Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet

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Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson GCB, DSO
Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet
Birth name	Henry Hughes Wilson
Born	(1864-05-05)5 May 1864 Ballinalee, County Longford, Ireland
Died	22 June 1922(1922-06-22) (aged 58) Belgravia, London, England
Cause of death	Assassination by gunshot
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1882–1922
Rank	Field Marshal
Commands held	Chief of the Imperial General Staff Eastern Command IV Corps Staff College, Camberley 9th Provisional Battalion, Rifle Brigade
Battles/wars	Third Anglo-Burmese War Second Boer War First World War
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches Légion d'honneur (France) Order of Leopold (Belgium) Croix de guerre (Belgium) Order of Chia-Ha (China) Distinguished Service Medal (United States) Order of the White Elephant (Siam) Order of the Rising Sun (Japan) Order of the Redeemer (Greece)
Member of Parliament for North Down
In office 21 February 1922 – 22 June 1922
Preceded by	Thomas Watters Brown
Succeeded by	John Simms

Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, 1st Baronet, GCB, DSO (5 May 1864 – 22 June 1922) was one of the most senior British Army staff officers of the First World War and was briefly an Irish unionist politician.

Wilson served as Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, and then as Director of Military Operations at the War Office, playing a vital role in drawing up plans to deploy an Expeditionary Force to France in the event of war. He acquired a reputation as a political intriguer for his role in agitating for the introduction of conscription and the Curragh incident of 1914.

As Sub Chief of Staff to the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Wilson was Sir John French's most important advisor during the 1914 campaign, but his poor relations with Haig and Robertson saw him sidelined from top decision-making in the middle years of the war. He played an important role in Anglo-French military relations in 1915 and – after his only experience of field command as a corps commander in 1916^[1] – as an ally of the controversial French General Robert Nivelle in early 1917. Later in 1917 he was informal military advisor to British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and then British Permanent Military Representative at the Supreme War Council at Versailles. In 1918 Wilson served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (the professional head of the British Army). He continued to hold this position after the war, a time when the Army was being sharply reduced in size whilst attempting to contain industrial unrest in the UK and nationalist unrest in Mesopotamia and Egypt. He also played an important role in the Irish War of Independence.

After retiring from the army Wilson served briefly as a Member of Parliament, and as security advisor to the Northern Ireland government. He was assassinated by two IRA gunmen in 1922.