Arnold Wilson

Sir Arnold Talbot Wilson KCIE CSI CMG DSO (18 July 1884 – 31 May 1940) was the British civil commissioner in Baghdad in 1918-1920. Wilson became publicly known for his role as the colonial administrator of Mesopotamia (geographic Iraq) during and after the first World War. His high-handedness arguably led to an Iraqi revolt in 1920. He was replaced by Sir Percy Cox. Wilson was the third MP to be killed in World War II.

Early life and career

Wilson was born in 1884 and educated in England at Clifton Public School, where his father was a headmaster. He started his career as an officer of the British army in India. In 1904, he went to Iran as a Lieutenant to lead a group of Bengal Lancers to guard the British consulate in Ahwaz and to protect the work of the D’Arcy Oil Company, which had obtained a sixty-year oil concession in Iran and was pursuing oil exploration in partnership with the Burma Oil Company. Wilson was an officer in the 32nd Sikh Pioneers, a regiment of the Indian Army.

In 1907, Wilson was transferred to the Indian Political Department and sent to the Persian Gulf, where he served as a political officer, soldier and senior administrator. In 1920, he joined the Anglo-Persian Oil Company as resident director in the Persian Gulf. He worked for the company until 1932. Wilson oversaw the discovery of the first oil site in the Middle East, Masjid-i-Suleiman in 1908.

World War I and afterwards

In 1915, as the British were moving troops from India into Mesopotamia through the Persian Gulf and Basra, Wilson was designated as the assistant, and then deputy, to Sir Percy Cox, the British Political Officer for the region. Based in Baghdad, he then became the acting Civil Commissioner for Iraq.

During his tenure in Iraq, Wilson worked to improve the country's administration according to the principles he learned in India. In Wilson’s views, the priority was to reconstruct and stabilize the country, by establishing an efficient government and administration as well as a fair treatment and political representation of the various ethnic and religious communities (i.e., in the case of Iraq: Arabs, Kurds, Persians, of religions such as Muslim Shiite and Sunni, Christian and Jews). In doing so, he was nicknamed The Despot of Mess-Pot". However, after the end of WW1, he found himself progressively opposed to other British officials, who believed that Arab countries should be granted independence under British supervision.

In 1919, during the Paris international conference which followed WW1, he was amongst the few who successfully recommended adopting the Arab name Iraq instead of the Greek name Mesopotamia. This name change was intended to cover the planned northern expansion of the newly created country under British Mandate to include the oil rich Mosul region of Kurdistan, in addition to the Mesopotamian provinces of Baghdad and Basra.

In April 1920, at the Conference of Sanremo , the League of Nations agreed to the British mandate over Iraq. In the spring and summer of 1920, various riots erupted across central and southern Iraq. These riots were often violently repressed by Wilson's administration. The total number of Iraqi casualties of these riots was estimated at 10,000 people.

In the summer of 1920, Wilson proposed a compromise, suggesting that Faysal, the former King of Syria, be offered the Iraqi throne. This proposal was intended to obtain support from the Iraqi population as well as by the British officials who favored a controlled Arab independence. It was eventually accepted by the British Government and by Faysal, but Wilson would not be there to participate in its implementation. The British government decided not to follow Wilson's views, and instead grant independence to Iraq. The British government removed Wilson from his position in Iraq, and knighted him. Deeply disappointed by the turn of events, he left the public service and joined APOC as manager of their Middle Eastern operations.

World War II

In 1933, he was elected as MP for Hitchin. Before World War II, his outspoken views evoked a lot of criticism. The New Statesman described him as "an admirer of Hitler and an unscrupulous propagandist for Mussolini and Hitler".

However, at the outbreak of the war, he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, serving as a pilot officer (air gunner) in 37 Squadron of Bomber Command. He stated that "I have no desire to shelter myself and live in safety behind the ramparts of the bodies of millions of our young men." [cite news
author=
title=Blue Blood in Flanders
date=1940-06-17
work=Time Magazine
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,789876-2,00.html
accessdate=2008-08-10] Still an MP, he was killed in action over northern France, around Dunkirk, on May 31st,1940. He is buried at Eringhem churchyard, half-way between Dunkirk and St. Omer. [ [http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2276532 CWGC entry] ]

His book, "S.W. Persia: Letters and Diary of a Young Political Officer 1907-1914" (1941) was published posthumously.

References

* "Kingmakers: the Invention of the Modern Middle East," by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, New York, London: W.W. Norton, 2008
* "Late Victorian: the life of Sir Arnold Talbot Wilson", by John Marlowe.
* "A Periplus of the Persian Gulf" by Arnold Talbot Wilson.
* "S. W Persia: Letters and Diary of a Young Political Officer 1907-1914" by Arnold Talbot Wilson.

External links

* [http://www.al-bab.com/bys/articles/shipman01a.htm Winning his spurs as a stoker] -- this includes a photograph of Wilson, taken around 1916.