Ronald Evelyn Leslie Wingate
Encyclopedia
Sir Ronald Evelyn Leslie Wingate, 2nd Baronet, CB
, CMG
, CIE
, OBE
(30 September 1889 – 31 August 1978) was a British colonial administrator, soldier and author. Wingate was born in 1889 in Kensington, London, and educated at Bradfield College
and Balliol College, Oxford
before entering the Indian Civil Service. In the Civil Service, he served as an Assistant Commissioner in Punjab
and the city magistrate of Delhi.
During the First World War, Wingate was given a special assignment with the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as an assistant political officer. After the war, he served as British Consul in Muscat, Oman
, and helped to negotiate the Treaty of Seeb
. He then briefly served in Kashmir before returning to Oman. After his second tour in Oman, Wingate held a variety of positions in British India, including service as the Acting Secretary of the Foreign and Political Department of the Indian Government and Commissioner of Baluchistan
.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Wingate served with the Ministry of Economic Warfare in Africa and Southeast Asia. Then, in 1942, he joined the London Controlling Section
(LCS), an organization within the War Cabinet
devoted to military deception
. Wingate became the Deputy Controller of the LCS in 1943 and helped to form numerous deception plans including Plan Jael, later called Operation Bodyguard
. At the conclusion of the war, he was chosen to write the official history of Allied deception operations during it.
After the war, Wingate served as the British delegate on the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold
and as a director on the board of the Imperial Continental Gas Association
. He also wrote three books: Wingate of the Sudan, a biography of his father, Reginald Wingate; Not in the limelight, his own memoirs; and Lord Ismay, a biography of General Hastings Ismay. Wingate died on 31 August 1978 at the age of 88.
Wingate was the son of Reginald Wingate, a British general who held important positions in Egypt
and Sudan
, and his wife Catherine Wingate
. Wingate was also a cousin of Lawrence of Arabia and Orde Wingate. Wingate spent his early childhood in Cairo
with his family, but in 1889 he was sent to live in England and enter school. From a very young age, he hoped to follow his father into military service, and he began his education at Bradfield College
planning to join the British Navy. While at Bradfield; however, Wingate discovered that he could not pass the Navy's medical exam because he was severely near-sighted and decided to instead pursue a civil service career.
Wingate left Bradfield and entered Balliol College, Oxford
, where he went to receive an MA. While at Oxford, Wingate hoped for a career in the Foreign Office, but his father convinced him that a posting abroad would be more favorable financially. Thus, in 1912, Wingate passed the civil service examinations and entered the Indian Civil Service (ICS). He was immediately sent back to Oxford, where he spent a year studying Urdu
and Persian
. During the Christmas holiday of his year at Oxford, Wingate visited his father in Khartoum
and met May Harpoth, the daughter of Paul Vinogradoff
, a prominent scholar at the University of Oxford
. In his memoirs, Wingate described their encounter as "love at first sight," and the two were engaged six months later before Wingate left for his first posting in India.
In 1913, Wingate began his ICS career as an Assistant Commissioner in Punjab
, posted in Sialkot
. Wingate "worked ceaselessly" at the various tasks of administration during the period, but enjoyed his duties. In 1916, Harpoth visited Wingate in India and the two were married in Lahore
. After a honeymoon in the Kangra Valley
, Wingate returned to work, becoming an aide de camp and assistant private secretary for the Governor of Punjab, and then the city magistrate of Delhi
.
At the beginning of the First World War, Wingate immediately volunteered to serve in Europe, but like most other members of the ICS, he was turned down. After the entry of the Ottoman Empire
into the war, Wingate hoped that his Arabic language
skills would result in a posting with the army, but he remained in India until 1917. In June 1917, after only a year in Delhi, Wingate joined the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as an assistant political officer. As a political officer, Wingate initially took part in administrative tasks, helping to rebuild a political system in areas conquered by the British. Wingate first worked to re-establish a customs system in liberated territories. He then led the team of political officers in Najaf
, where he worked to establish a police force and establish a basic system of taxation. Wingate also was responsible for entertaining notable Western guests who passed through Najaf, including Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
. During the war, Wingate also helped to negotiate British protectorates for the Gulf States
.
In addition to his work in traditional political matters, Wingate worked with Percy Cox, Gertrude Bell
and other British agents on several special operations. Most notably, he helped to bribe a Turkish army officer who had cut off a British force near Kut
and helped keep the Ottomans out of Najaf
. Wingate also helped to foil a plot by the Committee of Union and Progress
(CUP) to promote an uprising in Najaf by ordering ones of his aides to get the CUP agent drunk, leading him to reveal the details of the plot.
After the war, in 1919, Wingate was appointed British Consul in Muscat
, the capital of Oman
. When Wingate arrived in Oman, the country was in a state of turmoil due to a long-standing power struggle between the Imamate of Oman and the Sultan of Oman
. The tribesmen in the interior of Oman, who supported the Imam, sought the overthrow of the Sultan, who was kept in power in the coastal regions through British intervention. Upon assuming his position, Wingate was charged with negotiating a peace between the two groups that would ensure the power of the Sultan and prevent the outbreak of open warfare.
Wingate initially found the Sultan, Taimur bin Feisal
, uncooperative in efforts to reach a settlement. After years trapped in Muscat
with no power over the majority of his country, Feisal saw no reason to continue the struggle and told Wingate that "he wished to abdicate and be guarnateed some small pension which would enable him at lest to live live in peace somewhere outside Muscat and Arabia." Knowing that the Sultan's support would be key to any plan, Wingate arranged for the Sultan to make a long state visit to the Viceroy of India, staying in a villa in the Himalayas. Before the Feisal departed, Wingate established a Council of Ministers, nominally to advise the Sultan, but actually designed to hold the effective power during his absence. The sultan also gave Wingate the power to negotiate with the Imam on his behalf.
Having acquired the power to negotiate with the Imam and the tribesmen, Wingate needed to reassert the power of the Sultanate and find some leverage to force the Imam into negotiations. He began by collecting unpaid customs duties in order to raise more revenue for the Sultan, and sent emissaries to Isa Bin Salih, the Imam's chief deputy. Wingate's initial overtures proved unsuccessful, so he threatened to impose a "punitive tax" on dates, the chief export crop of Oman. Because the Sultan controlled the ports and coastal areas, he had the power to collect such a tax, which would have ruined the Omani farmers. After the imposition of the tax, riots erupted in the interior, and the Imam was murdered by angry farmers. A new Imam, who was more willing to negotiate, was selected and requested a meeting with Wingate.
