle (contrary to Wilson's advice on 26 April) and replace him with Pétain, who favoured abstaining from major offensives until the Americans were present in strength. Wilson did not agree with this, although the alternatives were whirlwind attacks like those Nivelle had launched at Verdun in late 1916 or – Wilson's preference – a major attritional offensive like the Somme but "with intelligence". He compared "the school of the Great Offensive, of large numbers on long fronts, for unlimited objectives" with the alternative of small and sudden offensives, and opined that "both schools were wrong, and have been proved wrong over and over again". He urged "a middle course of big operations on long fronts for limited objectives" which would cause "maximum of damage to the enemy with a minimum of loss to ourselves" and keep the Germans "in a state of constant tension and anxiety". (30 April 1917). Wilson was pleased with the promotion of his friend Foch to be French Chief of Staff but not the promotion of Pétain as French Commander-in-Chief (10 May) – Wilson was seen as pro-Nivelle and Petain soon began to deal directly with Haig, leaving little justification for Wilson's job.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Robertson suggested once again that Wilson should return to commanding a corps, but Foch thought this a poor use of his talents. Haig's diary states that Painlevé had told Lloyd George that Wilson was no longer "persona grata" with the French government. Wilson returned to London to sound out opinion about resigning and nobody tried to dissuade him. Whilst he was in London Lloyd George asked him to brief the War Cabinet individually then collectively with his advice that Britain try for some military or diplomatic success to drive Turkey or Bulgaria out of the war. On return to France Wilson declined Haig's offer to command XIII Corps. Wilson then took a tour of the French line all the way down to the Swiss frontier, and was concerned that revolution seemed a possibility in France. He attempted to get a final interview with Painlevé but left after being kept waiting in a lobby with "a pronounced whore". He had a meeting with Haig, who was encouraged by the recent success at Messines, and agreed with Haig's plan for a major offensive in Flanders provided the weather remained favourable (Wilson was "absolutely convinced that we should attack all we could right up to the time of the mud")


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: The fall of Wilson's ally Nivelle, and his awkward relations with his successor Pétain and with Haig and Robertson (he thought the latter were "dunderheads") left Wilson without a post. Shuttling between England and France in June 1917, he told Haig that he would "get into mischief if not employed soon." The 'mischief' was politics.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson contemplated standing for Parliament. Back in 1916 the Conservative Party chairman Arthur Steel-Maitland had offered to get him a seat. Esher and Duncannon proposed forming a new "National" party of 20–30 MPs, which would include David Davies who had been on the mission to Russia. The new party's policies would include more vigorous prosecution of the war – Wilson urged the extension of conscription to Ireland – and the detachment of Turkey and Bulgaria. Wilson was worried that it would be the end of his army career (he was also short of money – he had a private income of £300 a year, and army half pay of £600 (£450 after tax) – but his house at Eaton Place was costing him £1,500 a year). His brother Jemmy proposed getting him an Ulster seat, and thought that the prospect of Wilson as an MP would annoy Robertson (who told Wilson that there was no army job for him in Britain), but the Irish Unionist leader Carson thought an English seat more sensible. Bonar Law was dismissive of Wilson's hopes that, like J. C. Smuts, he might be invited to join the War Policy Committee, and also poured cold water on the idea of Wilson becoming an MP. Wilson did not agree with Milner's suggestion that he succeed Sarrail as Commander-in-Chief at Salonika. Éamon de Valera of Sinn Féin had recently won the East Clare by-election (caused by the death of Willie Redmond) and on a visit to Currygrane (his first in eight years) everyone Wilson spoke to – judges, landowners, police officers, a Redmondite local politician and "some natives" agreed on the need for Irish conscription. Wilson, a lifelong Unionist, seems not to have anticipated the political consequences of such a move.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Brock Millman argues that the threat to stand for Parliament, where he could have intrigued as a Unionist along with his friends such as Bonar Law, Leo Amery and Colonel Lord Percy, ADC to the King, was blackmail to get a military job out of Lloyd George. Keith Jeffery rejects Millman's approach, arguing that Wilson would have been no threat as a new MP but as a military adviser was a useful rival to Robertson, whom by July 1917 Viscount French (C-in-C Home Forces) was telling Wilson Lloyd George wanted to remove. However, Robertson told Wilson directly in a meeting on 4 July that there was simply no job available for him. Moreover, Wilson was surprised to learn that if he entered the House of Commons he would lose his army half pay.