In memory of
Admiral of the Fleet
SIR ARTHUR KNYVET WILSON, BART.,
V.C., C.G.B., O.M., C.G.V.O., D.C.I.
Died May 25. 1921,
Aged 79 years.
None of us liveth to himself
romans xiv.7
KATHERINE KNYVET WILSON
Died Dec 20. 1901,
Aged 89 years.
‘Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the lord’s’
romans xiv.8'
Arthur Knyvet Wilson was born on 4th. March 1842 at Swaffham, Norfolk, the son of Rear Admiral George Knyvet Wilson and Agnes Mary Wilson, née Yonge.
Brother of,
William, 2nd November 1838 - 11th. July 1865
Sir Roland, 2nd Bt, 27th. August 1840 - 29th. October 1919
Edith, 9th. February 1844
Katherine, 7th May 1845 - 20th. December 1931
Wilson was educated at Eton College before he joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman aboard HMS Algiers in 1855.
He was present at the Battle of Kinburn in October 1855 during the Crimean War. He was transferred to HMS Raleigh on the China Station in September 1856 and then, following the loss of the Raleigh near Hong Kong, transferred to HMS Calcutta and saw action in command of a gun in the naval brigade at the Battle of Canton in December 1857 and then at the Battle of Taku Forts in May 1858 during the Second Opium War. He was appointed to the steam frigate HMS Topaze on the Pacific Station in September 1859 and was promoted to lieutenant on 11th. December 1861. After a tour in the steam frigate HMS Gladiator, he joined the gunnery school HMS Excellent at Portsmouth in April 1865. He became an instructor at the new Imperial Japanese Naval Academy at Yokohama in Japan in May 1867 and then at the new training ship HMS Britannia in January 1869.
Wilson became a member of the committee investigating the effectiveness of the Whitehead torpedo and was involved in its trials in 1870. He became gunnery officer in the training ship HMS Caledonia in the Mediterranean Fleet in 1871 and first lieutenant in the steam frigate HMS Narcissus in October 1872. Promoted to commander on 18th. September 1873, he became second-in-command in the new steam frigate HMS Raleigh in January 1874
In 1876 Wilson became commander and chief of staff at the new torpedo school HMS Vernon, where his duties included rewriting torpedo manuals, inventing aiming apparatus and developing mine warfare.
Promoted to captain on 20th. April 1880, Wilson was appointed to command the torpedo boat depot ship HMS Hecla. In the summer of 1882 he was ordered to take Hecla to Egypt to deliver ammunition for British troops taking part in the Anglo-Egyptian War. On arrival, working with Captain John Fisher, he installed a heavy gun on a railway carriage and created an improvised armoured train. He was awarded the Ottoman Empire Order of the Medjidie, 3rd. Class on 12th. January 1883. Early in 1884, Hecla was sent to Trinkitat on the Red Sea coast of Sudan to support British troops defending Suakin during the Mahdist War.
The 1st. Battle of El-Teb had been a disaster when Mahdist rebels of Sudan, who were waging a religious revolt against Egyptian rule, annihilated a force of predominantly Egyptian troops and British officers which was nearly three times as large. The response was the commitment of British troops, including members of the Naval Brigade equipped with Gatling guns.
The British force attacked Mahdist positions, led by former slave trader Osman Digna, at El-Teb on 29th. February 1884. Digna had two batteries, armed with captured guns.
Wilson was observing the proceedings and saw the lieutenant in charge of one British battery killed when a group of Mahdists broke out of hiding and attacked as the British manoeuvred their guns. Wilson leapt in front of them and drawing his sword engaged in face-to-face combat with the leading Mahdists, mainly armed with spears. When his sword broke, he used his fists and held off the attackers until relieved by other troops. It was an act of instinctive courage that saved the men and the guns.
After the battle, Wilson, who had his pith helmet sliced through with a sword that grazed his head, told his mother that it had been a ‘most enjoyable day’ and that ‘my head has been done up with sticking plaster and is all right’.
