Gordon Chesney Wilson
Gordon Wilson MVO | |
---|---|
Born | 3 August 1865 Longerenong, Victoria, Australia |
Died | 6 November 1914 Ypres, Belgium | (aged 49)
Buried | |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/ | British Army |
Years of service | 1885–1914 |
Rank | Lieutenant-Colonel |
Unit | Royal Horse Guards |
Battles/wars |
|
Awards | |
Alma mater | Melbourne Grammar School Eton College Christ Church, Oxford |
Spouse(s) | |
Relations | Sir Samuel Wilson (father) Herbert Haydon Wilson (brother) |
During the inter-war years Wilson joined his friend Winston Churchill on a fact-finding trip to East Africa, and then participated in a controversial treasure hunting expedition in Jerusalem. Having been promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1907, when the First World War began in 1914 Wilson took the Royal Horse Guards to the Western Front. Fighting in the First Battle of Ypres, on 6 November 1914 he was shot in the head and killed while repelling a German breakthrough at Kleine Zillebeke.
Early life
Gordon Chesney Wilson was born at the Longerenong homestead, near Horsham, Victoria, in Australia, on 3 August 1865. He was the eldest son of the politician and philanthropist Sir Samuel Wilson and Jean née Campbell.[1][2][3][4] He had three younger brothers, including the Olympian Herbert Haydon Wilson, and three sisters.[5][6] The elder Wilson was an ex-miner who had made a fortune as a pastoralist, and the family spent time in both England and Australia.[7][8] In 1877 Wilson was enrolled at Melbourne Grammar School, but around two years he moved to England, attending Eton College.[1][2][7]
On 2 March 1882 Wilson was present with another schoolboy at Windsor railway station when Roderick Maclean attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria; the two boys attacked Maclean with their umbrellas and assisted in detaining him.[Note 1] Victoria visited Eton on 6 March to receive an address, and shook their hands in thanks.[2][10] Some accounts report that Victoria also promised the boys commissions in the British Army.[11] Wilson was one of the witnesses later brought to Maclean's trial. He went on to study at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1885.[2]
Military career
Marriage
Wilson's first military service was as part of the militia. He became a lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, Oxfordshire Light Infantry, on 17 January 1885.[12] He transferred to the 3rd and 4th Battalions, the Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment), on 25 June of the same year.[13] Wilson then joined the regular British Army as a second lieutenant on 4 May 1887, replacing a dead subaltern in the Royal Horse Guards (Blues).[1][14] He was promoted to lieutenant on 5 December 1888.[1] Soon after this promotion Wilson met Lady Sarah Spencer-Churchill, the youngest daughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, through her sister Lady Fanny who his parents were friends with. Encouraged by Lady Randolph Churchill, Wilson and Sarah began to court.[15] Ignoring the social disparity between their two families, Wilson proposed to and was accepted by her.[16]
The couple were married on 21 November 1891 by
Gordon...was an undistinguished, homely-looking man with a large, untidy walrus moustache which, despite his laughing eyes, gave him a somewhat gloomy look. For a military man he was surprisingly round-shouldered.[24]
Tour of South Africa
In November 1895 Wilson and his wife travelled to South Africa to visit the Churchill family's gold mining interests in Johannesburg.[25][26] Also on their ship was Alfred Beit, a gold magnate and friend of the family who was a key part of the conspiracy behind the Jameson Raid, an attempt to trigger an uprising in the South African Republic.[27][26] Upon their arrival Beit took the Wilsons to visit Cecil Rhodes at Groote Schuur, where they stayed for several days and were onlookers to discussions relating to the issues in the Transvaal. The couple afterwards stayed with John Blades Currey in Kimberley, where they learned of the failure of the raid and witnessed the outrage in its aftermath.[28]