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: With the Third Battle of Ypres, to which the War Cabinet had reluctantly agreed on condition that it did not degenerate into a long-drawn out fight like the Somme, already bogged down in unseasonably early wet weather, Viscount French (14 August 1917) told Riddell (managing director of the "News of the World", and likely to pass on French's views to Lloyd George) that Henry Wilson's talents were being wasted, and that the government was not ascertaining "the views of our leading soldiers". Wilson thought "ridiculous and unworkable" a suggestion by Lloyd George that all Robertson's plans be submitted to a committee of French, Wilson and one other, and over lunch with French and Lloyd George on 23 August suggested an inter-Allied body of three Prime Ministers and three soldiers be set up over all the national Staffs. Lloyd George agreed, telling Wilson that he should be the British military member, and told him to sell the plan to the rest of the War Cabinet. Wilson also suggested that the autumn and winter mud in Flanders would be an ideal time to build on recent successes in Palestine and Mesopotamia without interfering with Western Front Offensives in 1918.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: In late August 1917 Wilson turned down a chance to go on the mission to the US, as he did not get on with Lord Northcliffe, the mission leader. He took up Eastern Command, whose headquarters were conveniently at 50 Pall Mall in London, on 1 September 1917, enabling him to work closely with Prime Minister David Lloyd George.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: The War Cabinet (11 October 1917) invited Wilson and French to submit formal written advice, a blatant undermining of Robertson's position. Dining with Wilson and French the night before, Lloyd George criticised Robertson and called Haig's recent paper (8 October), which predicted that "decisive success is expected next year" provided Russia continued to pin down as many German divisions as currently, "preposterous". Wilson consulted Macdonogh (Director of Military Intelligence at the War Office) who held out little prospect of breaking the German Army but thought "the heart of the German people" might break in a year, and Macready (Adjutant-General) who warned that the British Army was facing a shortfall of 300,000 men by that time. Over lunch on 17 October Lloyd George wanted Wilson's paper rewritten to remove "all semblance of dictation" by the new inter-Allied body. Wilson thought Haig's assumption that Russia would continue to fight was "a large one" and once again urged winter offensives against Turkey and Bulgaria. He affirmed that he was in principle a "Westerner" but wrote that it was "no use throwing "decisive numbers at the decisive time at the decisive place" if "the decisive numbers do not exist, the decisive hour has not yet struck and if the decisive place is ill-chosen" ". Winston Churchill later wrote "In Sir Henry Wilson the War Cabinet found for the first time an expert advisor of superior intellect, who could explain lucidly and forcefully the whole situation and give reasons for the adoption or rejection of any course".


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson delivered copies of the two papers to Hankey on 20 October; on 24 October Wilson breakfasted with Derby, who warned him that he had not yet submitted the papers as French's was "too personal" and Wilson's "too unanswerable". At the Prime Minister's request Wilson helped tone down French's criticisms of Robertson. On 26 October papers were at last sent to the CIGS, having been overtaken by disaster on the Italian front. The Battle of Caporetto began on 24 October, which Wilson was worried might lead to revolution in Italy.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Lloyd George told Wilson that he was to be the British Military Representative on the Supreme War Council, and that although he disliked his politics he admired him "as a man & a soldier" and that the future of the war rested in his shoulders – Milner told him much the same, adding that it was "the eleventh hour". Hankey also wrote to Lloyd George that Wilson was uniquely qualified for the job, owing in part to his close relations with the French Army and personal friendship with Foch. Wilson accompanied Lloyd George, Smuts and Hankey to the Rapallo Conference which set up the SWC (7 November). When he arrived on 5 November he met Robertson who had gone on ahead to supervise the transfer of British reinforcements to Italy – under questioning from Wilson Robertson said that he would not have done anything differently over the last two years – which Wilson thought "curious", noting that "since he has been CIGS we have lost Roumania, Russia & Italy & have gained Bullecourt, Messines & Paschendal [sic]".


