Archibald Wavell: The Life and Times of an Imperial Servant [Hardcover]

Archibald Wavell was a man of many accomplishments, most of them after the age of fifty. Adrian Fort's new biography, 'Archibald Wavell, The Life and Times of an Imperial Servant', devotes the first eighty pages to the subject's first fifty years, and then the next 300-plus to his last seventeen. One of a generation of military men instructed in the ways of Empire only to be confronted with its 20th-century dissolution, Wavell brought a keen imagination into the mix. He sailed through the Winchester public school, which gave him a firm grounding in the Classics, and then the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, where the military culture he had absorbed through family life now occupied his studies as well. One is struck throughout the book at the way this brilliant but somewhat reticent man showed surprising flexibility when confronted with a host of challenges, ranging from unpredictable wartime conditions to the hiring of gay subordinates (he had no problem with it) to dealing with the exigencies of India's approaching independence. He saw action in the Boer War, was part of The Black Watch Regimental force in India (during which time he added Urdu and Hindustani to his store of languages), learned Russian in Moscow, and returned to England to write a handbook on the Russian Army in 1912. Concern over the viability of Empire had already begun to form; the Japanese victory in the 1905 Russo-Japanese War shocked the British. This 'victory of a non-white people over a white people' was much discussed in military colleges, as well as in the great civilian universities.
After seeing action in the Ypres Salient during World War I (and losing his left eye to shrapnel), Wavell was sent to be a liaison between the War Office and General Sir Edmund Allenby of the Mideast Headquarters. Allenby, known as 'The Bull,' was charged with expelling the Turkish Army from Jerusalem and establishing British hegemony in Palestine. Wavell became a great admirer of Allenby, eventually writing a two-volume biography of the General.
Military strategy was undergoing a change in light of the Great War's events. Fort treats on this throughout the book, citing Wavell's enthusiasm for new strategies for new wars, what we would now characterize as 'thinking outside the box'. Fort's careful account of Wavell's personality, intelligence, early influences, and experience gives the reader the ability to follow and understand his triumphs and disappointments as the Second World War approaches and unfolds. We see his progress against the Italians in North Africa. This is followed by Wavell's agreeing to the diversion of British forces to defend Greece, ultimately unsuccessfully, leading to the retaking by Rommel of much of the gained ground. Fort explains the strained relationship between Churchill and Wavell, the latter's realistic assessments of risks and benefits being interpreted as pessimism and reluctance by the PM.
Plucked from the Middle East and sent to the Pacific theatre, Wavell tried to get cooperation between the British, American, and Chinese military leaders with mixed success. Many readers may not realize that Singapore was considered the most important possession to defend. More surprising is the lack of air defence planning for the island. Wavell's loyalty to his subordinates was admirable, but it may have been misplaced when he did not replace a general who was perhaps too disorganized to defend Malaya. The situation was doubtless more complicated, but eventually Malaya and Singapore fell, and an exhausted Wavell sent back to England before he could counter these reverses.
The third phase of his career was as Viceroy of a fractious India. Here the realities of the end of Empire were plain. He was in favor of Indian independence, but did not like the idea of partition. The impossible work of getting the different ethnic groups (primarily the Hindus, who ran the Congress Party and the Muslims, who ran the Muslim League) to agree to anything so as to smooth the path to independence made Wavell long for the Middle East. We see Gandhi in a less-than-rosy light: manipulative, unwilling to negotiate with the head of the Muslim League, misrepresenting British suggestions to his followers. I was reminded of the Gandhi portrayed in Nicholson Baker's 'Human Smoke,' dismissing a letter from a Jewish journalist pointing out the horrors of Nazi rule by saying 'I can conceive the necessity of the immolation of hundreds, if not thousands, to appease the hunger of dictators'.
Wavell's work as Viceroy was made more difficult by the sudden change in England from Churchill's Conservative leadership to that of the Labour PM Attlee. Wavell, having tried everything, was eventually replaced by Lord Mountbatten. Fort lets us know that Wavell's attitude toward his long career was not that of having failed, but of having done the best he could in several bad situations, and serving at a rank he had never dreamed of attaining. As his contemporaries were straddling the fragmenting ice floes of Empire, his intelligence and flexibility enabled him to do so with more grace than most.
This book was very thoroughly researched, and Fort's style is straightforward without being simplistic. Our understanding of the Second World War is ever evolving; this book, looking at a man who was a general, military theorist, and writer, makes an important contribution.

I have read a few military biographies and quite a few military books in general.

The modern idea of a biography is that it should be as interesting to read as a novel. That is it should tell a story and keep the readers interest.

Apart from a few facts such as he was in the desert in the early part of the war and later in Burma I knew very little about Wavell.

This is a highly readable book because it does not fall in to the trap of a lot of military books of giving you far too much technical information. That is long lists of battalions and, places and personnel. It tells Wavell's story simply and you keep interested. It starts with him in south Africa and the end of the Boer war.

Another good point is the book does not lard itself with great explanations of the history of that he was involved in. It assumes quite rightly that anyone interested enough to read this book knows enough about the Boer war the first world ward and the second world war to have to have it all explained to them. Also it keeps the book to a manageable size. if it repeated all the causes and battles of the wars that Wavell was involved in the book would be twice the size. Most serious readers are looking for original material not a rehash of the history of the wars of the first half of the twentieth century.

The author also keeps to fairly plain language and apart from three words I did not have to look anything up. They were axiomatic which I could have guessed, hegemony which is pointless and exiguous which is even more pointless as there are perfectly good plain alternatives.

Wavell is described throughout as a man of few words he liked to learn and recite poetry and I laughed at his comment that when he was young that admiring aunts used to give him three pence to recite it but that a wiser uncle gave him sixpence to do nothing of the kind

He had some early success when Britain needed them but then suffered reverses such as Crete. Later he was sent to India and was implicated in the loss of Singapore.

After he was appointed Viceroy of India it became less interesting as he was more of a political figure than a solider.

He got a fact about Orwell wrong in that Orwell was a pupil of Eton not a master at Eton. Also the index was not good enough. I knew that Wavell was born in Colchester and there is a Wavell Avenue which I pass a lot also Siegfried Sassoon was mentioned in the text but not in the index.

With modern computers indexing is a piece of cake. You just read off every time something is mentioned and the software will put it in alphabetical order.

I like a good full index as I look to see if people and things I am interested in are mentioned.

He was never one to worry about what he looked like and had a reputation as not being the smartest of dressers. On one of his commands on arrival young officers were warned that if they met a man who looked like a gamekeeper and said nothing , he was certain to be the divisional commander.

Later Alan Brooke CIGS recorded in his diary that His quiet manner and his long silences Winston considered an indication of lack of drive and energy.

He published books and I liked his comment that when people asked how he found time Of course it is always possible to find time for anything impotent

He had difficulties understanding the Japanese who he said had no interested in what the British were up to so they were harder to deceive deceiving the Germans had been like playing chess with someone not quite as good as oneself, with the Japanese , it was like setting up a chess board against an adversary whose one idea is to punch you on the nose.

The first half of the book is interesting and exciting to see how Wavell got his experience and how he fared. Once he is appointed to be viceroy of India it is less interesting from an military point of view as it is more political. He couldn't resolve the problems and they are still not resolved to the day.

It was interesting that the US had no appetite to help Britain reestablish their empire. Once the war was over there was Britain empire. It was just an question of dismantling it. The theory that the natives would fight the Japanese on the side of the British was shattered in places like India and Singapore.

A top book and worthy of a read,. A complex subject told in a very readable form.