Wingate agreed to the negotiations, and scheduled a meeting at the coastal town of As Sib in late September. The first two days of the meeting went well, and both sides reached a general agreement that the Imam and tribal leaders would not interfere with the Sultan's rule in the coastal areas if the Sultan would not interfere in the interior. Wingate also promised that upon the conclusion of an agreement, the tax on dates would be reduced to five percent. On the third day, however, trouble arose when the tribal leaders insisted that the Imam be formally acknowledged as a ruler equal to the Sultan and as a religious leader in the text of the agreement. Wingate, however, convinced the tribal leaders that the Imam should sign the agreement only in his capacity as a representative of the Omani tribes. Although the agreement became known as the Treaty of Sib, it was not in fact a treaty at all, but rather "an agreement between the Sultan and his subjects" as the sovereignty of the Sultan in all external affairs was recognized. Though the Treaty of Sib was a "bitter blow" to the Sultan, it led to an unprecedented thirty years of peace in the interior of Oman. The agreement was also well-received in Britain and India, and Wingate received congratulatory telegrams from the Viceroy of India and the Secretary of State for India
.
and was given six weeks of medical leave, which he decided to spend in Kashmir
. While in Kashmir, Wingate visited, Joe Windham, the British Resident, who offered to find him a job in India. Wingate went back to Oman, but returned to Kashmir in November as a special assistant to the Resident.
In Kashmir, Wingate first served in Poonch
, but the post of Assistant Resident in Poonch was abolished in December. Wingate then was moved to an assignment in Srinagar
. Srinagar was the site of a large club for British military officers and civil servants, and Wingate, finding that he had "a minimum of work", spent much of his time socializing and playing golf. In January 1923, Wingate was ordered back to Oman to serve as Consul a second time.
Wingate's second term as consul was relatively uneventful and lasted only until October when he again contracted malaria. The only major event came when the citizens of the town of Sur
refused to pay their customs duties. In order to coerce the town into payment, Wingate sent a detachment of 50 soldiers with machine guns to the town. Under the cover of darkness, the soldiers landed on the narrow spit of land connecting Sur to the mainland, cutting the town off from its water supply. The people of the town made no attempt to resist militarily and after two days without water, they paid the customs dues.
for New Years, but he spent nearly a year on leave much of it golfing at Muirfield. Then, in September 1924, he returned to India to serve as secretary to the agent of the Governor-General of Rajputana
, the chief British official in Rajputana. In that capacity, Wingate accompanied the agent on all of his state visits, and encountered for the first time what he considered "real India," rather than the frontier regions in which he had previously served.
In 1927, Wingate moved to the same position in Baluchistan
. Soon thereafter, in 1928, he was appointed the Deputy Commissioner and Political Agent in Quetta
and Pishin
. Wingate would later call his years in Quetta, "the happiest time that [he] spent in India," and greatly enjoyed the autonomy and respect he was granted there. While serving in Quetta, Wingate established a new water supply the city, and frequently became involved in matters relating to security and criminal justice.
While in Quetta, Wingate ordered the arrest of several leaders of the Achakzai
tribe. In retaliation, members of the tribe kidnapped
two British military officers near the town of Chaman
and held them for ransom, leading to "considerable criticism" of Wingate by the Army. In the end, Wingate paid a small portion of the ransom demanded, and threatened to send troops after the kidnappers, leading to the release of both the hostages. During his time in Quetta, Wingate also briefly hosted King Amanullah who was en route to Europe. In 1930, Wingate received a year's leave from India, during which he traveled around Europe. Upon his return to Baluchistan, in 1931, he became the Political Agent in Sibi
, but after only a few months he received a new assignment with the Indian government in Delhi
.
, Wingate found the period a very interesting time to be in the high levels of the government. His first job was to help integrate the princely state
s into federation with the rest India in preparation for independence. A particular challenge in the process involved determining how many representatives each of the states would have in the Constituent Assembly of India
. Wingate proposed "a scheme based upon permutations and combinations of the number of guns which were fired to salute the categories of Indian princes". The idea was acclaimed "as a stroke of genius" and adopted by the government.
In May 1935, Wingate was granted a year's leave and went to Vichy
for a much needed vacation with is wife. While in Vichy, Wingate heard of the terrible 1935 Balochistan earthquake
and returned immediately to England to see if his services were required by the government. Because of his loyalty to Quetta, Wingate volunteered to return there immediately. He was not asked to return immediately, but in October (after less than half of his promised leave), Wingate was ordered to return to India and become the Revenue Commissioner of Baluchistan.
Upon returning to Quetta, Wingate was saddened to find that most of his friends and acquaintances in the city had been killed by earthquake, and he spent the first six weeks of his time in the city helping to remove "four hundred smashed and disintregating corpses a day" from the ruins of the city. Shortly thereafter, the Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan, Alexander Cater
, left his position and Wingate became the Acting Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan.
During this period, Wingate, like most officers of the Indian Civil Service, supported Indian self-rule, and began to see the end of British India as inevitable. As such, Wingate decided in 1936 that he would leave India once his term as revenue commissioner ended. In November 1937, he was offered the position of Minister to Nepal
but declined. Instead, he took two years of leave that he had saved, planning to retire at its conclusion.
Wingate spent the next year traveling throughout Europe, and in early 1939, he rented a flat on the Chelsea Embankment
, where he planned to live with his wife. He spent his time exploring London
and soon began planning to run for a seat in House of Commons as the member from his constituency was planning to retire. After the outbreak of the Second World War; however, the member of parliament decided not to retire, and Wingate abandoned his hopes at politics, deciding that he would "have been quite useless as a Member of Parliament."
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Wingate was assigned to the Ministry of Economic Warfare, working in Southeast Asia and Africa and granted the rank of second lieutenant
in the Army. In September 1942, he was assigned to the London Controlling Section
(LCS), an organization devoted to military deception
, and part of the joint planning staff of the War Cabinet
. Wingate initially served as the Army representative of the operations subsection, and from March 1943 onward he served as Deputy Controller of the LCS under Colonel John Henry Bevan, Wingate was well-qualified for the position due to his extensive social connections, including friendships with several European monarchs, as well as his reputation for cunning. While at LCS, Wingate also worked closely with Hastings Ismay about whom he later wrote a biography. The two were already friendly with each other, having spent time together in India. While serving with the LCS, Wingate held the rank of lieutenant colonel
.
Early in 1943, Wingate and Bevan devised Plan Jael, an effort to disguise the true nature and location of the D-Day
landings. Wingate first presented Plan Jael to a meeting of American and British officers in the summer of 1943, who found the plan "so ambitious as to be the subject of some question as to its general plausibility." In the end, the plan evolved into Operation Bodyguard, which Wingate helped to coordinate.
Wingate participated in the planning for many other deception schemes, including Operation Mincemeat
, for which he approved the letters planted on a fake corpse.
Wingate was also involved in the cover plans for Operation Neptune
, the cross channel phase of Operation Overlord
. Sir Frederick Morgan
, the original planner of Operation Overlord, initially believed that no deception plan could successfully disguise Neptune, but Wingate convinced him to at least allow LCS to make an effort.
Wingate also devised another deception plan for Overlord codenamed Royal Flush, which recommended that the Allies approach three neutral countries: Spain
, Sweden
and Turkey
, and ask for their assistance with landings in Southern France. The Allies hoped that the Spanish in particular would pass this information along to the Germans, who would then expect landings in southern France, rather than in Normandy. The plan proved greatly successful; the Spanish passed the information to the Germans and even agreed to provide humanitarian aid for soldiers wounded in the landings. After the Normandy landings, the British used the Spanish for further deception by replying that they no longer needed Spanish assistance as the Normandy landings had been so successful that the plans for the south of France had been canceled. The Spanish reported this information to the Germans, helping to deceive them about the actual landings in the South of France
in August 1944.
At the end of the war, Wingate was chosen by the Combined Chiefs of Staff
to write an official history of Allied deception during the war. The report, which has been described as "urbane, literate and readable" dealt more with the British than the Americans, but provided an excellent reference and was approved by a conference in London in June 1947. Like other reports of the Allied deception strategies, the report was kept secret for many years as Wingate explained: "We wanted no articles in the Reader's Digest about how the Allies had outwitted the German General Staff. It was felt we might have to take the Russian General Staff on."
and in 1947, he became the British delegate on the Commission. Wingate retired from the Commission in 1958, after it had completed most of its work. Shortly after leaving the Tripartite Commission, Wingate was named a Companion in The Most Honourable Order of the Bath in the New Year's list of 1959. Wingate also entered the world of business, serving on the board of the Imperial Continental Gas Association
from 1953 until 1966.
In his later life, Wingate also wrote several books, beginning with Wingate of the Sudan, a biography of his father published in 1955. Next, Wingate wrote his own memoirs, Not in the Limelight, published in 1959. Finally, in 1970, he wrote Lord Ismay, a biography of Hastings Ismay.
Wingate of the Sudan was a fairly short biography, primarily based on private correspondence and diaries, to which Wingate naturally had access. Writing in the Middle East Journal
, Muhammad Sabry called the book "a real contribution to African history," applauding Wingate's style an accuracy.
Wingate named his memoirs, Not in the Limelight, as a reference to his own career, perpetually around significant events but rarely playing a central role in them. Olaf Caroe
wrote that the book was "engaging" with "flashes of shrewdness" and "a sense of wit." Caroe and others also praised the variosu intriguing details which Wingate revealed about both colonial India and the Second World War, for example Wingate's revelations about the Treaty of Seeb
.
Wingate's final book, Lord Ismay: A Biography was released in 1970. The book was "an adulatory biography" which made Wingate's personal respect for Ismay quite clear. As such, the book stood in contrast to Ismay's own memoirs which were "modest and discreet." The book was well-received and Brian Porter wrote in International Affairs
that it was a "welcome contribution to recent history."
Wingate died on August 31, 1978 at the age of 88.
Sir Ronald Evelyn Leslie Wingate, 2nd Baronet, CB
, CMG
, CIE
, OBE
(30 September 1889 – 31 August 1978) was a British colonial administrator, soldier and author. Wingate was born in 1889 in Kensington, London, and educated at Bradfield College
and Balliol College, Oxford
before entering the Indian Civil Service. In the Civil Service, he served as an Assistant Commissioner in Punjab
and the city magistrate of Delhi.
During the First World War, Wingate was given a special assignment with the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as an assistant political officer. After the war, he served as British Consul in Muscat, Oman
, and helped to negotiate the Treaty of Seeb
. He then briefly served in Kashmir before returning to Oman. After his second tour in Oman, Wingate held a variety of positions in British India, including service as the Acting Secretary of the Foreign and Political Department of the Indian Government and Commissioner of Baluchistan
.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Wingate served with the Ministry of Economic Warfare in Africa and Southeast Asia. Then, in 1942, he joined the London Controlling Section
(LCS), an organization within the War Cabinet
devoted to military deception
. Wingate became the Deputy Controller of the LCS in 1943 and helped to form numerous deception plans including Plan Jael, later called Operation Bodyguard
. At the conclusion of the war, he was chosen to write the official history of Allied deception operations during it.
After the war, Wingate served as the British delegate on the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold
and as a director on the board of the Imperial Continental Gas Association
. He also wrote three books: Wingate of the Sudan, a biography of his father, Reginald Wingate; Not in the limelight, his own memoirs; and Lord Ismay, a biography of General Hastings Ismay. Wingate died on 31 August 1978 at the age of 88.
Wingate was the son of Reginald Wingate, a British general who held important positions in Egypt
and Sudan
, and his wife Catherine Wingate
. Wingate was also a cousin of Lawrence of Arabia and Orde Wingate. Wingate spent his early childhood in Cairo
with his family, but in 1889 he was sent to live in England and enter school. From a very young age, he hoped to follow his father into military service, and he began his education at Bradfield College
planning to join the British Navy. While at Bradfield; however, Wingate discovered that he could not pass the Navy's medical exam because he was severely near-sighted and decided to instead pursue a civil service career.
