Sir Arthur Wilson, 3rd Baronet

Born the son of Rear Admiral George Knyvet Wilson and Agnes Mary Wilson (née Yonge), Wilson was educated at Eton College before he joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman aboard the second-rate in 1855. He was present at the Battle of Kinburn in October 1855 during the Crimean War. he became second-in-command in the new steam frigate in January 1874. by King George V at Wellington Barracks In 1876 Wilson became commander and chief of staff at the new torpedo school , where his duties included rewriting torpedo manuals, inventing aiming apparatus and developing mine warfare. ==El Teb==

Promoted to captain on 20 April 1880, Wilson was appointed to command the torpedo boat depot ship . Early in 1884 the Hecla was sent to Trinkitat on the Red Sea coast of Sudan to support British troops defending Suakin during the Mahdist War. Wilson attached himself to the Naval Brigade and the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC: ==Admiralty and Fleet command==

Wilson became Flag Captain to the Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope Station and Captain of the Raleigh in March 1886. He went on to be Captain of Vernon in 1889 and Captain of the battleship in the Mediterranean Fleet in 1892. He was appointed Naval Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria on 14 February 1892. In the Sans Pareil he was briefly Flag Captain to the Commander in Chief, Mediterranean Fleet in late 1893. he was given command of the experimental torpedo squadron, hoisting his flag in the cruiser before becoming Second-in-Command of the Reserve Fleet in 1896. He was promoted to vice-admiral on 24 May 1901, and advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902, following which he was knighted and received the insignia in an investiture on board the royal yacht outside Cowes on 15 August 1902, the day before the fleet review held there to mark the coronation. Wilson took part in the review with the Majestic. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet in May 1903 (renamed the Channel Fleet in December 1904), hoisting his flag in the battleship and then in the battleship . promoted to full admiral on 24 February 1905 and advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order on 11 August 1905 on the occasion of the visit of the French Fleet. He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 9 November 1906. ==First Sea Lord==

Wilson was promoted to admiral of the Fleet on 1 March 1907 and, after three years in retirement, became First Sea Lord in January 1910. In this role he was, according to Hew Strachan, "abrasive, inarticulate, and autocratic" and was really only selected as Admiral John Fisher's successor because he was a supporter of Fisher's reforms. Wilson gave a poor account of himself at the Committee of Imperial Defence meeting after the Agadir Crisis, at which he said that in the event of war the Navy planned to land the Army on the Baltic Coast, an old plan of the recently retired Admiral Fisher, apparently derived from the Seven Years' War of the mid eighteenth century. According to the memoirs of Lord Haldane, Field Marshal William Nicholson (Chief of the Imperial General Staff), asked Admiral Wilson whether the Admiralty had maps of German strategic railways (to show how the Germans could rush reinforcements to invasion spots), and when Wilson said it was not the Admiralty's business to have such maps, Nicholson openly rebuked him and said that if the Navy "meddled" in military matters they needed not just to have such maps but to have studied them. The meeting was carried by a lucid presentation by Brigadier-General Henry Wilson, and Prime Minister H. H. Asquith (who thought the Royal Navy plan "puerile and wholly impracticable") ordered the Navy to fall in with the Army's plans to deploy an Expeditionary Force to France. After the meeting Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and began setting up a Naval Staff (Admiral Fisher having been opposed to setting one up), whilst Maurice Hankey began to draw up the War Book detailing mobilisation plans. 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. In the opinion of historian Hew Strachan: "the combination of frequent change and weak appointees (Wilson, Bridgeman and Battenberg) ensured that the professional leadership of the Royal Navy lost its direction in the four years preceding the war". He was recalled by Winston Churchill in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War to provide advice on strategy. He ceased his role as an advisor in November 1918 and inherited a baronetcy from his brother in October 1919. He died, unmarried, in Swaffham on 25 May 1921 and is buried in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's Church. His VC was donated to the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth. ==Nicknames==

Wilson's nickname of 'Tug' is thought to come from a reference to the boxer "Tug" Wilson, who had come to prominence shortly before Wilson received his Victoria Cross, and was noted for his tenacity. It has since become a common nickname, especially in the Navy, for men called Wilson. He was also known as 'Old 'Ard 'Art' for his refusal to consider the cares and comforts of officers and men. ==Notes==