Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

Uncommon card · No. 192866

Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, 1st Baronet (5 May 1864 – 22 June 1922) was one of the most senior British Army staff officers of the First World War and an Irish unionist politician. He served as commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, and then as Director of Military Operations at the War Office. Wilson played a vital role in drawing up plans to deploy an Expeditionary Force to France in the event of war. He acquired a reputation as a political intriguer for his role in agitating for the introduction of conscription and the Curragh incident of 1914. As Sub Chief of Staff to the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Wilson was Sir John French's most important advisor during the 1914 campaign, but his poor relations with Douglas Haig and William Robertson saw him sidelined from top decision-making in the middle years of the war. He played an important role in Anglo-French military relations in 1915 and – after his only experience of field command as a corps commander in 1916 – as...

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