GARNET JOSEPH WOLSELEY

Wolseley (of Wolseley), Garnet Joseph
Wolseley,1st Viscount, Baron Wolseley
of Cairo and of Wolseley.Born June 4, 1833 ,
Golden Bridge, County Dublin,Ireland.
Died March 26, 1913 , Mentone, France.

British field marshal who saw service in
battles throughout the world and was
instrumental in modernizing the British

army. The son of an army major, Wolseley
entered the army as second lieutenant in
1852 and fought with distinction in the Second
Anglo-Burmese War, the Crimean War, and
the Indian Mutiny. Surviving many

wounds, which cost him the sight of one eye, Wolseley

became at 25 the youngest lieutenant colonel in the

British army. As a staff officer under Sir James Hope

Grant, he sailed to China in 1860. His planning and

deeds are described in his Narrative of the War with

China in 1860 (1862). Late in 1861 the U.S. seizure

of two Confederate agents on the British ship Trent

created a temporary crisis. Wolseley was then sent to

Canada to improve that colony's defenses in case of

war with the United States. In 1870 he led the Red

River expedition through 600 miles (950 km) of

wilderness to suppress the rebel Louis Riel, who had

proclaimed a republic in Manitoba. Success in the

field and dedication to improvement of the service,

as revealed in his Soldier's Pocket-book for Field

Service (1869), led to his appointment (May 1871)

as assistant adjutant general at the War Office.
A highly efficient commander with an admiring public,

Wolseley was employed by successive governments

as chief troubleshooter of the British Empire. In 1873

he was sent to West Africa to lead a punitive expedition

against the Ashanti kingdom, resulting in the destruction

of its capital at Kumasi. Two years later he was sent to

Natal in southern Africa to induce the colonists to

surrender some of their political rights to promote

federation in South Africa. When calamity struck the

British forces battling the Zulus in 1879, Wolseley was

given command in South Africa. After restoring order in

Zululand, he moved on to the Transvaal, where he

discouraged rebellion among the Boers.
Returning to the War Office, first as quartermaster

general (1880) and then as adjutant general (1882), he

devoted himself to reform until interrupted by a nationalist

uprising in Egypt under Arabi Pasha. In his most brilliant

campaign, Wolseley swiftly seized the Suez Canal and,

after a night march, surprised and defeated Arabi at Tall

al-Kabir (Sept. 13, 1882). Prime Minister William Gladstone

rewarded him with a barony. Back in Egypt in 1884, he

organized and headed an expedition to the Nile to rescue

his friend General Charles “Chinese” Gordon, besieged at

Khartoum in the Sudan. An advance party arrived on

Jan. 28, 1885, two days after the city had fallen and Gordon

had been killed. For his efforts, Wolseley was elevated to

viscount. (The title devolved on his only daughter upon his

death.) After serving as commander of the troops in Ireland

(1890–94), he became a field marshal and commander in

chief of all Britain's forces (1895–1901). In that office his

greatest contribution was in mobilizing the army with

characteristic thoroughness for the South African War

(1899–1902).