Arthur Wilson (Royal Navy Officer) - Admiralty and Fleet Command

Admiralty and Fleet Command

He was called to the Admiralty in 1897 as Third Naval Lord and Controller of the Navy.

In May 1901 he was promoted to Vice-Admiral, and from 1901 to 1903 he was in command of the Channel Squadron. "Known as 'Old 'Ard 'Art' for his refusal to consider the cares and comforts of officers and men, no one expected more of his captains and officers than Wilson." From 1903 he became Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet. In 1906 HMS Montagu ran aground. Highly embarrassed but lacking anyone with salvage expertise, the Admiralty appointed a civilian, Frederick Young of the Liverpool Salvage Company to assist but not take command of the operation. This disastrous arrangement saw Wilson blamed by Young for the loss of the ship but led to the establishment of an independent salvage arm under Young.

Wilson reached the rank of Admiral of the Fleet in 1907, and became First Sea Lord in 1910. Wilson "was abrasive, inarticulate, and autocratic. He was selected as Fisher's successor because he was the potential protector of his legacy; Wilson's seniority would enable him to control the twelve full admirals on the active list, at least five of whom belonged to the 'syndicate of discontent' committed to dismantling Fisher's reforms if given the opportunity. But by 1910 Wilson had been retired three years. Furthermore, although his reputation had been gained at sea rather than in the corridors of the Admiralty, he had never commanded Dreadnoughts.

Wilson gave a poor account of himself at the CID meeting after the Agadir Crisis, at which he said that in the event of war the Navy planned to land the Army on the Baltic Coast, an old plan of the recently-retired Admiral Fisher, apparently derived from the Seven Years War of 1756-63. Reginald McKenna (First Lord of the Admiralty) supported Admiral Wilson, but the Committee Secretary Maurice Hankey pointed out that the Army must draw up such plans and that the Army plans had already been approved by the CID. Field Marshal Nicholson, CIGS, asked Admiral Wilson whether the Admiralty had maps of German strategic railways (to show how the Germans could rush reinforcements to invasion spots), and when Wilson said it was not the Admiralty’s business to have such maps, Nicholson openly rebuked him and said that if the Navy “meddled” in military matters they needed not just to have such maps but to have studied them. The meeting was carried by a lucid presentation by Brigadier-General Henry Wilson, and Prime Minister H.H. Asquith ordered the Navy to fall in with the Army’s plans to deploy an Expeditionary Force to France. After the meeting Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and began setting up a Naval Staff (Admiral Fisher having been opposed to setting one up), whilst Hankey began to draw up the War Book detailing mobilisation plans.

Wilson survived for even less time than was intended by the stopgap nature of his appointment. His successor in November 1911, Sir Francis Bridgeman also got the job by default." "The combination of frequent change and weak appointees ensured that the professional leadership of the Royal Navy lost its direction in the four years preceding the war." Wilson retired in 1911, and received the Order of Merit in 1912.

He died in Swaffham and is buried in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's. His VC was donated to the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth.