Henry Maitland Wilson, 1st Baron Wilson

Who was Henry Maitland Wilson, 1st Baron Wilson?

Field Marshal Henry Maitland Wilson, 1st Baron Wilson, GCB, GBE, DSO, also known as "Jumbo" Wilson, saw active service in the Second Boer War and then during the First World War on the Somme and at Passchendaele. During the Second World War he served as General Officer Commanding British Troops in Egypt, in which role he launched Operation Compass, attacking Italian forces with considerable success, in December 1940. He went on to be Military Governor of Cyrenaica in February 1941, Commander of a Commonwealth expeditionary force to Greece in April 1941 and General Officer Commanding Palestine and Trans-Jordan in May 1941.

Wilson became General Officer Commanding the British Ninth Army in Syria and Palestine in October 1941, General Officer Commanding Persia and Iraq Command in August 1942 and General Officer Commanding Middle East Command in February 1943. In the closing stages of the War he was Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, from January 1944, and then Chief of the British Joint Staff Mission in Washington D. C. from January 1945.