Sir Garnet Wolseley: Victorian Hero"Before leaving England he placed his finger on a map of Egypt at the point now known to fame as Tel-El-Kebir, and said 'That is where I shall beat Arabi'". No Victorian was a greater hero for a longer period than Sir Garnet Wolseley (1833-1913). The leading British general of the second half of the nineteenth century, he personally took part in a significantly influenced every campaign between the Crimea and the Boer War. To Disraeli he was ‘Our Only General’, while to many soldiers and to the public at large he epitomised the virtues they most admired: exceptional personal bravery and an unshakeable belief in the virtues of the British Empire. The phrase ‘All Sir Garnet’ was a guarantee that everything was under control. Seen from another angle, Wolseley’s career reflects a number of weaknesses. To control a global empire Britain had a powerful navy but only a small army. Its ability to deploy a force of limited size throughout the world, almost always against untrained and underequipped native armies, gave the dangerous and ultimately disastrous illusion that Britain was as formidable by land as it was by sea. |
Contents
Early Life and Burma | 1 |
Crimea and Indian Mutiny | 11 |
China | 25 |
Canada | 33 |
War Office | 53 |
Asante | 61 |
War Office and Natal | 75 |
India Office | 85 |
61 | 167 |
75 | 171 |
85 | 173 |
3 3 5 K 2 2 3 | 176 |
Back at the War Office | 181 |
Ireland 177 | 199 |
CommanderinChief | 202 |
The South African | 253 |
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A. C. Benson Adjutant appointed April Ardagh Army Board Army Corps army reform Army Reserve artillery Asante August Autobiography battalions Boers Brackenbury brigade Britain British army Buller Cambridge MSS campaign Campbell-Bannerman Cardwell Cardwell reforms cavalry Channel Tunnel Childers Colonel column command Commander-in-Chief Crimea December defence Duke of Cambridge Egypt Egyptian Elgin Commission expedition February force Frances G. J. Wolseley George Wolseley Gladstone Gordon Granville Hansard Hartington Ibid India infantry Ireland January journal entry July June Khartoum Lansdowne Letters of Queen London Lord Wolseley Louisa Wolseley March Maurice Memorandum military mobilisation Natal November October Office Ponsonby Quartermaster Queen Victoria recruits regiments Richard Wolseley Roberts Royal Russia Salisbury Secretary sent September 1882 short service Sir Garnet soldiers South Africa staff Stanhope Sudan Transvaal Verner Wadi Halfa War Office Wolseley to Cambridge Wolseley to George Wolseley to Lansdowne Wolseley to Louisa Wolseley to Richard Wolseley's wrote Zulu