EARL WAVELL DEAD

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26122, 26 May 1950, Page 7

EARL WAVELL DEAD

Distinguished Army Career FORMER VICEROY OF INDIA (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 25. The death has occurred of Earl Wavell, a Field Marshal of the British Army with a most distinguished record in three warS, and a former Viceroy of India. In World War II he was successively Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, Commander-in-Chiet, India, and for a brief time Supreme Commander, South-WOst Pacific. Earl Wavell recently underwent a serious abdominal operation. He was the author of some distinguished military textbooks and a biography of Lord Allenby which many Army men believe to be one of the finest military biographies in English. The second part of this biography he wrote in 194 U and 1941. when he himself was waging his most successlul campaign in Norm Africa. He also published an anthology of verse "Other Men's Flowers." Field - Marshal Wavell’s military career dated back to the beginning of the century, when he served throughout the South African War. At the close of the war he had won the South African Medal with four clasps, proving himself a worthy officer of the famous regiment of the Black Watch to which ne had been appointed in Entry Into Army His entry into the Army was through a gateway not "usually employed by those who are anxious to make a name for themselves by military exploits. He was educated in Britain's must academic school —Winchester College which always has been c* nsxderefl the path to the highest positions in the Civil Service. This did not prevent him from embracing the career he most tavoured.

From the moment he entered the Army his progress was uninterrupted. Alter a snort sjeli in the Staff College he served on the Indian frontier, where he achieved no lame. He first became prominent in Army circles (wnich does not mean public circ.es. where

ms name was completely unknown until the Libyan campaign) wnen. in 1916, he was sent to Russia in tne capacity of military attache to t.ie Caucasus Army. He held the post until the outbreak of the revolution in 1917. and thcrealter was attached t? the staff of Gent ral Allenby, who then occupied a position analogous to mat he himself held in 1910.

At the ciuse of tne World War General Wavell never looked back. His career, owing almos. certainly that admiration which General Ailenby nad lor his competent taciturnity, was almost automatic. Maj ;rGeneral in 1933, he lose one ste - to lieutenant-general only five yean later. The year before this latter"promotion he was sent to Paelstine to command all British .troo) s in Palestine and Transjordan during what is now known m those countries as the ‘years of trouble.”

As soon as the War Department thoroughly realised the funaamental m.slake of Munich General Wavell was recalled and appointed Command-er-m-Chief of the southern command, at that time the must important military' command in the whole count -v. When it was obvious that war was just around the corner General Wave ! was shifted to Egypt, where he was given command ol the largest and most complicated territory ever put under a British general. He took his wife out to Egypt, where in ’940 they celebrated tneir silver wedding. X ast Wininaud Almost ceriamo no gcatral in history nas haa sj tcrrnui ,auy vast a command or, m piopuruoo t., las so lew men io operate maiue iu <iS Earl Waveii had m me Miaoie na»t. iiie area streiCnea iron: wia.w <.nd \_rete soutuwaru io jvenya ano oeyunct to me northern upianus of Khoaesia. Il look m aucn ana ralcsrii something more substantial than theory it embraced also tne w.iolc of the S< tli .-i.r.. <ii a n. ... t .■? prowess of n.s tioops operating w..a precision along the lines ae la»u av . a lor tnern, mis territory was almost daily expanded. Ke was tae commanaer oi Englishmen, Scotsmen, Australians, Nev. Zealand -rs, buum Africans, 1- reiuanwn, uzecns. io.es. Inaians, Bedouins and Etmopians, as weil as of so.dicrs Grawn irom tne inaigenous populations unacr his command. Military history has acclaimed as classic his handing of tiny resoutces in those desert campaigns. His suiuw.s of those early d. ys" burst uut in pride at having belonged to mat small but honoured army. Tneir trust in him remained unshaken even wnen Liat army, which had so often acc >rnplisned the seemingly impassible, w s final y ordered to attempt the- truly impossible; when, virtually unreimorced and weakened by Greece and Crete and the Western Desert, Lord Wavell was bidaen to underlake simulta.teous campaigns in Syria. Iraq ana the Western D<sert again. Two ol these succeeded and one failed; and in July of 1941 he went with dignity to Inci.a, exchanging commands with General Auchinleck. Five months later J..pan was in the war, and Lord Wavell was commanding against her. His resources now were lar smaller even than they’ had been in Egypt In South-east Asia he was called in when the campaign was a'.reaay going badly, and with a vista of Hopelessly lean years ahead. Altogether. in the late war. he fought close on a dozen campaigns wUh never a Cour; card in his'hand. Yet. if the war trea’ed him hirshly in this respect, it left his military reputation standing high, and in many ways justified his remarkable foresight. Much military thought which today is normal was unorthodox “Wavellism” 10 years ago. Viceroy of India In June. 1343, Earl Wavell’s ap- , is X ... As a student ol history he must have known tnat India nas wrecked more reputations than it nas made. Only a year earlier, as Commander-in-chief, it had been his unenviable task to suppress a civil rebellion. On Lord cinlithgow fell most of the opprobrium for lhe harsh measures that had to be adopted; but Earl Wavell W'as inevitably involved. That the memory of these b.tter days faded fast spoke eloquently lor the man. Many of the Congress rebel leaders who were imprisoned in the 1942 d.sturbances were later Earl Wavell’s Ministers of State. Respect and tolerance gradually replaced suspicion and hostility. In his years as Viceroy he earned widespread public affection at a difficult lime. He took practical steps to show’ his sympathy with India's political aspirations, and made no tuss about it. Too often in the past, during crises. Viceroys had governed aloofly from Delhi: not Earl Wavell. His dramatic flying visit to Calcu at the height of the Bengal faini his energetic spurring of the sic ful official machine, are still remen bered with gratitude. The annual exodus to Simla, summer headquarters of the Government of India, curtailed bv his predecessr •, ceased altogether when he took over. The pomp and glitter of vice-regal life were drastically reduced. When the scale of the Bengal famine became known. Earl Wavell set the country a much-reeded example of austere living. Meals, even official banquets, were cut to a skeleton. Th* vast sweep of vice-regal lawns wa.< ploughed under to raise fine crops of wheat, maize, and vegetables. He was Viceroy from June. 1943. to 1947. when he retired. In that year he was also created the first Earl Wavell. His heir is Viscount Keren, who is 30 years old.