Wingate left Bradfield and entered Balliol College, Oxford
, where he went to receive an MA. While at Oxford, Wingate hoped for a career in the Foreign Office, but his father convinced him that a posting abroad would be more favorable financially. Thus, in 1912, Wingate passed the civil service examinations and entered the Indian Civil Service (ICS). He was immediately sent back to Oxford, where he spent a year studying Urdu
and Persian
. During the Christmas holiday of his year at Oxford, Wingate visited his father in Khartoum
and met May Harpoth, the daughter of Paul Vinogradoff
, a prominent scholar at the University of Oxford
. In his memoirs, Wingate described their encounter as "love at first sight," and the two were engaged six months later before Wingate left for his first posting in India.
In 1913, Wingate began his ICS career as an Assistant Commissioner in Punjab
, posted in Sialkot
. Wingate "worked ceaselessly" at the various tasks of administration during the period, but enjoyed his duties. In 1916, Harpoth visited Wingate in India and the two were married in Lahore
. After a honeymoon in the Kangra Valley
, Wingate returned to work, becoming an aide de camp and assistant private secretary for the Governor of Punjab, and then the city magistrate of Delhi
.
At the beginning of the First World War, Wingate immediately volunteered to serve in Europe, but like most other members of the ICS, he was turned down. After the entry of the Ottoman Empire
into the war, Wingate hoped that his Arabic language
skills would result in a posting with the army, but he remained in India until 1917. In June 1917, after only a year in Delhi, Wingate joined the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as an assistant political officer. As a political officer, Wingate initially took part in administrative tasks, helping to rebuild a political system in areas conquered by the British. Wingate first worked to re-establish a customs system in liberated territories. He then led the team of political officers in Najaf
, where he worked to establish a police force and establish a basic system of taxation. Wingate also was responsible for entertaining notable Western guests who passed through Najaf, including Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
. During the war, Wingate also helped to negotiate British protectorates for the Gulf States
.
In addition to his work in traditional political matters, Wingate worked with Percy Cox, Gertrude Bell
and other British agents on several special operations. Most notably, he helped to bribe a Turkish army officer who had cut off a British force near Kut
and helped keep the Ottomans out of Najaf
. Wingate also helped to foil a plot by the Committee of Union and Progress
(CUP) to promote an uprising in Najaf by ordering ones of his aides to get the CUP agent drunk, leading him to reveal the details of the plot.
After the war, in 1919, Wingate was appointed British Consul in Muscat
, the capital of Oman
. When Wingate arrived in Oman, the country was in a state of turmoil due to a long-standing power struggle between the Imamate of Oman and the Sultan of Oman
. The tribesmen in the interior of Oman, who supported the Imam, sought the overthrow of the Sultan, who was kept in power in the coastal regions through British intervention. Upon assuming his position, Wingate was charged with negotiating a peace between the two groups that would ensure the power of the Sultan and prevent the outbreak of open warfare.
Wingate initially found the Sultan, Taimur bin Feisal
, uncooperative in efforts to reach a settlement. After years trapped in Muscat
with no power over the majority of his country, Feisal saw no reason to continue the struggle and told Wingate that "he wished to abdicate and be guarnateed some small pension which would enable him at lest to live live in peace somewhere outside Muscat and Arabia." Knowing that the Sultan's support would be key to any plan, Wingate arranged for the Sultan to make a long state visit to the Viceroy of India, staying in a villa in the Himalayas. Before the Feisal departed, Wingate established a Council of Ministers, nominally to advise the Sultan, but actually designed to hold the effective power during his absence. The sultan also gave Wingate the power to negotiate with the Imam on his behalf.
Having acquired the power to negotiate with the Imam and the tribesmen, Wingate needed to reassert the power of the Sultanate and find some leverage to force the Imam into negotiations. He began by collecting unpaid customs duties in order to raise more revenue for the Sultan, and sent emissaries to Isa Bin Salih, the Imam's chief deputy. Wingate's initial overtures proved unsuccessful, so he threatened to impose a "punitive tax" on dates, the chief export crop of Oman. Because the Sultan controlled the ports and coastal areas, he had the power to collect such a tax, which would have ruined the Omani farmers. After the imposition of the tax, riots erupted in the interior, and the Imam was murdered by angry farmers. A new Imam, who was more willing to negotiate, was selected and requested a meeting with Wingate.
Wingate agreed to the negotiations, and scheduled a meeting at the coastal town of As Sib in late September. The first two days of the meeting went well, and both sides reached a general agreement that the Imam and tribal leaders would not interfere with the Sultan's rule in the coastal areas if the Sultan would not interfere in the interior. Wingate also promised that upon the conclusion of an agreement, the tax on dates would be reduced to five percent. On the third day, however, trouble arose when the tribal leaders insisted that the Imam be formally acknowledged as a ruler equal to the Sultan and as a religious leader in the text of the agreement. Wingate, however, convinced the tribal leaders that the Imam should sign the agreement only in his capacity as a representative of the Omani tribes. Although the agreement became known as the Treaty of Sib, it was not in fact a treaty at all, but rather "an agreement between the Sultan and his subjects" as the sovereignty of the Sultan in all external affairs was recognized. Though the Treaty of Sib was a "bitter blow" to the Sultan, it led to an unprecedented thirty years of peace in the interior of Oman. The agreement was also well-received in Britain and India, and Wingate received congratulatory telegrams from the Viceroy of India and the Secretary of State for India
.
and was given six weeks of medical leave, which he decided to spend in Kashmir
. While in Kashmir, Wingate visited, Joe Windham, the British Resident, who offered to find him a job in India. Wingate went back to Oman, but returned to Kashmir in November as a special assistant to the Resident.
In Kashmir, Wingate first served in Poonch
, but the post of Assistant Resident in Poonch was abolished in December. Wingate then was moved to an assignment in Srinagar
. Srinagar was the site of a large club for British military officers and civil servants, and Wingate, finding that he had "a minimum of work", spent much of his time socializing and playing golf. In January 1923, Wingate was ordered back to Oman to serve as Consul a second time.