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson, sent to inspect the Italian Front, was worried that Venice might fall and on behalf of the SWC ordered the new Italian commander Diaz to construct new defensive positions on the River Brenta, which in the event were not needed as the line of the River Piave held.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Lloyd George persuaded the War Cabinet that although Wilson was subject to the authority of the Army Council he should nonetheless have "unfettered" discretion as to the advice he gave. Wilson insisted to Robertson that there was no "duality of advice" as he spoke only on behalf of the SWC. Lloyd George also asked Wilson to send his reports directly to him, not through Robertson. On the train to the initial SWC meeting at the Hotel Trianon at Versailles Lloyd George, Milner and Wilson had "long talks" about Derby and Robertson's obstruction. Wilson correctly guessed that Foch would eventually become Allied generalissimo. Clemenceau was in the chair (1 December 1917), and his speech, drafted by Hankey, tasked the military representatives with studying the prospects for the 1918 campaign, and in particular whether German defeat would be best brought about by attacks on her allies.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: At the time, Allenby's successes, culminating in the Fall of Jerusalem (9 December 1917), demonstrated the potential of attacks in the Middle East, compared to Haig's offensives at Ypres and at Cambrai in November (initial British success followed by German retaking of gains). Russia had finally collapsed (Brest Litovsk Armistice 16 December) yet only a handful of American divisions were available so far in the west. But with hindsight, it is unclear that stronger commitment to the Palestine front in the winter of 1917–18 would have led to great results, as that winter saw some of the heaviest rain in the region in living memory. Conversely, the success of the German 1918 Spring Offensives demonstrated that the Western Front was not as secure as Wilson believed.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: The military representatives, egged on by Wilson, beginning 13 December 1917, recommended coordinated defence and reserves from the North Sea to the Adriatic, as well as reorganisation of the Belgian Army and preparing studies of the Italian and Salonika fronts. Wilson worked even on Christmas Day. He set up three main sections "Allied" and "Enemy" operations, and "Material and Manpower" – the latter under Frederick Sykes covered both sides and included air power. There was also a "Political" Branch under Leo Amery, although he reported to Hankey back in London. However, Rawlinson was unimpressed by the calibre of Wilson's staff and the young Archibald Wavell thought the atmosphere overly pessimistic. That month Wilson defended Haig to Clemenceau and Foch, both of whom wanted him removed (Clemenceau preferred Allenby as Haig's replacement, Foch preferred Plumer), telling Clemenceau that Haig was the right man for the "bad times" which were coming, although he was critical of Robertson.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson had his staff play a "war game", in which some of them had reversed their hats pretending to be German, which he demonstrated to important visitors and the contents of which became Joint Note 12. Wilson advised that the British line should be extended between the River Ailette and the Soissons-Laon Road. Haig was bored when shown it (11 January 1918) and read a memorandum in his hand, although a large part of the reason for setting up the SWC had been the poor intelligence and advice which Haig had been receiving from Charteris. Many of Wilson's predictions for the timing and location of the German offensive proved to be wrong. Although Lloyd George would later (9 April) praise Wilson in the House of Commons for forecasting the date and time of the German offensive, he had in fact explicitly rejected the Somme as a sector and had predicted that 1 May or later would be the likely date of the attack.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: SWC Joint Note 12 declared that, leaving aside improbables such as Central Powers internal collapse or Russian revival, neither side could win a decisive victory on the Western Front in 1918, although decisive results could be had against Turkey (although, at French insistence, no further troops were to be sent), possibly leading to diversion of German troops and encouragement of pro-Allied elements in Romania and southern Russia. Haig thought "Wilson is playing the tune called by Lloyd George" and Robertson, who opposed efforts against Turkey, thought it "d-----d rot in general". Joint Note 12 and Note 14 proposing the formation of a General Reserve were discussed at the second full session of the SWC (30 January – 2 February). In accordance with Lloyd George's wishes an Executive Board was set up to control the General Reserve, under Foch (with Wilson as his deputy). Robertson asked to be on the Board but was overruled. Wilson for the first time (2 February 1918) wrote explicitly in his diary of "the long duel between (himself) and Robertson" and speculated that Robertson might resign after his "complete defeat".


