World War II Database

Born in Colchester, Essex, England, Archibald Percival Wavell spent much of his childhood in India as the son of a British Army general. He attended Winchester College and Sandhurst Royal Military Academy, and was a veteran of the Second Boer War in South Africa in 1900 and the Bazar Valley campaign in India in 1908. He also spent some time as an observer with the Russian Army. During WW1, he served first in combat, then as a liaison officer with the Russians after being wounded at the Battle of Ypres. In 1918, he was transferred to Palestine. Immediately before the start of WW2 in Europe, he served as the head of the Middle East Command.

In the first phases of WW2, Wavell's smaller British army regularly defeated the numerically superior Italian troops in northern and eastern Africa. Under his command, he shocked Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler by defeating the million-strong Italian Army in North Africa with a force that numbered less than 40,000. In North Africa, he was also credited with protecting the Suez Canal, preventing Italy from threatening this important gateway of the vast British holdings around the world. When Adolf Hitler sent Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps to the theater, however, the tide of the war was turned. As events turned out, the British effort to defend Greece, which also fell upon the shoulders of Wavell, ended in disaster. The disaster in Greece, combined with the successful revolt led by the pro-Germany El-Gaylani Rashid Ali in Iraq, rapidly complicated the situation in North Africa. Losing the confidence of Winston Churchill, Wavell was transferred out of the Middle East to India in Jul 1941.

The Japanese attack on the Allied powers in Dec 1941 quickly turned India into the frontlines. As the commander of American, British, Dutch, and Australian (ABDACOM) forces in the region, he was unsuccessful in stopping the initial Japanese advances, losing Malaya, Singapore, Burma, and Java. Very quickly, ABDA disintegrated under Japanese pressure, and he resigned his post in Feb 1942 in shame.

In 1943, Wavell was made viscount and was named Viceroy of India and Burma. He enjoyed strong popular support from the people for his ability to understand the needs of the people while not losing sight of the war against the Japanese in Burma. After WW2, he worked hard to resolve the differences between Hindu and Muslim populations in the region as Britain was ready to grand independence to the former colonies. He knew that the process to give the power to govern must be slow and cautious, but the British government, which preferred a speedy power transfer, overruled him. In 1947, he was recalled to Britain and served as the lord lieutenant of the County of London.

Wavell passed away in 1950.

Photographs

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