page_title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet
section_title: Director of Military Operations
hierarchical_section_title: Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet / Director of Military Operations
caption_attribution_description: English: Old War Office Building, Whitehall, London Image by ChrisO
context_page_description: Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, 1st Baronet, GCB, DSO was one of the most senior British Army staff officers of the First World War and was briefly an Irish unionist politician.
  Wilson served as Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, and then as Director of Military Operations at the War Office, in which post he played a vital role in drawing up plans to deploy an Expeditionary Force to France in the event of war. During these years Wilson acquired a reputation as a political intriguer for his role in agitating for the introduction of conscription and in the Curragh incident of 1914, when he encouraged senior officers to resign rather than move against the Ulster Volunteers.
  As Sub Chief of Staff to the British Expeditionary Force, Wilson was John French's most important advisor during the 1914 campaign, but his poor relations with Douglas Haig and William Robertson saw him sidelined from top decision-making in the middle years of the war. He played an important role in Anglo-French military relations in 1915 and – after his only experience of field command as a corps commander in 1916 – again as an ally of the controversial French General Robert Nivelle in early 1917.
caption: The Old War Office building where Wilson took office as Director of Military Operations
exif: {}