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson seems from his diary not to have particularly welcomed the suggestion that he become CIGS. When told by Milner of rumours that he was to be given Robertson's job he said that he preferred to be given ever more power at Versailles where he was building up a prestigious post for himself, with Robertson reduced "from the position of a Master to that of a servant". Milner told Wilson (10 February) that Lloyd George wanted to move Robertson to Versailles. Ironically, if he became CIGS he wanted Robertson (whom he thought would refuse) or whoever else replaced him at Versailles to report to himself. There was talk of the government falling, Rawlinson writing to H. A. Gwynne (14 February 1918) that the best solution was to give Robertson a powerful role at Versailles and have Wilson as a weak CIGS in London "where he will not be able to do much mischief – especially if Squiff replaced LG as PM".


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: On 19 February 1918 Wilson was appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff ('CIGS'), after the removal of Robertson and was the principal military adviser to Lloyd George in the last year of the First World War. As CIGS, he was a member of the Army Council. One of his first acts was to nearly triple the size of the Tank Corps from 18,000 to 46,000 men He argued for "turning out some of our senior generals & starting a flow of promotion". A purge of corps commanders, including the corps commanders from the Battle of Cambrai (Pulteney, Snow and Woollcombe), was carried out in the early months of 1918. (Wilson diary 7 February and 7 March 1918)


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Foch was pleased at Wilson's appointment, although Haig noted in his diary (25 February) that Wilson was no longer so keen on a strong staff under Rawlinson, his successor at Versailles. Rawlinson for his part supported Haig's unwillingness to release any divisions to the General Reserve. Petain only agreed to release 8 French divisions and made a bilateral agreement with Haig to assist one another. Wilson protested to Lloyd George, who commented that Haig's attitude was "very stupid & short sighted but agreed we could not force Haig at this moment". Wilson defended Haig's position to the War Cabinet (6 March) and blamed Clemenceau and Petain (both of whom disliked Foch) and wrote in his diary that the British government had little choice but to back Haig "wrong as I believe him to be". At a SWC Meeting in London (14–15 March) Foch agreed under protest to shelve the Allied Reserve.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: In the House of Commons in early April Lloyd George would later claim, amidst press demands for Robertson's restoration to office, that Wilson had predicted exactly when and where the German offensive would come. In fact on 21 March the day the German Michael Offensive began, Wilson advised that the attack "might only develop into a big raid or demonstration" and focussed the War Cabinet on the German threat to Asia. Although it was not yet clear in London, on that one day the Germans captured as much territory as the British had captured in 140 days at the Somme in 1916.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: On 23 March Kirke, Deputy Director of Operations at GHQ, flew to London to report that the Germans had gained 12 miles and captured 600 guns. Wilson wrote that 23 March was "an anxious day": the War Cabinet discussed falling back on the Channel Ports and agreed to send out 50,000 "boys" of 18 ½ – 19 together with another 82,000 men from Britain, along with 88,000 returning from leave. A British division was recalled from Italy, Allenby was instructed to hold another division ready, and Lord Reading (Ambassador in Washington) was asked to urge President Wilson to send US reinforcements quicker.