Wingate's second term as consul was relatively uneventful and lasted only until October when he again contracted malaria. The only major event came when the citizens of the town of Sur
refused to pay their customs duties. In order to coerce the town into payment, Wingate sent a detachment of 50 soldiers with machine guns to the town. Under the cover of darkness, the soldiers landed on the narrow spit of land connecting Sur to the mainland, cutting the town off from its water supply. The people of the town made no attempt to resist militarily and after two days without water, they paid the customs dues.
for New Years, but he spent nearly a year on leave much of it golfing at Muirfield. Then, in September 1924, he returned to India to serve as secretary to the agent of the Governor-General of Rajputana
, the chief British official in Rajputana. In that capacity, Wingate accompanied the agent on all of his state visits, and encountered for the first time what he considered "real India," rather than the frontier regions in which he had previously served.
In 1927, Wingate moved to the same position in Baluchistan
. Soon thereafter, in 1928, he was appointed the Deputy Commissioner and Political Agent in Quetta
and Pishin
. Wingate would later call his years in Quetta, "the happiest time that [he] spent in India," and greatly enjoyed the autonomy and respect he was granted there. While serving in Quetta, Wingate established a new water supply the city, and frequently became involved in matters relating to security and criminal justice.
While in Quetta, Wingate ordered the arrest of several leaders of the Achakzai
tribe. In retaliation, members of the tribe kidnapped
two British military officers near the town of Chaman
and held them for ransom, leading to "considerable criticism" of Wingate by the Army. In the end, Wingate paid a small portion of the ransom demanded, and threatened to send troops after the kidnappers, leading to the release of both the hostages. During his time in Quetta, Wingate also briefly hosted King Amanullah who was en route to Europe. In 1930, Wingate received a year's leave from India, during which he traveled around Europe. Upon his return to Baluchistan, in 1931, he became the Political Agent in Sibi
, but after only a few months he received a new assignment with the Indian government in Delhi
.
, Wingate found the period a very interesting time to be in the high levels of the government. His first job was to help integrate the princely state
s into federation with the rest India in preparation for independence. A particular challenge in the process involved determining how many representatives each of the states would have in the Constituent Assembly of India
. Wingate proposed "a scheme based upon permutations and combinations of the number of guns which were fired to salute the categories of Indian princes". The idea was acclaimed "as a stroke of genius" and adopted by the government.
In May 1935, Wingate was granted a year's leave and went to Vichy
for a much needed vacation with is wife. While in Vichy, Wingate heard of the terrible 1935 Balochistan earthquake
and returned immediately to England to see if his services were required by the government. Because of his loyalty to Quetta, Wingate volunteered to return there immediately. He was not asked to return immediately, but in October (after less than half of his promised leave), Wingate was ordered to return to India and become the Revenue Commissioner of Baluchistan.
Upon returning to Quetta, Wingate was saddened to find that most of his friends and acquaintances in the city had been killed by earthquake, and he spent the first six weeks of his time in the city helping to remove "four hundred smashed and disintregating corpses a day" from the ruins of the city. Shortly thereafter, the Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan, Alexander Cater
, left his position and Wingate became the Acting Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan.
During this period, Wingate, like most officers of the Indian Civil Service, supported Indian self-rule, and began to see the end of British India as inevitable. As such, Wingate decided in 1936 that he would leave India once his term as revenue commissioner ended. In November 1937, he was offered the position of Minister to Nepal
but declined. Instead, he took two years of leave that he had saved, planning to retire at its conclusion.
Wingate spent the next year traveling throughout Europe, and in early 1939, he rented a flat on the Chelsea Embankment
, where he planned to live with his wife. He spent his time exploring London
and soon began planning to run for a seat in House of Commons as the member from his constituency was planning to retire. After the outbreak of the Second World War; however, the member of parliament decided not to retire, and Wingate abandoned his hopes at politics, deciding that he would "have been quite useless as a Member of Parliament."
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Wingate was assigned to the Ministry of Economic Warfare, working in Southeast Asia and Africa and granted the rank of second lieutenant
in the Army. In September 1942, he was assigned to the London Controlling Section
(LCS), an organization devoted to military deception
, and part of the joint planning staff of the War Cabinet
. Wingate initially served as the Army representative of the operations subsection, and from March 1943 onward he served as Deputy Controller of the LCS under Colonel John Henry Bevan, Wingate was well-qualified for the position due to his extensive social connections, including friendships with several European monarchs, as well as his reputation for cunning. While at LCS, Wingate also worked closely with Hastings Ismay about whom he later wrote a biography. The two were already friendly with each other, having spent time together in India. While serving with the LCS, Wingate held the rank of lieutenant colonel
.
Early in 1943, Wingate and Bevan devised Plan Jael, an effort to disguise the true nature and location of the D-Day
landings. Wingate first presented Plan Jael to a meeting of American and British officers in the summer of 1943, who found the plan "so ambitious as to be the subject of some question as to its general plausibility." In the end, the plan evolved into Operation Bodyguard, which Wingate helped to coordinate.
Wingate participated in the planning for many other deception schemes, including Operation Mincemeat
, for which he approved the letters planted on a fake corpse.
Wingate was also involved in the cover plans for Operation Neptune
, the cross channel phase of Operation Overlord
. Sir Frederick Morgan
, the original planner of Operation Overlord, initially believed that no deception plan could successfully disguise Neptune, but Wingate convinced him to at least allow LCS to make an effort.
Wingate also devised another deception plan for Overlord codenamed Royal Flush, which recommended that the Allies approach three neutral countries: Spain
, Sweden
and Turkey
, and ask for their assistance with landings in Southern France. The Allies hoped that the Spanish in particular would pass this information along to the Germans, who would then expect landings in southern France, rather than in Normandy. The plan proved greatly successful; the Spanish passed the information to the Germans and even agreed to provide humanitarian aid for soldiers wounded in the landings. After the Normandy landings, the British used the Spanish for further deception by replying that they no longer needed Spanish assistance as the Normandy landings had been so successful that the plans for the south of France had been canceled. The Spanish reported this information to the Germans, helping to deceive them about the actual landings in the South of France
in August 1944.