The situation in South Africa was now not safe enough for the Wilsons to continue their visits, and they left for Cape Town on 11 January 1896. Rhodes resigned as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony a day later, and on 15 January the Wilsons saw him off at the docks as he sailed for England.[29] Determined to still reach the Transvaal, they then received permission to go as passengers onboard the troopship Victoria that was sailing to Durban to return Leander Starr Jameson and his raiders to Britain.[30] They toured Johannesburg with a mining expert who had previously worked with Lord Randolph Churchill, staying at the house of Abe Bailey.[31] Bailey had been arrested in the wake of the raid, and the Wilsons visited him in detention in Pretoria.[32] After travelling to Doornkop to see where Jameson had been forced to surrender in his raid, the Wilsons returned to Britain.[33]
Boer War
Back in England the Wilsons became good friends of Jameson, who had been released after four months of imprisonment. In May 1899 they departed with him for South Africa, intent on a two-month visit to
The Wilsons arrived at Bulawayo in August. Unable to locate a recruiting post at
Sarah joined Wilson in Mafeking, the couple living in a small cottage in the town.[48] Preparations for a siege continued into early October as the Boers massed on the border of Bechuanaland; with interest in the area increasing, Sarah was appointed by the Daily Mail to become their war correspondent covering the siege after the previous man was captured by the Boers attempting to leave.[2][49] She thus became the first female war correspondent.[2]
Siege of Mafeking
The
After a Christmas Day truce, in the early morning of 26 December Wilson and most of Baden-Powell's staff participated in a sortie attacking Game Tree Hill, a well-placed and dangerous Boer gun emplacement.[58][59] The Boers were however prepared for the attack; the British armoured train was stopped before it reached the hill, and the location was more heavily defended than had been expected. After around two hours of fighting the British withdrew to Mafeking.[60] The 100-strong force received around fifty per cent casualties, including twenty-four killed.[61] Wilson survived unharmed, with the staff having mostly observed from a nearby fort, but in January the following year he received a severe attack of peritonitis.[62][63][64] He initially recuperated with Sarah, who was serving as a nurse, in her dugout. When she also fell ill with tonsillitis they were moved to the Mafeking convent, the replacement for the destroyed convalescent home, with Wilson having to be driven there as he was unable to walk.[62][65][66][64]
On 26 January 1900 the Wilsons were dining with Major Hamilton Goold-Adams when a Boer artillery shell burst above their building, collapsing one wall on top of them. A rescue party dragged the three out of the rubble, they having received only light wounds.[67][68] Roberts notes that "their survival was regarded as little short of a miracle".[69] Having in the meantime recovered from their illnesses, the Wilsons left the convent the same day.[70] In February it was learned that Mafeking would have to hold out for relief until May, but food stocks would only last until April. In response to this a horse meat factory was created, and Wilson used the products of this to organise soup kitchens for the native population. By the end of the month the soup, concocted from dog, horse, mule, and chicken, could feed around 1,000 people a day.[71] With dwindling food and the possibility that relief would not arrive until June, on 12 May a Boer attack succeeded in breaking into Mafeking police barracks. Snyman failed to reinforce the attack and after holding out for the rest of the day, the remaining Boers surrendered.[72][73]
A relief force under Colonel Bryan Mahon arrived on 17 May, with Wilson first spotting them from a lookout post.[2][74] He brought together a force of horsemen and artillery and, with Baden-Powell, rode out to cut off a Boer detachment trying to stop Mahon. They returned in the evening having failed to find the Boers in the worsening light, but in the night Mahon's column entered Mafeking, ending the 217-day siege.[2][75] Wild celebrations took place in Britain after the relief, with a large crowd forming outside the Grosvenor Square house where the Wilson children were staying.[76] The Mafeking garrison recuperated and by 3 June was ready for further action. They travelled to Rustenburg and occupied it in order to clear the route between Mafeking and Pretoria.[77]
The British subsequently occupied Pretoria, and Baden-Powell and his staff went there to talk with Field-Marshal
By 1901 Wilson was again serving in South Africa, with his residence in the Transvaal.