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson's diary records that on 24 March he (5pm) telephoned Lloyd George to ask him to come to London, received a telephone call from Foch ("asking what I thought of situation & we are of one mind that someone must catch a hold or we shall be beaten. I said I would come over and see him"), then had a meeting with Lloyd George at Downing Street where they discussed "the entirely inadequate measures taken by Haig and Petain" before receiving an evening message from Haig asking him to come over. There is no evidence to confirm Haig's later claim that, on returning from a midnight meeting with Petain at 3am on 25 March, he telegraphed to Wilson and Milner to come over to France and ensure the appointment of "Foch or some other determined general who would fight" as Allied Generalissimo. Wilson reached GHQ at Montreuil at 11.30am on 25 March, having left London by special train at 6.50am then crossed to France on a destroyer. He chided Haig for having, together with Petain, blocked the plan for an Allied reserve, although in fact Petain sent a dozen divisions and it is unclear that a committee would actually have acted any faster. Travers argued that the true reason for Wilson's visit to France was to discuss a retreat on the Channel Ports, but this view is not accepted by other scholars.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson was present at the Doullens conference at which Foch was appointed Allied generalissimo. He reported (27 March) that Gough's Fifth Army could "no longer be regarded as a fighting unit". He was also at the Beauvais (3 April) conference which increased Foch's powers.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson thought that Irish conscription would gain an extra 150,000 men, as well as helping to round up political malcontents. As recently as January Lloyd George had been opposed, worried that it would cause trouble in Ireland and weaken the position of John Redmond's party (worries shared by the administration in Dublin) and about the effect on Irish American and Irish Australian opinion. During the German "Michael" Offensive Lloyd George changed his mind and with Milner's support, but over the reservations of the head of the RIC, announced at the War Cabinet (25 March) that conscription was to be extended to Ireland, partly to placate British trade unions at the extension of conscription to British war industries. When he announced the measure in the House of Commons (9 April), he announced that Home Rule was also to be introduced in Ireland, although Wilson was convinced that the southern nationalists would never accept it if Ulster was given the "safeguards" promised by Lloyd George. Irish conscription was never implemented but the threat galvanised Irish politics and led to Sinn Féin's victory in December 1918.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: The War Cabinet met (8 April) to discuss, in Hankey's words, "the desirability of getting rid of Haig", who had recently offered to resign. Hankey recorded that sentiment was "unanimously against Haig" but Wilson's opinion was that there was no obvious successor and that he suggested waiting for Haig's report on the March retreat before making a decision. However, in his own diary Wilson later claimed (11 May) he had urged that Haig be sacked, and told Haig so (20 May). Haig and Wilson gradually established a warily respectful relationship, and Lloyd George was soon complaining that one was Scotch and one Irish, but both were whiskies.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: The German "Georgette" Offensive began on 9 April. Wilson travelled to France and that day he met with Haig and then with Foch, with whom he broached the idea of appointing Lt-Gen Du Cane as liaison officer between the two (this would take effect on 12 April). Wilson met Clemenceau in Paris the next morning (10 April) to warn that there was a danger of the BEF losing the Channel ports. He also wrote to Foch (10 April) urging him to send French reinforcements or to flood the coastal areas around Dunkirk, and impressing on him the need to keep contact with the British right flank if the BEF felt compelled to retreat on the Channel Ports. At a meeting with Clemenceau, Foch, Milner and Haig on 27 April, Wilson pressed Foch on whether the priority was to hold onto the Channel ports or to keep the British and French armies united was priority. Foch indicated that the latter was the priority. Reassured by the British Admiralty that if necessary Calais and Boulogne could be abandoned, Wilson finally agreed (2 May 1918) that the British could retreat south-west if attacked again, but this decision never had to be implemented.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Like many British leaders, Wilson soon became disillusioned with Foch. In May 1918 he complained that the French wanted to get control of the British Army, bases, food, merchant marine, and the Italian and Salonika fronts.