Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Wilson

Adm of the Fleet Sir Arthur K Wilson, VC, GCB, OM, GCVO

Arthur Knyvet Wilson was born in Swaffham, Norfolk, on 4 March 1842.  He was the son of Rear-Adm George Knyvet Wilson and nephew of Maj-Gen Sir Archdale Wilson, who commanded the garrison during the Siege of Delhi (Arthur was to inherit the baronetcy awarded to Sir Archdale for this).He was educated at Eton and entered the Royal Navy in 1855.

Early Career

As a Midshipman, he served on HMS Algiers during the Crimean War. The ship served in the Black Sea, near Sebastapol and was involved in the bombardment of the Kinburn forts. Wilson transferred to HMS Colossus when the Algiers went for a refit in Malta. While serving on this ship, he was sent ashore to search for an Army Captain’s dog that had got lost near Balaclava. By the time he returned, the ship had sailed for Britain and he was forced to use another ship to return home. He was then posted to HMS Raleigh which was to serve on the China station. In March 1857, the ship ran aground on a submerged rock and was lost. The officers and men were landed and Wilson was then transferred to HMS Calcutta, the flagship. He was serving on this ship during the Second China War.

In 1867, he was one of the party of British naval officers sent to Japan to set up a school for naval officers at Yedo and take up the post of Instructor.   In 1870, while at HMS Excellent, he was a member of the committee appointed to inquire into the capacity of the Whitehead Torpedo.  In 1876, he became Commander at HMS Vernon, the newly established Torpedo School at Portsmouth in recognition of his previous experience in torpedo research. While he was there, he was promoted to Captain in April 1880 and asked to re-write the navy’s torpedo manuals. He also invented aiming apparatus for the torpedo and worked out a method of submarine mining and countermining adapted to naval requirements. In 1882, Wilson was appointed to command HMS Hecla, a torpedo depot ship.

Egypt and the Victoria Cross

Hecla was used as a transport ship during the Anglo-Egyptian War. The ship contributed a small detachment as a Naval Brigade for the second battle of El Teb on 29th February 1884. Although Wilson was not actually part of the brigade, he joined the battle as an observer. 

What happened next is recounted in the London Gazette for 21 May 1884.

Sailors using a ship-based Gardner Gun

This Officer, on the staff of Rear-Admiral Sir William Hewett, at the battle of El-Teb, on the 29th February, attached himself during the advance to the right half battery, Naval Brigade, in the place of Lieutenant Royds, RN mortally wounded.  As the troops closed on the enemy's Krupp battery the Arabs charged out on the corner of the square and on the detachment who were dragging the Gardner gun.

Captain Wilson then sprang to the front and engaged in single combat with some of the enemy, thus protecting his detachment till some men of the York and Lancaster Regiment came to his assistance with their bayonets. 

But for the action of this Officer Sir Redvers Buller thinks that one or more of his detachment must have
been speared.

Captain Wilson was wounded but remained with the half battery during the day.

Richard Noyce, Curator of Artefacts at the National Maritime Museum, gives a more vivid account in this video:

Wilson was presented with the Victoria Cross at a special ceremony on Southsea Common on 6 June 1882. He recorded in his diary 'Docked ship.  Awarded Victoria Cross.'

Later Career 

In 1889, he was again appointed to command HMS Vernon. In 1893, he was appointed to HMS Sans Pareil and witnessed the collision of HMSs Camperdown and Victoria, which led to the sinking of the Camperdown with severe loss of life, including Admiral Sir George Tryon.

Wilson was promoted Rear Admiral in 1895. He was appointed as Controller of the Navy and Third Sea Lord. Four years later, in 1901, he was promoted again to Vice Admiral and made Commander in Chief of the Channel Squadron. During his period in this position, he improved and brought in modern methods of tactics in view of the technical advances in battleships.

In 1907, he was made Admiral of the Fleet by a special Order in Council, after successfully commanding the Channel and Home fleets. In 1910, he was appointed First Sea Lord. He did not favour the use of submarines as a means of firing torpedoes, famously calling them 'a damned un-English weapon'. After two years, he was dismiissed ('like a butler') after differences of opinion in regard to administration and policy with the First Lord of the Admiralty (his Parliamentary counterpart), Winston Churchill. On his 70th birthday he was placed on the Retired List and was made a member of the Order of Merit.

However, on the outbreak of war in 1914 he returned to assist Lord Fisher, the new First Sea Lord, at Churchill's request.  Fisher and Wilson clashed continuously until the former's resignation in 1915.  Due to strong opposition from sea-going admirals and others, Wilson was not re-appointed First Sea Lord

let it not be A. K. Wilson who is a man of quite inferior calibre and who backed up Winston in his folly over the naval attack on the Dardanelles. AKW is all right knocking down Fuzzy Wuzzies with his fists, or getting a cable round a bollard, but the idea that he is a strategist of the first water has no foundation in fact and he is dumb at War Councils and institutions of that character

He retired for a third time in 1918. When his brother died in 1919, he became the 3rd Baronet. Wilson died on 25 May 1921 at his home in Swaffham.