At the end of the war, Wingate was chosen by the Combined Chiefs of Staff
to write an official history of Allied deception during the war. The report, which has been described as "urbane, literate and readable" dealt more with the British than the Americans, but provided an excellent reference and was approved by a conference in London in June 1947. Like other reports of the Allied deception strategies, the report was kept secret for many years as Wingate explained: "We wanted no articles in the Reader's Digest about how the Allies had outwitted the German General Staff. It was felt we might have to take the Russian General Staff on."
and in 1947, he became the British delegate on the Commission. Wingate retired from the Commission in 1958, after it had completed most of its work. Shortly after leaving the Tripartite Commission, Wingate was named a Companion in The Most Honourable Order of the Bath in the New Year's list of 1959. Wingate also entered the world of business, serving on the board of the Imperial Continental Gas Association
from 1953 until 1966.
In his later life, Wingate also wrote several books, beginning with Wingate of the Sudan, a biography of his father published in 1955. Next, Wingate wrote his own memoirs, Not in the Limelight, published in 1959. Finally, in 1970, he wrote Lord Ismay, a biography of Hastings Ismay.
Wingate of the Sudan was a fairly short biography, primarily based on private correspondence and diaries, to which Wingate naturally had access. Writing in the Middle East Journal
, Muhammad Sabry called the book "a real contribution to African history," applauding Wingate's style an accuracy.
Wingate named his memoirs, Not in the Limelight, as a reference to his own career, perpetually around significant events but rarely playing a central role in them. Olaf Caroe
wrote that the book was "engaging" with "flashes of shrewdness" and "a sense of wit." Caroe and others also praised the variosu intriguing details which Wingate revealed about both colonial India and the Second World War, for example Wingate's revelations about the Treaty of Seeb
.
Wingate's final book, Lord Ismay: A Biography was released in 1970. The book was "an adulatory biography" which made Wingate's personal respect for Ismay quite clear. As such, the book stood in contrast to Ismay's own memoirs which were "modest and discreet." The book was well-received and Brian Porter wrote in International Affairs
that it was a "welcome contribution to recent history."
Wingate died on August 31, 1978 at the age of 88.
Sir Ronald Evelyn Leslie Wingate, 2nd Baronet, CB
, CMG
, CIE
, OBE
(30 September 1889 – 31 August 1978) was a British colonial administrator, soldier and author. Wingate was born in 1889 in Kensington, London, and educated at Bradfield College
and Balliol College, Oxford
before entering the Indian Civil Service. In the Civil Service, he served as an Assistant Commissioner in Punjab
and the city magistrate of Delhi.
During the First World War, Wingate was given a special assignment with the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as an assistant political officer. After the war, he served as British Consul in Muscat, Oman
, and helped to negotiate the Treaty of Seeb
. He then briefly served in Kashmir before returning to Oman. After his second tour in Oman, Wingate held a variety of positions in British India, including service as the Acting Secretary of the Foreign and Political Department of the Indian Government and Commissioner of Baluchistan
.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Wingate served with the Ministry of Economic Warfare in Africa and Southeast Asia. Then, in 1942, he joined the London Controlling Section
(LCS), an organization within the War Cabinet
devoted to military deception
. Wingate became the Deputy Controller of the LCS in 1943 and helped to form numerous deception plans including Plan Jael, later called Operation Bodyguard
. At the conclusion of the war, he was chosen to write the official history of Allied deception operations during it.
After the war, Wingate served as the British delegate on the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold
and as a director on the board of the Imperial Continental Gas Association
. He also wrote three books: Wingate of the Sudan, a biography of his father, Reginald Wingate; Not in the limelight, his own memoirs; and Lord Ismay, a biography of General Hastings Ismay. Wingate died on 31 August 1978 at the age of 88.
Wingate was the son of Reginald Wingate, a British general who held important positions in Egypt
and Sudan
, and his wife Catherine Wingate
. Wingate was also a cousin of Lawrence of Arabia and Orde Wingate. Wingate spent his early childhood in Cairo
with his family, but in 1889 he was sent to live in England and enter school. From a very young age, he hoped to follow his father into military service, and he began his education at Bradfield College
planning to join the British Navy. While at Bradfield; however, Wingate discovered that he could not pass the Navy's medical exam because he was severely near-sighted and decided to instead pursue a civil service career.
Wingate left Bradfield and entered Balliol College, Oxford
, where he went to receive an MA. While at Oxford, Wingate hoped for a career in the Foreign Office, but his father convinced him that a posting abroad would be more favorable financially. Thus, in 1912, Wingate passed the civil service examinations and entered the Indian Civil Service (ICS). He was immediately sent back to Oxford, where he spent a year studying Urdu
and Persian
. During the Christmas holiday of his year at Oxford, Wingate visited his father in Khartoum
and met May Harpoth, the daughter of Paul Vinogradoff
, a prominent scholar at the University of Oxford
. In his memoirs, Wingate described their encounter as "love at first sight," and the two were engaged six months later before Wingate left for his first posting in India.
In 1913, Wingate began his ICS career as an Assistant Commissioner in Punjab
, posted in Sialkot
. Wingate "worked ceaselessly" at the various tasks of administration during the period, but enjoyed his duties. In 1916, Harpoth visited Wingate in India and the two were married in Lahore
. After a honeymoon in the Kangra Valley
, Wingate returned to work, becoming an aide de camp and assistant private secretary for the Governor of Punjab, and then the city magistrate of Delhi
.
At the beginning of the First World War, Wingate immediately volunteered to serve in Europe, but like most other members of the ICS, he was turned down. After the entry of the Ottoman Empire
into the war, Wingate hoped that his Arabic language
skills would result in a posting with the army, but he remained in India until 1917. In June 1917, after only a year in Delhi, Wingate joined the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as an assistant political officer. As a political officer, Wingate initially took part in administrative tasks, helping to rebuild a political system in areas conquered by the British. Wingate first worked to re-establish a customs system in liberated territories. He then led the team of political officers in Najaf
, where he worked to establish a police force and establish a basic system of taxation. Wingate also was responsible for entertaining notable Western guests who passed through Najaf, including Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
. During the war, Wingate also helped to negotiate British protectorates for the Gulf States
.