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson, along with Milner and Hankey (Leo Amery sometimes covering for him), was on the X Committee, an inner circle which met to brief Lloyd George prior to War Cabinet meetings. Two-thirds of the meetings were in the crisis period between May and the halting of the German offensives in July 1918. In early June, after the Third Battle of the Aisne, even Wilson feared the French might be "done". Wilson travelled to France four times, seeing Foch and Haig each time and Clemenceau on three of them. Wilson ordered detailed planning to begin for a potential evacuation of the BEF; the British Embassy in Paris packed up much of their archive in case evacuation was required.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson (along with Haig, Milner, Lloyd George and du Cane) attended the sixth meeting of the Supreme War Council in Paris, 1–3 June, at which there was much French anger at the low level of British recruitment and Haig's reluctance to send reinforcements to the French sector.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson was promoted to substantive general on 3 June 1918. Along with Hankey and Milner, Wilson attended an emergency meeting at 10, Downing Street on 5 June, at which abandonment of the Channel Ports or even evacuation was discussed. Wilson also attended the Paris conference of 7 June, along with Foch, Milner, Haig, Weygand and Clemenceau, at which Foch again berated Haig for his reluctance to send reinforcements. Wilson helped to defuse the situation by obtaining a promise from Foch that the British and French Armies would not be separated as Petain had assured him that Paris was no longer in danger. At the end of June Lloyd George asked Milner if Britain could continue the war without France. Wilson visited Italy again at the end of June 1918.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: For some time the Supreme War Council had been drawing up contingency plans to supply the BEF via Dieppe and Le Havre if Calais and Boulogne fell, or even (6 July) emergency evacuation plans. On 12 July Wilson lobbied Foch, whom he addressed as "my dear friend", to allow US divisions to be deployed in Flanders, although in the event this was not necessary.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson submitted a long paper to the War Cabinet in July, recommending that the Allies hold the line, with only limited offensives, for the second half of 1918, and that their future offensives should have ever greater emphasis on artillery, tanks, aircraft and machine guns. He was convinced that the war would ultimately be won in the west, causing Lloyd George to complain (30 July 1918) that it was "Wully Redivivus". In his War Memoirs (pp1857–66) Lloyd George later poured scorn on Wilson for seeking the advice of Haig and Petain in this paper and for not having foreseen the Allied victories of autumn 1918, but neither Lloyd George nor many other people did at the time. Wilson also dismissed as unlikely the internal collapse which overcame the Central Powers in late 1918. Wilson also wanted to reinforce the Near East – although not enough to satisfy Amery – lest Germany and Turkey were left free by the collapse of Russia to expand there, which would improve their position in any future war a decade hence. Haig wrote on his copy "words, words, words" and "theoretical rubbish".


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: When Haig's forces began to advance towards the Hindenburg Line Wilson sent him a supposedly "personal" telegram (31 August), warning that he was not to take unnecessary losses in storming these fortifications (i.e. hinting that he might be sacked if he failed), later claiming that the government wanted to retain troops in the UK because of the police strike.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Haig believed that the aim should be to win the war that year, and by spring 1919 at the latest, not July 1919 as the politicians had in mind, and urged that all available able-bodied men and transportation in the UK be sent, as well as men earmarked for the Royal Navy and for munitions production, even at the cost of reducing future munitions output. Milner warned Haig that manpower would not be available for 1919 if squandered now. Although Wilson agreed with Haig that "there was ample evidence of the deterioration of the Boch" (Wilson diary 9 September) Milner told Wilson that Haig was being "ridiculously optimistic", might "embark on another Paschendal [sic]" and that he "had grave doubts whether he had got inside of DH's head" (Wilson diary 23 September); Wilson thought the War Cabinet would have to "watch this tendency & stupidity of DH".


