Reginald Wingate - Military Career

Military Career

He entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on 27 July 1880. He served in India and Aden from March 1881 to 1883, when he joined the 4th Battalion of the Egyptian Army on its reorganisation by Sir Evelyn Wood with the brevet rank of Major. In the Gordon Relief Expedition of 1884–1885 he was ADC and military secretary to Sir Evelyn. In 1883 he received the Order of Osmanieh 4th Class from the Khedive. In June 1885 he was Mentioned in Despatches for service in operations in the Suakin and Upper Nile regions.

After holding an appointment in England for a brief period as ADC to Wood, who was now General Officer Commanding Eastern District, he rejoined the Egyptian Army in 1886 as assistant military secretary to Sir Francis Grenfell. In 1887 he received the Order of the Medjidieh 4th Class. He took part in the operations on the Sudan frontier in 1889, including the engagement at Toski — for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) — and in the further operations in 1891, being present at the capture of Tokar. His principal work was in the intelligence branch, of which he became assistant adjutant-general in 1888 and director in 1892. A master of Arabic, his knowledge of the country, the examination of prisoners, refugees and others from the Sudan, and the study of documents captured from the Dervishes enabled him to publish in 1891 Mahdiism and the Egyptian Sudan, an authoritative account of the rise of the Muhammad Ahmad and of subsequent events in the Sudan up to that date. In 1891 he was promoted to the 3rd Class of the Order of the Medjidieh. In 1894 he was governor of Suakin. He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1895 Queen's Birthday Honours. and was promoted to Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on 18 November 1896.

Largely through his assistance, Father Ohrwalder and two nuns escaped from Omdurman in 1891. Wingate also made the arrangements which led to the escape of Slatin Pasha in 1895. He translated into English Father Ohrwalder's narrative (Ten Years in the Mahdi's Camp, 1892) and Slatin's book (Fire and Sword in the Sudan, 1896).

As director of military intelligence he served in the campaigns of 1896–1898 which resulted in the reconquest of the Sudan, including the engagement at Firket, the battles of the Atbara and Omdurman and the expedition to Fashoda. He was again Mentioned in Despatches for this work. He briefly (March–June 1897) went to Abyssinia as second in command of the Rennell Rodd mission, for which he was awarded the Star of Ethiopia 2nd Class. For his services he was promoted Brevet Colonel and made an extra ADC to Queen Victoria on 17 December 1897, received the thanks of Parliament, and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) on 11 November 1898. On 8 September 1898 he was promoted to the regimental rank of Major. Wingate was in command of an expeditionary force which in November 1899 defeated the remnant of the Dervish host at the Umm Diwaykarat, Kordofan, the khalifa being among the slain. For this achievement he was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) on 13 March 1900 and awarded the Order of Osmanieh 2nd Class.