Inter-war period
Wilson was subsequently promoted to
an excellent traveller never not of spirits or tired or bored or vexed whatever may hap[pen].[86]
Churchill published a record of the trip in the book My African Journey in 1909, including photographs provided by Wilson.[92][93] In 1910 Wilson spent some time in Jerusalem, and in early 1911 he became involved in his younger brother Clarence's work as part of the Parker Expedition, an attempt to find treasure in excavations of Solomon's Temple. In April the group used a German psychic to attempt to find the Ark of the Covenant, digging around Solomon's Stables.[94][95] They found nothing there but then gained permission to excavate in the Dome of the Rock itself. As the Dome was a sacred space to Jews and Muslims, the expedition was nervous about digging there and therefore only did so at night, while wearing Arabic clothing. Having bribed locals to assist them they explored tunnels under the Dome, digging for nine nights.[96]
On 12 April the diggers were discovered at work and exposed to the general public.[97] A demonstration of 2,000 Muslims formed and riots were feared; on 16 April an enquiry was launched into the affair and two days later the expedition fled to Jaffa. There under the pretence of preparing to host a party they escaped in Clarence's yacht.[98][95] Wilson was promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel on 7 October and given command of his regiment.[99][100]
First World War
When the
...before the threshold of the wood could be reached, the Blues had lost their Colonel. A borrowed rifle in his hand, a cheery laugh bubbling up, Gordon Wilson was a few feet ahead of his men when a bullet pierced his brain.[105]
Wilson's will was proved on 23 December; he left Sarah, who was at the time running a military hospital in
Life is a city of crooked streets
Death the market place where all men meet[109]
Wilson was posthumously awarded the 1914 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal, having also been created a member of the French Legion of Honour.[23][1]
Notes and citations
Notes
- ^ When in England Wilson's family lived at Hughenden Manor. After the assassination attempt, his father had a stained glass window constructed for Hughenden Church that commemorated the event.[9]
- ^ The Protectorate Regiment and Rhodesia Regiment.[37]
- ^ Wilson was officially seconded on 9 October.[39]
- ^ Mafeking had been the starting point for the Jameson Raid.[43]
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Gordon Chesney Wilson MVO, MID". Virtual War Memorial Australia. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Chesney Wilson MVO". Christ Church. University of Oxford. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ "Killed In Action". Dimboola Banner And Wimmera And Mallee Advertiser. Victoria, Australia. 20 November 1914. p. 3. Retrieved 26 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Longerenong". Victorian Places. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
- ^ McCrery (2016), p. 169.
- ^ a b McCrery (2016), p. 171.
- ^ a b Roberts (1970), p. 92.
- ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
- ^ Murphy (2012), p. 475.
- ^ Murphy (2012), pp. 463–464.
- ^ Murphy (2012), p. 626.
- ^ "No. 25433". The London Gazette. 16 January 1885. p. 234.
- ^ "No. 25489". The London Gazette. 10 July 1885. p. 3183.
- ^ "No. 25697". The London Gazette. 3 May 1887. p. 2442.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 91.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 91–92.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 83.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 93.
- ^ Roberts (1991), p. 23.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 92, 94.
- ^ Addison (2021), p. 187.
- ^ "No. 26424". The London Gazette. 18 July 1893. p. 4117.
- ^ a b c "Gordon Chesney Wilson". Lives of the First World War. Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ Roberts (1991), p. 22.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 95–96.
- ^ a b Roberts (1991), p. 24.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 97, 100.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 101–102.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 105, 108.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 109.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 111–112.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 112.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 113.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 144.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 144–145.
- ^ Roberts (1991), pp. 28–29.
- ^ a b Aitken (1900), p. 99.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 146.
- ^ "No. 27129". The London Gazette. 24 October 1899. p. 6385.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 146–147.
- ^ Roberts (1991), p. 18.
- ^ Aitken (1900), p. 101.
- ^ Gardner (1967), p. 175.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 147.
- ^ Wilson (1909), p. 72.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 149.
- ^ Aitken (1900), p. 100.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 150.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 151.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 158.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 223–224.
- ^ Gardner (1967), p. 104.