The Medals 

Sir Arthur's medals are held by the Royal Navy Museum, Portsmouth.

Victoria Cross
Knight Grand Cross, Order of the Bath (GCB)
Order of Merit (OM)
Knight Grand Cross, Royal Victorian Order ( GCVO )
Crimea Medal (1854-56), 1 clasp: 'Sebastopol'
Second China War Medal (1857-60) 2 clasps: 'Canton 1857' - 'Taku Forts 1858'
Egypt Medal (1882-89) 3 clasps: 'Alexandra 11th July' - 'El-Teb' - 'Suakin 1884'
Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Medal (1897)
King Edward VII Coronation Medal (1902)
King George V Coronation Medal (1911)
Grand Officer, Legion of Honour (France)
Order of the Medjidieh (3rd Class) (Turkey)
Order of Naval Merit: Grand Cross (Spain)
Khedive's Star (1882)
Turkish Crimea Medal (1855-56)
Knight Grand Cross, Order of Dannebrog (Denmark)
Knight Grand Cross, Order of the Netherlands Lion (The Netherlands)

Vice-Admiral Sir William Nathan Wrighte Hewett, VC, KCB, KCSI

Admiral Hewitt - photo taken c.1873

William Nathan Wrighte Hewett was born on 12 August 1834 in Brighton,  His father was Doctor William Wrighte Hewett MD, of Billham Hall, Near Doncaster, Yorks. He was a Surgeon and Physician to William IV. His mother was Susan Moore, daughter of the Revd John Maddy Moore DD, Prebendary of Ely and Chaplain to William IV.

The Crimea and Award of the Victoria Cross

In April 1847 Hewett was appointed Cadet on HMS Ocean. In May 1849 he was made Acting Mate on HMS Impregnable and served on several ships before being posted to HMS Beagle, a shallow-draft dispatch vessel commissioned for service in the Crimea War as a gunboat.  He was attached to the naval brigade at the siege of Sebastapol, being in command of the right Lancaster battery.

The Illustrated London News' vision of Hewett winning his VC

On the occasion of a repulse of a sortie of Russians by Sir De Lacy Evans Division on the 26th October, 1854 ... The advance of the Russians placed the gun in great jeopardy, their skirmishers advancing within 300 yards of the Battery, and pouring in a sharp fire from their Minie rifles. By some misapprehension the word was passed to spike his gun and retreat; but Mr. Hewett, taking upon himself the responsibility of disregarding the order, replied that 'Such an order did not come from Captain Lushington, and he would not do it till it did.' Mr. Hewett then pulled down the parapet of the Battery, and, with the assistance of some soldiers, got his gun round and poured upon the advancing column of Russians a most destructive and effective fire. 

As ever, it's quite likely that this account is sanitised.  Another account gives Hewett's response as: 'Retire? Retire and be damned! Fire!'  For this, and for his actions at the Battle of Inkerman on 5 November, Hewett was one of the first naval recipients of the newly-instituted Victoria Cross. 

Career Progression

Hewett was promoted to Lieutenant with effect from the date of his actions at Sebastapol. He was promoted to Commander on 13 September 1858, Captain on 24 November 1862, Rear-Admiral on 21 March 1878 and Vice-Admiral on 8 July 1884.

For much of this time he commanded expeditions in West Africa, the Arabian Gulf, Egypt and the Sudan, gaining in the process a reputation as the Navy's finest exponent of combined operations, being known as 'The Fighting Admiral'.  The breath of his campaign experience can be seen in his medal entitlement:-

• Victoria Cross
• Knight Commander, Order of the Bath (KCB)
• Knight Commander, Order of the Star of India (KCSI)
• Crimea Medal (1854-1856), 3 clasps (Inkerman - Azoff - Sebastopol)
• India General Service Medal (1854-1895), 1 clasp (Pegu)
• Ashantee Medal (1873-1874), 1 clasp (Coomassie)
• Egypt Medal (1882-1889), 2 clasps (El Teb - Suakin 1885)
• Medal of Military Valour (Sardinia)
• Order of the Medjidieh, 2nd Class (Turkey)
• Legion of Honour, 5th Class (France)
• Khedive's Star (1882)
• Order of Solomon (Abyssinia)
• Turkish Crimea Medal (1855-1856)

Third Ashantee War

As Commander-in-Chief of the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Station, Hewett commanded the naval forces during General Wolseley's Gold Coast campaign.  He was created KCB in recognition of his services.

