Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Wilson, Arthur Knyvet
WILSON, Sir ARTHUR KNYVET, third baronet, (1842–1921), admiral of the fleet, the third son of Rear-Admiral George Knyvet Wilson, by his wife, Agnes Mary, younger daughter of the Rev. William Yonge, vicar of Swaffham, Norfolk, was born at Swaffham 4 March 1842. He entered the navy in 1855, and was twice employed on active service as a midshipman. On the first occasion he served in the Algiers in the Black Sea during the Crimean War, and on the second he assisted at the capture of the Peiho forts in 1858, and marched on Canton with the naval brigade. After his promotion to lieutenant, he was invited by the Japanese government to take up a post as instructor to the Yedo naval college; so that the Japanese navy may thus be said to have received its first lessons from one of the greatest naval commanders of the nineteenth century. In 1870 he was made junior member of the committee appointed to inquire into the capacity of the Whitehead torpedo. Six years later the Admiralty decided to create a special course of training in torpedo work; and Commander Wilson was placed in charge of the instructional staff in the Vernon at Portsmouth, where the school had been installed. It was an employment well suited to his genius: during the three years for which he held it he invented the aiming apparatus of the new weapon, and worked out a system of submarine mining and countermining adapted to naval needs.
In 1882 Wilson commanded the Hecla at the bombardment of Alexandria, and took an active part in the subsequent operations; the armoured train, and the mounting of a 40-pounder gun on a railway truck, both of which were improvised for the defence of the town, were due to him. Two years later, whilst still commanding the Hecla, he landed at Trinkitat with the force sent to relieve Tokar, and earned the Victoria cross for great gallantry at the second battle of El Teb (29 February 1884). In 1889 he was appointed to command the Vernon. Once again his specialized studies were productive; for it was during this period of his career that he devised the submerged torpedo tube, the double-barrelled tube for torpedo craft, and an instrument which enabled a torpedo to shear its way through protective wire nets.
Wilson was promoted rear-admiral in 1895, and vice-admiral in 1901, when he was given command of the Channel squadron, after serving for four years at the Admiralty as controller of the navy and third sea lord. At this date the first line battleships of the fleet incorporated the improvements and inventions of an entire generation; but construction had out-paced other branches of naval science. Battle tactics in particular were in an elementary state; and naval commanders of the day were still very vague about the principles which ought to govern the employment of ships in action. Admiral Wilson spent the remainder of his active career in elaborating a tactical system which was, in the main, adopted by his successors. To give one example: the formation from which a fleet can best deploy for battle is one of the most arduous problems in tactics. As rules were slowly elaborated for the scientific and calculated manœuvring of fleets, the question came into great prominence, and was much discussed. Opinion was, however, sharply divided as to the best solution. On the one side a group of fleet commanders maintained that a squadron should approach its adversary in a single line, and that it should engage by altering course to the direction in which the battle has to be fought out. The other party were convinced that a fleet formed in columns, from which it can deploy into a single line, had every chance of getting a decisive tactical advantage in the first stages of a battle, if its opponent followed the other practice. Admiral Wilson's success in the manœuvres of 1901 showed that the second opinion was right; and thenceforward it became the rule in the British service. In Germany the opposite doctrine prevailed; and when Admiral Jellicoe outmanœuvred his adversary between 6 and 7 p.m. on 31 May 1916 he was simply applying the tactical principles which Wilson had established. As a fleet commander Wilson had no equal. Between 1901 and 1907, when he commanded the Channel and Home fleets, his manner of handling masses of ships during fog, and his skill in manœuvring in narrow waters, set up a standard of seamanship which has admittedly never been surpassed. In 1907 he was made an admiral of the fleet by special order in council, and in January 1910 was appointed first sea lord of the Admiralty. He held the office for two years; and then went into retirement. The immediate reason for his withdrawal was the difference of opinion which existed between him and the first lord, Mr. Winston Churchill, on several important questions of administration and policy. Admiral Wilson was supported by the majority of the sea lords, and Mr. Churchill saw clearly that he would not be able to carry through the measures which he wished to introduce without a new board.
When Lord Fisher [q.v.] was summoned to the Admiralty in October 1914 Mr. Churchill invited Admiral Wilson to return to the Admiralty to help the first sea lord. The answer he gave was typical of his disinterestedness and elevation of mind. He would come, he said, so long as he was not given an official post or a salary. The country was thus given the services of the greatest seaman of his day as a sort of anonymous gift. He preferred that it should be so; and worked on in seclusion until June 1918. The order of merit was conferred upon him in 1912, but he was careless of formal honours, and resolutely declined a peerage on retirement. In 1919 he succeeded to the baronetcy, on the death of his brother, Sir Roland Knyvet Wilson. On 25 May 1921 he died at Swaffham after a short illness. He was unmarried.
[Admiral Sir E. E. Bradford, Life of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson, 1923; private information.]