- ^ Roberts (1991), p. 56.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 224, 233.
- ^ Roberts (1991), p. 63.
- ^ Aitken (1900), p. 122.
- ^ Roberts (1991), p. 60.
- ^ Roberts (1991), pp. 68–69.
- ^ Aitken (1900), p. 127.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 262.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 263.
- ^ a b Roberts (1970), pp. 265–266.
- ^ Aitken (1900), p. 128.
- ^ a b Gardner (1967), p. 132.
- ^ Roberts (1991), p. 70.
- ^ Wilson (1909), pp. 177–178.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 267.
- ^ Aitken (1900), p. 189.
- ^ Roberts (1991), p. 71.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 267–268.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 295–296.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 301–305.
- ^ Gardner (1967), pp. 186–188.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 306.
- ^ Roberts (1970), pp. 306–307.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 307.
- ^ Gardner (1967), pp. 214–215.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 326.
- ^ Gardner (1967), p. 215.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 327.
- ^ Roberts (1970), p. 333.
- ^ "No. 27318". The London Gazette. 28 May 1901. p. 3633.
- ^ McCrery (2016), p. 170.
- ^ "No. 28067". The London Gazette. 8 October 1907. p. 6747.
- ^ "No. 27515". The London Gazette. 13 January 1903. p. 235.
- ^ a b Addison (2021), p. 78.
- ^ Lovell (2013), p. 234.
- ^ Lovell (2013), p. 236.
- ^ Lovell (2013), pp. 237–238.
- ^ Lovell (2013), pp. 238–239.
- ^ Churchill (1909), p. 187.
- ^ a b Lovell (2013), p. 240.
- ^ Churchill (1909), p. title.
- ^ Addison (2021), p. 147.
- ^ a b Addison (2021), p. 180.
- ^ Addison (2021), p. 148.
- ^ Addison (2021), p. 151.
- ^ Addison (2021), p. 152.
- ^ "No. 28539". The London Gazette. 6 October 1911. p. 7284.
- ^ Clutterbuck, Dooner & Denison (1917), pp. 448–449.
- ^ Watson (1997), pp. 123–124.
- ^ Watson (1997), pp. 124–125.
- ^ Watson (1997), p. 125.
- ^ Watson (1997), p. 126.
- ^ a b Watson (1997), pp. 126–127.
- ^ Edmonds (1925), p. 395.
- ^ a b c d Addison (2021), p. 182.
- ^ Edmonds (1925), p. 396.
- ^ "Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Chesney Wilson". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
References
- Addison, Graham (2021). Raiders of the Hidden Ark: The Story of the Parker Expedition to Jerusalem. Edgcumbe Press. ISBN 978-1-9196495-2-8.
- Aitken, W. Francis (1900). Baden-Powell: The Hero of Mafeking. London: S. W. Partridge & Co.
- Churchill, Winston (1909). My African Journey. Toronto: William Briggs.
- Clutterbuck, L. A.; Dooner, W. T.; Denison, C. A. (1917). The Bond of Sacrifice. London: Cranford Press.
- Edmonds, J. E. (1925). Military Operations, France and Belgium, 1914. London: Macmillan and Co.
- Gardner, Brian (1967). Mafeking: A Victorian Legend. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
- ISBN 978-0-349-11978-6.
- McCrery, Nigel (2016). The Extinguished Flame: Olympians Killed in The Great War. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 978-1-47387-798-6.
- Murphy, Paul Thomas (2012). Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy. New York: Pegasus Books. ISBN 978-1-60598-354-7.
- SBN 241-01901-X.
- Roberts, Brian (1991). Those Bloody Women: Three Heroines of the Boer War. London: John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-4858-6.
- Watson, J. N. P. (1997). Through Fifteen Reigns: A Complete History of The Household Cavalry. Staplehurst, Kent: Spellmount. ISBN 1-873376-70-7.
- Wilson, Lady Sarah (1909). South African Memories; Social, Warlike & Sporting. London: Edward Arnold.