In addition to his work in traditional political matters, Wingate worked with Percy Cox, Gertrude Bell
and other British agents on several special operations. Most notably, he helped to bribe a Turkish army officer who had cut off a British force near Kut
and helped keep the Ottomans out of Najaf
. Wingate also helped to foil a plot by the Committee of Union and Progress
(CUP) to promote an uprising in Najaf by ordering ones of his aides to get the CUP agent drunk, leading him to reveal the details of the plot.
After the war, in 1919, Wingate was appointed British Consul in Muscat
, the capital of Oman
. When Wingate arrived in Oman, the country was in a state of turmoil due to a long-standing power struggle between the Imamate of Oman and the Sultan of Oman
. The tribesmen in the interior of Oman, who supported the Imam, sought the overthrow of the Sultan, who was kept in power in the coastal regions through British intervention. Upon assuming his position, Wingate was charged with negotiating a peace between the two groups that would ensure the power of the Sultan and prevent the outbreak of open warfare.
Wingate initially found the Sultan, Taimur bin Feisal
, uncooperative in efforts to reach a settlement. After years trapped in Muscat
with no power over the majority of his country, Feisal saw no reason to continue the struggle and told Wingate that "he wished to abdicate and be guarnateed some small pension which would enable him at lest to live live in peace somewhere outside Muscat and Arabia." Knowing that the Sultan's support would be key to any plan, Wingate arranged for the Sultan to make a long state visit to the Viceroy of India, staying in a villa in the Himalayas. Before the Feisal departed, Wingate established a Council of Ministers, nominally to advise the Sultan, but actually designed to hold the effective power during his absence. The sultan also gave Wingate the power to negotiate with the Imam on his behalf.
Having acquired the power to negotiate with the Imam and the tribesmen, Wingate needed to reassert the power of the Sultanate and find some leverage to force the Imam into negotiations. He began by collecting unpaid customs duties in order to raise more revenue for the Sultan, and sent emissaries to Isa Bin Salih, the Imam's chief deputy. Wingate's initial overtures proved unsuccessful, so he threatened to impose a "punitive tax" on dates, the chief export crop of Oman. Because the Sultan controlled the ports and coastal areas, he had the power to collect such a tax, which would have ruined the Omani farmers. After the imposition of the tax, riots erupted in the interior, and the Imam was murdered by angry farmers. A new Imam, who was more willing to negotiate, was selected and requested a meeting with Wingate.
Wingate agreed to the negotiations, and scheduled a meeting at the coastal town of As Sib in late September. The first two days of the meeting went well, and both sides reached a general agreement that the Imam and tribal leaders would not interfere with the Sultan's rule in the coastal areas if the Sultan would not interfere in the interior. Wingate also promised that upon the conclusion of an agreement, the tax on dates would be reduced to five percent. On the third day, however, trouble arose when the tribal leaders insisted that the Imam be formally acknowledged as a ruler equal to the Sultan and as a religious leader in the text of the agreement. Wingate, however, convinced the tribal leaders that the Imam should sign the agreement only in his capacity as a representative of the Omani tribes. Although the agreement became known as the Treaty of Sib, it was not in fact a treaty at all, but rather "an agreement between the Sultan and his subjects" as the sovereignty of the Sultan in all external affairs was recognized. Though the Treaty of Sib was a "bitter blow" to the Sultan, it led to an unprecedented thirty years of peace in the interior of Oman. The agreement was also well-received in Britain and India, and Wingate received congratulatory telegrams from the Viceroy of India and the Secretary of State for India
.
and was given six weeks of medical leave, which he decided to spend in Kashmir
. While in Kashmir, Wingate visited, Joe Windham, the British Resident, who offered to find him a job in India. Wingate went back to Oman, but returned to Kashmir in November as a special assistant to the Resident.
In Kashmir, Wingate first served in Poonch
, but the post of Assistant Resident in Poonch was abolished in December. Wingate then was moved to an assignment in Srinagar
. Srinagar was the site of a large club for British military officers and civil servants, and Wingate, finding that he had "a minimum of work", spent much of his time socializing and playing golf. In January 1923, Wingate was ordered back to Oman to serve as Consul a second time.
Wingate's second term as consul was relatively uneventful and lasted only until October when he again contracted malaria. The only major event came when the citizens of the town of Sur
refused to pay their customs duties. In order to coerce the town into payment, Wingate sent a detachment of 50 soldiers with machine guns to the town. Under the cover of darkness, the soldiers landed on the narrow spit of land connecting Sur to the mainland, cutting the town off from its water supply. The people of the town made no attempt to resist militarily and after two days without water, they paid the customs dues.
for New Years, but he spent nearly a year on leave much of it golfing at Muirfield. Then, in September 1924, he returned to India to serve as secretary to the agent of the Governor-General of Rajputana
, the chief British official in Rajputana. In that capacity, Wingate accompanied the agent on all of his state visits, and encountered for the first time what he considered "real India," rather than the frontier regions in which he had previously served.
In 1927, Wingate moved to the same position in Baluchistan
. Soon thereafter, in 1928, he was appointed the Deputy Commissioner and Political Agent in Quetta
and Pishin
. Wingate would later call his years in Quetta, "the happiest time that [he] spent in India," and greatly enjoyed the autonomy and respect he was granted there. While serving in Quetta, Wingate established a new water supply the city, and frequently became involved in matters relating to security and criminal justice.
While in Quetta, Wingate ordered the arrest of several leaders of the Achakzai
tribe. In retaliation, members of the tribe kidnapped
two British military officers near the town of Chaman
and held them for ransom, leading to "considerable criticism" of Wingate by the Army. In the end, Wingate paid a small portion of the ransom demanded, and threatened to send troops after the kidnappers, leading to the release of both the hostages. During his time in Quetta, Wingate also briefly hosted King Amanullah who was en route to Europe. In 1930, Wingate received a year's leave from India, during which he traveled around Europe. Upon his return to Baluchistan, in 1931, he became the Political Agent in Sibi
, but after only a few months he received a new assignment with the Indian government in Delhi
.
, Wingate found the period a very interesting time to be in the high levels of the government. His first job was to help integrate the princely state
s into federation with the rest India in preparation for independence. A particular challenge in the process involved determining how many representatives each of the states would have in the Constituent Assembly of India
. Wingate proposed "a scheme based upon permutations and combinations of the number of guns which were fired to salute the categories of Indian princes". The idea was acclaimed "as a stroke of genius" and adopted by the government.