Sudan Campaign

Hewitt, by now Commander-in Chief of the East India Station, arrived at Suakin on 16 December 1883 in his flagship HMS Euryalus.  Following the disastrous first engagement at El Teb, he was put in command of the 150 seamen, 400 Royal Marines and six Gardiner guns that comprised the naval brigade.  At Second El Teb, he personally commanded the naval brigade from the square and led a charge at swordpoint.  He was appointed Governor of Sudan by Baker Pasha and led the negotiations that allowed for the retreat of troops though Ethiopia and the engagement of Ethiopian troops against the Mahdists.

Hewitt took command of the Channel Fleet in November 1886, but soon became seriously ill.  He died at the Haslar Naval Hospital on 13 May 1888 and was buried at the Highland Road Cemetery, Portsmouth.

The Fighting Admiral's Grave

The (Other) Duke of Cambridge

Field Marshal HRH Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Tipperary and Baron Culloden,  Prince of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick and Lünenburg

Early Life and Connections

Prince George was born on 26 March 1819.  He was the eldest child and only son of  Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, the tenth child of George III, and Princess Augusta, a descendent of George II .   A proper Hanoverian, he was even born there, as his father served as viceroy for his brothers.  The family moved back to England in 1837, when the accession of George's cousin Victoria to the British throne led to the separation of the two crowns.  He succeed to the Dukedom on his father's death in 1850.

His sister, Princess Mary Adelaide ('Fat Mary'), was the mother of Mary of Teck, later George V's queen consort. 

Military Career

George followed his father into the army, moving quickly up the ranks - by 1837 he was a colonel in both the Hanoverian and British Armies.  But his was no honorary position - he was stationed at Gibraltar, in Ireland and in the Ionian Islands.  Prince George was appointed Inspector of the Cavalry in 1852.
 
In 1854 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general, in command of the 1st Division (Guards and Highland brigades), serving in the Crimean War.  He was present at the battles of the Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman (where his horse was shot under him) and at the siege of Sevastopol.  He received the thanks of Parliament.

'The grand charge of the Guards on the Heights of the Alma, Sept. 20th, 1854'

In July 1856, the Duke was appointed general commanding-in-chief of the British Army, a post that was retitled field marshal commanding-in-chief on him gaining that rank in 1862, and commander-in-chief of the forces in 1887.   He served as commander-in-chief for 39 years.  He was finally forced out office in 1895 after years of opposing army reform - 'There is a time for everything, and the time for change is when you can no longer help it.'

The Duke of Cambridge served as colonel-in-chief of the 17th Lancers, Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers; the The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) and King's Royal Rifle Corps; colonel of the Grenadier Guards; honorary colonel of the 10th (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) Bengal Lancers, 20th Duke of Cambridge's Own Punjabis, 4th Battalion Suffolk Regiment, 1st City of London Volunteer Brigade and the Scots Fusilier Guards.   He became governor of the Royal Military Academy in 1862, and its president in 1870.   He was the patron of the Oxford Military College from 1876-1896.

The duke died in London on 17 March 1904, the last surviving grandson of George III.  He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

The Duke of Cambridge's tomb in Kensal Green Cemetery

The Orders and Medals

HRH wears his medals in a Victorian way. His campaign medals are up in his collar and his order stars where a modern soldier would put his medals. This isn't just a one-off or due to the constraints of the jacket he is wearing, as can be seen in most portraits of him.

The orders and medals are, along with his field marshal's baton, uniform and other items in the Guards' Museum, Wellington Barracks, London.

The Medals

Cambridge wears the campaign medal for Crimea with four clasps (Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, Sebastopol), he also has the Turkish Crimea Medal.






The Orders

Following regulations for wear, Cambridge only has four stars in each picture.

In both portraits he wears the blue sash of the the Garter with the star in the 'North' position.  It appears to differ slightly in design from the C19th example shown here.

He was created a knight of the Garter in 1835.




At his neck he wears the badge of a GCMG.  The star is in the 'West' position of the photograph and the 'East' of the miniature.  He was Grand Master of the Order from 1850 to his death in 1904, becoming a GCMG in 1877.




At the 'South' of the arrangement is the star of the GCB (military division).

At the  'East' in the photograph is the star of a KP.

To the 'West' in the miniature is the star of the GCSI.  Cambridge was created a GCSI in 1877.






However, Cambridge had plenty of stars in the box.  He acquired a full set of British orders.  He was

KG: Knight of the Garter
KT: Knight of the Thistle 
KP: Knight of St Patrick
GCH: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order
GCB: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath 
GCSI: Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India
GCMG: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
GCIE: Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire   - He was one of the first seven GCIEs in created June 1887 (previously there had only been CIEs and KCIEs).
GCVO: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order - created 1897 (to mark the Diamond Jubilee?)
KJStJ: Knight of Justice of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem 

Additionally, he held several foreign orders.