MAJOR-GENERAL srB, CHARLES WILLIAM WILSON.* THE late Sir Charles Wilson
was one of those persons to whom Fortune gives a great opportunity, but clogs it with almost impossible conditions. Had he reached Khartoum in time to save Gordon, he would have been a national hero, and there are few positions in the British Army to which he might not have aspired. Dis aliter visum, and for the remaining twenty years of his life his name was seldom heard of outside the War Office and the rooms of the Learned Societies. Wilson was a typical product of the Royal Engineers at their very best. When a young subaltern he made his mark as Secretary and Transport Officer on the North American Boundary Commission of 1858. His work there brought him under the notice of the Foreign Office, and a happy accident sent him in 1864 to carry out a survey of Jerusalem, which led to the creation of the Palestine Explora- tion Fund. He was a born archaeologist and topographer, and the scientific exploration of the Holy Land and the Sinaitic Peninsula is largely due to his initiative and to his untiring labours. He was recalled for employment on the Ordnance Survey and in the then nascent Military Intelligence Department, but his real bent was for the East.
He took part in the delimitation of the Servian boundary under the Treaty of Berlin. He rendered admirable service as Consul-General in Anatolia during our short-lived experi- ment at reforming the Turk, and he was sent to Egypt in 1882 as Commissioner with a Turkish contingent which never materialised. After Tel-el-Kebir much responsible work at Cairo devolved upon him, and he acted as an informal "prisoner's friend" at the trial of Arabi. His great know- ledge of Oriental life and languages, and his command of the situation both in Egypt proper and in the Soudan, made him a marked man, and when Lord Wolseley was appointed to the command of the Nile Expedition in August, 1884, he took -Wilson with him as Chief of the Intelligence Department. In the middle of December it was known that Gordon's position at Khartoum was desperate, and the dash across the desert from Korti was resolved upon. Wilson accompanied Sir Herbert Stewart with closely defined instructions based on the safe arrival of the latter at Metemmeh and his junction with Gordon's steamers. These were to be manned by the Naval Brigade, and were to take Wilson and a small party of the Sussex Regiment up to Khartoum. Arrived there, he was to deliver a letter from Wolseley, to parade his men through the city, re-embark, and return at once, for Gordon had given repeated assurance that the mere appearance of the British soldiers in their traditional scarlet uniforms would put to flight the army of the aliens and raise the siege.
The Desert Column reached the Nile after dark on January 19th, worn and spent. It had lost over fifteen per cent. in killed and wounded. Stewart was mortally stricken, Burnaby was dead, and by virtue of seniority Wilson had emerged from the position of a Staff officer to that of Officer Commanding-in-Chief. Metemmeh was strongly held by the enemy, and our communications with the base at Jakdu were most precarious. The circumstances were completely trans- formed from those contemplated by Lord Wolseley, and to add to the difficulties every officer in the Naval Brigade, save Lord Charles Beresford, was killed or wounded, and he himself was too ill to walk. Gordon's steamers arrived on the morning of the 21st in sad plight and needing a thorough overhaul. Wilsea held that his first duty was to secure the safety of the little force under his command, and it was not until the 24th that he started up the Nile with three British officers, a section of the Royal Sussex, and a couple of hundred Soudaneee soldiers. The rescue party came in sight of Khartoum on the 28th, but the town Shad fallen on the 26th, and they were greeted with a hurricane of shot and shell. Wilson only retreated when the calamity was verified beyond all doubt. His escape was little short of miraculous, and the whole episode, including the arrival of Lord Charles Beresford and the extrication of the would-be rescuers, was a grand display of courage and daring. But Gordon was dead ; the expedition, so costly in precious lives, had failed ; and England was mad with shame and rage. An attempt was made to
* The Life of Major-General Sir Charles William Wilson, Royal Bac/Mows, S.C.M.G., de. By Colonel Sir Charles H. Watson, Y.C.M.G. With Portrait, Maps, and Illustrations. London : John Murray. [15s. net.]
throw the blame on Wilson. Lord Wolseley maintained an attitude of neutrality, and Lord Cromer has recently expressed the opinion that if the steamers had left Gubat on the after- noon of the 21st they would probably have arrived at Khar- toum in time to save the town. This, however, leaves out of account the question whether the steamers were fit for an immediate journey, and Wilson stoutly maintained that they were so badly damaged as to render a start before the evening of the 23rd impracticable. His biographer further contends that Khartoum had been lost beyond all hope since the middle of January, and that the final assault would have synchronised with the advance of the little flotilla. Wilson was plaaed in a cruel dilemma, and he exercised a discretion which would probably have been that of nine soldiers out of ten; yet it is hard to believe that a man of remorseless driving-power—a Kitchener or a Wolseley—who would have cast delay and precaution to the winds, would not have adopted the other alternative. He might very probably have failed ; but the object of the expedition was the rescue of Gordon, and to that all other considerations were subordinate.
The rest of Wilson's life was spent mainly on the Ordnance Survey and as Director of Military Education. He died at Bournemouth in October, 1908. He was a soldier of whom any Army might be proud, and his friend Sir Charles Watson very happily applies to him the words of the prophet Micah : He acted justly and loved mercy, and walked humbly with his God. The biography is well done, especially the chapters relating to Egypt and the Soudan ; but it would have been the better for a stern process of condensation and compression.
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