Awards & Winners

Arthur Wilson

Date of Birth 04-March-1842
Place of Birth Swaffham
(United Kingdom, Breckland, England)
Nationality United Kingdom
Profession Soldier
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson VC, GCB, OM, GCVO, Bt was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the Anglo-Egyptian War and then the Mahdist War being awarded the Victoria Cross during the Battle of El Teb in February 1884. He went on to command a battleship, the torpedo school HMS Vernon and then another battleship before taking charge of the Experimental Torpedo Squadron. He later commanded the Channel Fleet. He briefly served as First Sea Lord but in that role he "was abrasive, inarticulate, and autocratic" and was really only selected as Admiral Fisher's successor because he was a supporter of Fisher's reforms. Wilson survived for even less time than was intended by the stop-gap nature of his appointment because of his opposition to the establishment of a Naval Staff. Appointed an advisor at the start of World War I, he advocated offensive schemes in the North Sea including the capture of Heligoland and was an early proponent of the development and use of submarines in the Royal Navy.

Awards by Arthur Wilson

Check all the awards nominated and won by Arthur Wilson.

1884


Victoria Cross
(In recognition of most conspicuous bravery that took place on 29 February, 1884 as Captain of the HMS Hecla during the Sudan Campaign.)