BORN 5 MAY 1883. Wavell was a scholar as well as a soldier. He followed his father into the military at age nineteen.

He lost his left eye in France at the First Battle of Yypres in WWI. During WWI he also served in Palestine, Russia and Egypt.

Wavell arrived in the Middle East on 2 August 1939. He was Commander-in-Chief Middle East from February 1939 till 1 July 1941, when he was replaced by Auchinleck. His responsibilities included Egypt, Transjordan, Cyprus, British Somaliland, Aden and Iraq.

During his time as C-in-C he oversaw the victories of O'Connor followed by the devastating defeats under Neame.

Churchill and Wavell:

"At the the House of Commons a couple of months earlier, in June, Lord Boothby was talking with Lloyd George about Churchill as the only possible saviour for the country. Lloyd George said: 'You are probably right. But it will be a one-man show. He has at least on great general - Wavell. I was not so fortunate. But, mark my words, he will get rid of Wavell'."[1]

On 23 March 1941, Wavell confessed to Churchill:

"I have to admit to having taken considerable risk in Cyrenaica after capture of Benghazi; in order to provide maximum support for Greece. My estimate at that time was that Italians in Tripolitania could be disregarded and that Germans were unlikely to accept risk of sending large bodies of armoured troops to Africa in view of inefficiency of Italian Navy. I therefore made arrangements to leave only small armoured force and one partly trained Australian division in Cyrenaica."[2]

Rommel is reported to have carried a copy of one of Wavell's books.