For his actions Wilson was award the Victoria Cross, announced in the London Gazette, on 21st. May 1884.
This Officer, on the staff of Rear-Admiral Sir William Hewett, at the Battle of El-Teb, on the 29th. February 1884, 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 this 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 battery during the day."
Wilson was invested with his Victoria Cross by CinC Portsmouth, Admiral Sir George Phipps-Hornby, at Portsmouth, on 6th. June 1884.
Wilson became Flag Captain to the Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope Station and captain of HMS Raleigh in March 1886. He went on to be assistant director of Torpedoes at the Admiralty in April 1887.
In 1889 he captained HMS Vernon in 1889, and then HMS Sans Pareil in the Mediterranean Fleet in 1892.
He was appointed Naval Aide-de-Camp to the Queen Victoria on 14th. February 1892. In Sans Pareil he was briefly Flag Captain to the Commander in Chief, Mediterranean Fleet in late 1893.
Promoted to rear-admiral on 22nd June 1895, he was given command of the experimental torpedo squadron, hoisting his flag in the cruiser HMS Hermione before becoming Second-in-Command of the Reserve Fleet in 1896.
He became Third Naval Lord and Controller of the Navy in August 1897 and Senior Officer in Command of the Channel Squadron in March 1901 hoisting his flag in the battleship HMS Majestic upon taking command in April 1901. He was promoted to vice-admiral on 24th. May 1901.
He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet in May 1903, renamed the Channel Fleet in December 1904 and was promoted to full admiral on 24th. February 1905.
Wilson was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 1st. March 1907 and, after three years in retirement, became First Sea Lord in January 1910. In this role he was, according to the eminent historian Sir Hew Strachan, "abrasive, inarticulate, and autocratic'. Wilson left the Admiralty in December 1911.
At the start of World War 1 Wilson was recalled by Winston Churchill who admired his tactical ability. Wilson agreed to return but insisted on having no official employment or payment. He continued as an advisor until November 1918.
As a sea officer Wilson was recognised as a highly professional and organised commander. His command was always on a ‘war footing’, requiring manoeuvring at night without lights to simulate war conditions, and undertaking multiple exercises to ensure efficiency. On the other hand he was seen as unfeeling, unsympathetic and unnecessarily harsh in his approach to his crews, who gave him the nickname, well known in senior circles, of ’Old 'Ard 'Art'. Supposedly, when in home waters, he kept the fleet at sea over Christmas unnecessarily. Wilson's other nickname of 'Tug' is thought to come from a reference to the tenacious boxer 'Tug' Wilson, who had come to prominence shortly before Wilson received his Victoria Cross. It has since become a common nickname, especially in the Navy, for men called Wilson.
Wilson was considered an absolute ‘loner’, who consulted no one, discussed nothing with his officers and demanded instant and unquestioning obedience. With these qualities he was more likely to command respect than affection, and that respect was earned by the total competence with which he carried out his duties. But his personal insularity was a serious hazard in a fleet commander. Prince Louis of Battenberg, expressed concern at the risks implicit in having a fleet commander who shared nothing with, and delegated nothing to, his subordinates. He wrote that ‘If anything was to suddenly remove the C-in-C there would be chaos.’ Reflecting on Wilson’s character Prince Louis described him as a man for whom ‘a pipe and a biscuit’ was meal enough at any time, and who was ‘probably able to work 20 hours a day and sleep in his clothes’.
Wilson was certainly a different leader than Nelson, whose consultative style with his senior officers meant that that the respect in which he was held by them was matched by their affection for him.
Wilson inherited his baronetcy on the death of his brother Roland on 29th. October 1919.
In retirement at Swaffham, he became involved in local good works and spent his leisure time on the golf course, which he had helped design.
Arthur Wilson died, unmarried, at Beach Cottage, Swaffham on 25th. May 1921. He was aged 79. He is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter and St Paul's at Swaffham.
His VC was donated to the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth.