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: In January 1919 there were riots as 10,000 soldiers at Folkestone and 2,000 at Dover refused to return abroad, as well as disturbances in army camps abroad. This was of grave concern as revolution in Russia and Germany had been spearheaded by mutinous soldiers. Wilson, aware that peace had not yet been signed, blamed Lloyd George for promising quick demobilisation during the 1918 General Election campaign, and estimating that 350,000–500,000 men would be needed for peacekeeping duties, pressed for the continuation of conscription, despite press pressure, e.g. from the "Daily Herald", that it should end. Churchill (now War Secretary) replaced the existing plans for demobilisation of men with jobs to go to with a new system of "first in, first out", and extended service for the most recent conscripts until April 1920 so that current soldiers could be demobilised.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: The Army dropped in size from 3.8 million men (November 1918) to 2 million at the start of 1919, then 890,000 (November 1919) then 430,000 (November 1920). Lloyd George, wanting to spend more money on domestic programmes and concerned at persuading an electorate recently tripled in size that high defence spending was needed, launched a defence review in summer 1919 after peace was signed. He wanted to know why, with no major enemies on the horizon, so many more men were needed than in 1914 when the Army had numbered 255,000. Defence spending was £766m in 1919–20, this was to be reduced to £135m of which £75m was to be on the army and air force. Wilson supported the Ten Year Rule which was also formulated at this time.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson, at this stage still enjoying cordial relations with Lloyd George, spent the equivalent of four months at Versailles as Britain's chief military adviser at the Paris Peace Conference. His staff included Richard Meinertzhagen, James Marshall-Cornwall working in intelligence, the historian Major Charles Webster as secretary, the Duke of Devonshire's son Lord Hartington (like his father, a Conservative politician) and the Prime Minister's son Major Gwilym Lloyd George.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson advised that the German Reichswehr be a voluntary rather than a conscript force (the French preference), and that the French Occupation of the Rhineland be temporary rather than permanent. Hankey was impressed by advice from Wilson that harsh financial terms might drive Germany to Bolshevism and thence to alliance with Russia and Japan, and had Wilson repeat his presentation to the Prime Minister at a special "away weekend" at Fontainebleau (March 1919), where he was sceptical of the League of Nations and urged a strong Anglo-French Alliance, perhaps even accompanied by the building of a Channel Tunnel. These proposals were written up as the "Fontainebleau Memorandum" outlining Lloyd George's preferred peace terms.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson advised that Foch's force of 39 divisions was sufficient to occupy Germany if she refused to sign the peace treaty, although he advised against a prolonged occupation, and continued to be concerned at the sporadic warfare between the small newly independent countries of Eastern Europe. Clemenceau eventually agreed to sign the Treaty of Versailles (June 1919) on condition Britain guaranteed to defend France against unprovoked German aggression (President Woodrow Wilson did the same but the USA did not ratify the agreement).


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: In June 1919, Wilson accepted promotion (official 31 July) to field marshal, after Churchill had offered him a choice of promotion or a peerage. At a dinner for 200 MPs in Wilson's honour, Lloyd George stated that Wilson had earned the promotion for his role in war preparation, for his work in smoothing Anglo-French relations, and for his work in setting up a unified Allied command late in the war. At 55 he was the youngest non-royal field marshal since Wellington (Harold Alexander in 1944 has since been younger). Private A S Bullock, a port official at Le Havre, recalled Wilson, a tall man, arriving at his office with his assistant General Walter Pitt-Taylor and lounging across a doorway because Bullock, unaware of his identity, failed to offer him a seat!


