Wavell, Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl (wā`vəl), 1883–1950, British field marshal and viceroy of India. Wavell first saw service in the South African War and in India. During World War I he fought in France (and lost an eye) and in Palestine, where, under the command of General Allenby, he first learned the desert strategy that he was to employ so successfully later. He returned to Palestine as commander of the British forces to keep order during the Arab-Jewish riots of 1937–39. In World War II, Wavell was commander in chief of the Middle East, in which capacity he put to rout the Italian forces in Cyrenaica (see North Africa, campaigns in North Africa, campaigns in, series of military contests for control of North Africa during World War II. The desert war started in 1940 and for more than two years thereafter seesawed between NE Libya and NW Egypt.
..... Click the link for more information. ), only to be forced back later in 1941 by the Axis drive. He then exchanged commands with General Auchinleck, becoming commander in chief of India. After Japan entered the war, he was for some months (1942) supreme commander of the Allies in East Asia, but the command was abolished as the Allies lost control of the area. Resuming his command in India, Wavell became viceroy and governor-general in 1943. From that time until his resignation in 1947, his main concern was the preparation of India for self-rule; toward this end he worked continuously with the numerous Indian factions. He was created Viscount Wavell of Cyrenaica and Winchester in 1943 and earl in 1947. He wrote The Palestine Campaigns (1928), Allenby (1940), Generals and Generalship (1941), Allenby in Egypt (1943), Speaking Generally (1946), and The Good Soldier (1947). He also edited an anthology of poetry, Other Men's Flowers (1944).

Bibliography

See biography by J. H. Robertson (2 vol., 1964–69).

Wavell (of Eritrea and of Winchester), Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl

(born May 5, 1883, Colchester, Essex, Eng.—died May 24, 1950, London) British army officer. Recognized as an excellent trainer of troops, he became British commander in chief for the Middle East in 1939. In World War II he was noted for his defeat of the numerically superior Italian armies in North Africa (1940–41) but was unable to stop the German force under Erwin Rommel in the North Africa Campaign. As commander in chief of Southeast Asia (1941–43), he failed to stop the Japanese conquests of Malaya, Singapore, and Burma (1942). Promoted to field marshal, he served as viceroy of India (1943–47).