Wilson, Henry Maitland Wilson, Baron, b. 1881

Henry Maitland Wilson, 1st Baron Wilson (b. Sept. 5, 1881, London, England-d. Dec. 31, 1964, Buckinghamshire, England), Field Marshal in the British Army, was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade in March 1900. He served in South Africa in the Second Boer War and with the 41st Division, the XIX Corps, and the New Zealand Division during World War I. Beginning in 1939, he was appointed General Officer Commanding British Troops in Egypt, led an expeditionary force to help Greece resist Italy and the subsequent German invasion in April 1941, and then became commander of troops in Palestine, Iraq, and Syria. He later was appointed commander-in-chief of the Middle East, and then succeeded General Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean in January 1944. General Wilson was sent to Washington, D.C. as Chief of the British Joint Staff Mission from 1945 to 1947.