Reginald Wingate - Administrative Career

Administrative Career

In December 1899, on Lord Kitchener being summoned to South Africa, Sir Reginald Wingate succeeded him as Governor-General of the Sudan and Sirdar of the Egyptian Army, being promoted to Local Major-General on 22 December 1899. His administration of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, between 1899 and 1916, was successful, with the country regaining a degree of prosperity and its infrastructure being rebuilt and expanded. In 1901 he was promoted to the Order of the Medjidieh 1st Class and in 1905 to the Order of the Osmanieh 1st Class. In 1903 he was promoted substantive Major-General and in 1908 Lieutenant-General. He was also created a pasha and in 1905 received the honorary degree of DCL from the University of Oxford. In 1909, at the request of the British government, Wingate undertook a special mission to Somaliland to report on the military situation in connection with the proposed evacuation of the interior of the protectorate. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) on 17 January 1912, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in the 1914 King's Birthday Honours, and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1918 New Year Honours. He was made Honorary Colonel of the 7th Battalion, Manchester Regiment on 16 December 1914, and a Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery on 17 May 1917. In 1915 he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Nile and in 1917 the Grand Cordon of the Order of Mohammed Ali. He was promoted General between 1912 and 1914. From 1916 to 1919 he was also commander of military operations in the Hedjaz.

In 1917, Wingate succeeded Sir Henry McMahon as High Commissioner in Egypt, a post he held until 1919. He was not a successful administrator in the very different political climate in that country, and was made a scapegoat for the riots incited by Saad Zaghlul and his party that plagued Egypt. Angry at his treatment, Wingate refused to actually resign, even after he was officially replaced by Lord Allenby, and threatened to embarrass the British Government. He was made a knight of the Venerable Order of St John in 1919. He was refused a peerage or another appointment, although he was created a baronet in the 1920 King's Birthday Honours, gazetted as Baronet Wingate of Dunbar, in the County of Haddington, and of Port Sudan. He never held another public or military office, retiring from the Army on 1 February 1922, but became a director of a number of companies. He continued to hold honorary positions in the army: as Colonel Commandant, Royal Artillery and Honorary Colonel of the 6th/7th battalion Manchester Regiment (appointed in 1941 and which he retained until 27 September 1949.). He was awarded the Efficiency Decoration in 1935. He was also appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of East Lothian. For many years he was the senior general of the British Army.

Wingate married Catherine Rundle (later Dame Catherine Wingate) on 18 June 1888. He was related to Orde Wingate, who led British commando units in Palestine, Sudan and Burma before and during World War II.

Wingate was succeed to his baronetcy by his son Ronald Wingate.