page_title: Arthur Wilson (Royal Navy officer)
section_title: Admiralty and Fleet command
hierarchical_section_title: Arthur Wilson (Royal Navy officer) / Admiralty and Fleet command
caption_attribution_description: English: HMS Exmouth (1901) in Weymouth Bay ca. 1906
context_page_description: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson, 3rd Baronet VC, GCB, OM, GCVO was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the Anglo-Egyptian War and then the Mahdist War being awarded the Victoria Cross during the Battle of El Teb in February 1884. He went on to command a battleship, the torpedo school HMS Vernon and then another battleship before taking charge of the Experimental Torpedo Squadron. He later commanded the Channel Fleet. He briefly served as First Sea Lord but in that role he "was abrasive, inarticulate, and autocratic" and was really only selected as Admiral Fisher's successor because he was a supporter of Fisher's reforms. 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. Appointed an advisor at the start of World War I, he advocated offensive schemes in the North Sea including the capture of Heligoland and was an early proponent of the development and use of submarines in the Royal Navy.
context_section_description: 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 Assistant Director of Torpedoes at the Admiralty in April 1887 and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 21 June 1887. He went on to be Captain of Vernon in 1889 and Captain  of the battleship HMS Sans Pareil in the Mediterranean Fleet in 1892. He was appointed Naval Aide-de-Camp to the Queen on 14 February 1892. In the Sans Pareil he was briefly Flag Captain to the Commander in Chief, Mediterranean Fleet in late 1893. Promoted to rear-admiral on 22 June 1895, he was given command of the experimental torpedo squadron, hoisting his flag in the cruiser HMS Hermione before becoming Second-in-Command of the Reserve Fleet in 1896. He became Third Naval Lord and Controller of the Navy in August 1897 and Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron in March 1901, hoisting his flag in the battleship HMS Majestic upon taking command in April 1901. He was promoted to vice-admiral on 24 May 1901, and advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) 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 Victoria and Albert 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 HMS Revenge and then in the battleship HMS Exmouth. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on 11 August 1903 on the occasion of the King's visit to Ireland, 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.
caption: The battleship, HMS Exmouth, Wilson's flagship as Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet
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