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson was also made a baronet. He was appointed a Grand Officier of the Belgian Order of Leopold and awarded the Belgian Croix de guerre, and was given the Chinese Order of Chia-Ho (Golden Grain), 1st Class "Ta-Shou Pao-Kuang", the American Distinguished Service Medal, the Siamese Order of the White Elephant, first class, the Grand Cordon of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun (later "with flowers of the Paulownia"), the Grand Cross of the Greek Order of the Redeemer, and promoted to Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson received a grant of £10,000 (his field marshal's pay was £3,600 per annum). Money was still tight – in the summer of 1920 he briefly let out his house at Eaton Place. His estate at his death was £10,678, which included his yacht worth nearly £2,000. Over the next few years he received honorary degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, Trinity College Dublin and Queens University Belfast.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: When he took his GCB he had as supporters on his coat of arms a private of the Rifle Brigade and a female figure representing Ulster.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: A wave of labour unrest had begun with the London police strike of August 1918. Wilson had approved the deployment of troops as strike breakers in September 1918 but regretted the concessions granted to striking railwaymen in December 1918.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: During another railway strike in September 1919, Wilson was concerned he would be left in future with only 40,000 infantry of whom 12,000 were conscripts, and of which even the "regular" NCOs were young and inexperienced – a police report at the time warned that for the first time in British history the rioters (many of them ex-soldiers) would be better trained than the authorities. Wilson, along with Churchill and Walter Long (First Lord of the Admiralty), wanted military action. Lloyd George, Bonar Law and Hankey did not. Early in 1920 Wilson drew up plans for 18 battalions (10 of them Guards) to protect London, concentrating troops near the sea so they could be moved by the Royal Navy rather than by rail.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson privately suspected Lloyd George of being "a traitor & a Bolshevist" (15 January 1920 – he expressed similar concerns on 27 May and 23 July – Calwell omitted most of these entries from his published version of Wilson's diaries). He was particularly concerned by the presence in May of a Soviet trade delegation led by Krasin, who on his second visit in August 1920 was accompanied by Kamenev, who was keen to make contacts in the UK and who was subsidising the "Daily Herald". This was against the backdrop of the Battle of Warsaw in summer 1920.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: By September 1920 a national coal strike seemed imminent, along with possible involvement by railwaymen and transport workers (the "Triple Alliance") and unrest amongst unemployed ex-servicemen, coinciding with rebellion in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Tanks were deployed to Worcester, York, Aldershot and Scotland. By 31 December 1920 Wilson thought that Lloyd George was, for reasons which included his attempt at détente with the Soviets, "totally unfit to govern" (this was one of the few such entries which Calwell would later publish). The Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement was eventually signed on 16 March 1921.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson was particularly cross, early in 1921, that with only 10 Guards and 18 Line (8 of them Irish) battalions in the UK to meet another threatened Triple Alliance strike, 4 battalions were being sent from the Rhine to supervise the Upper Silesia plebiscite: he asked Lloyd George if he wanted to be "Prime Minister of England or Silesia". The Cabinet eventually agreed to let Wilson recall battalions from Silesia, Malta and Egypt, mobilise sailors and an 80,000 strong paramilitary "Defence Force". In the event the miners struck without the support of other unions ("Black Friday"), and the sharp slump took the sting out of labour unrest.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson wanted to concentrate troops in Britain, Ireland, India and Egypt – rather than what he saw as excessive commitments to the Rhine and in Mesopotamia, Persia and Palestine, later writing (11 August 1921) that interfering in other countries followed by having to make "peace" was "like buggery: once you take to it, you cannot stop". However, Keith Jeffery argues that he failed to realise that the granting of self-government to Ireland and Egypt was also necessary, such concession keeping Egypt (like Iraq to a certain extent) pro-British for another generation.


title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

text: Wilson favoured limited involvement in the Russian Civil War – temporary deployment of troops to Murmansk and Archangel. He agreed with Lloyd George that Churchill's desire to wage active war on Bolshevik Russia was unwise and impractical. Wilson told Churchill that he was "tired of constantly nursing children (the White forces) who resolutely refuse to grow up". Rawlinson was sent out in August 1919 to supervise British withdrawal.