In May 1935, Wingate was granted a year's leave and went to Vichy
for a much needed vacation with is wife. While in Vichy, Wingate heard of the terrible 1935 Balochistan earthquake
and returned immediately to England to see if his services were required by the government. Because of his loyalty to Quetta, Wingate volunteered to return there immediately. He was not asked to return immediately, but in October (after less than half of his promised leave), Wingate was ordered to return to India and become the Revenue Commissioner of Baluchistan.
Upon returning to Quetta, Wingate was saddened to find that most of his friends and acquaintances in the city had been killed by earthquake, and he spent the first six weeks of his time in the city helping to remove "four hundred smashed and disintregating corpses a day" from the ruins of the city. Shortly thereafter, the Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan, Alexander Cater
, left his position and Wingate became the Acting Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan.
During this period, Wingate, like most officers of the Indian Civil Service, supported Indian self-rule, and began to see the end of British India as inevitable. As such, Wingate decided in 1936 that he would leave India once his term as revenue commissioner ended. In November 1937, he was offered the position of Minister to Nepal
but declined. Instead, he took two years of leave that he had saved, planning to retire at its conclusion.
Wingate spent the next year traveling throughout Europe, and in early 1939, he rented a flat on the Chelsea Embankment
, where he planned to live with his wife. He spent his time exploring London
and soon began planning to run for a seat in House of Commons as the member from his constituency was planning to retire. After the outbreak of the Second World War; however, the member of parliament decided not to retire, and Wingate abandoned his hopes at politics, deciding that he would "have been quite useless as a Member of Parliament."
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Wingate was assigned to the Ministry of Economic Warfare, working in Southeast Asia and Africa and granted the rank of second lieutenant
in the Army. In September 1942, he was assigned to the London Controlling Section
(LCS), an organization devoted to military deception
, and part of the joint planning staff of the War Cabinet
. Wingate initially served as the Army representative of the operations subsection, and from March 1943 onward he served as Deputy Controller of the LCS under Colonel John Henry Bevan, Wingate was well-qualified for the position due to his extensive social connections, including friendships with several European monarchs, as well as his reputation for cunning. While at LCS, Wingate also worked closely with Hastings Ismay about whom he later wrote a biography. The two were already friendly with each other, having spent time together in India. While serving with the LCS, Wingate held the rank of lieutenant colonel
.
Early in 1943, Wingate and Bevan devised Plan Jael, an effort to disguise the true nature and location of the D-Day
landings. Wingate first presented Plan Jael to a meeting of American and British officers in the summer of 1943, who found the plan "so ambitious as to be the subject of some question as to its general plausibility." In the end, the plan evolved into Operation Bodyguard, which Wingate helped to coordinate.
Wingate participated in the planning for many other deception schemes, including Operation Mincemeat
, for which he approved the letters planted on a fake corpse.
Wingate was also involved in the cover plans for Operation Neptune
, the cross channel phase of Operation Overlord
. Sir Frederick Morgan
, the original planner of Operation Overlord, initially believed that no deception plan could successfully disguise Neptune, but Wingate convinced him to at least allow LCS to make an effort.
Wingate also devised another deception plan for Overlord codenamed Royal Flush, which recommended that the Allies approach three neutral countries: Spain
, Sweden
and Turkey
, and ask for their assistance with landings in Southern France. The Allies hoped that the Spanish in particular would pass this information along to the Germans, who would then expect landings in southern France, rather than in Normandy. The plan proved greatly successful; the Spanish passed the information to the Germans and even agreed to provide humanitarian aid for soldiers wounded in the landings. After the Normandy landings, the British used the Spanish for further deception by replying that they no longer needed Spanish assistance as the Normandy landings had been so successful that the plans for the south of France had been canceled. The Spanish reported this information to the Germans, helping to deceive them about the actual landings in the South of France
in August 1944.
At the end of the war, Wingate was chosen by the Combined Chiefs of Staff
to write an official history of Allied deception during the war. The report, which has been described as "urbane, literate and readable" dealt more with the British than the Americans, but provided an excellent reference and was approved by a conference in London in June 1947. Like other reports of the Allied deception strategies, the report was kept secret for many years as Wingate explained: "We wanted no articles in the Reader's Digest about how the Allies had outwitted the German General Staff. It was felt we might have to take the Russian General Staff on."
and in 1947, he became the British delegate on the Commission. Wingate retired from the Commission in 1958, after it had completed most of its work. Shortly after leaving the Tripartite Commission, Wingate was named a Companion in The Most Honourable Order of the Bath in the New Year's list of 1959. Wingate also entered the world of business, serving on the board of the Imperial Continental Gas Association
from 1953 until 1966.
In his later life, Wingate also wrote several books, beginning with Wingate of the Sudan, a biography of his father published in 1955. Next, Wingate wrote his own memoirs, Not in the Limelight, published in 1959. Finally, in 1970, he wrote Lord Ismay, a biography of Hastings Ismay.
Wingate of the Sudan was a fairly short biography, primarily based on private correspondence and diaries, to which Wingate naturally had access. Writing in the Middle East Journal
, Muhammad Sabry called the book "a real contribution to African history," applauding Wingate's style an accuracy.
Wingate named his memoirs, Not in the Limelight, as a reference to his own career, perpetually around significant events but rarely playing a central role in them. Olaf Caroe
wrote that the book was "engaging" with "flashes of shrewdness" and "a sense of wit." Caroe and others also praised the variosu intriguing details which Wingate revealed about both colonial India and the Second World War, for example Wingate's revelations about the Treaty of Seeb
.
Wingate's final book, Lord Ismay: A Biography was released in 1970. The book was "an adulatory biography" which made Wingate's personal respect for Ismay quite clear. As such, the book stood in contrast to Ismay's own memoirs which were "modest and discreet." The book was well-received and Brian Porter wrote in International Affairs
that it was a "welcome contribution to recent history."
Wingate died on August 31, 1978 at the age of 88.
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
, CMG
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
, CIE
Order of the Indian Empire
The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...
, OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(30 September 1889 – 31 August 1978) was a British colonial administrator, soldier and author. Wingate was born in 1889 in Kensington, London, and educated at Bradfield College
Bradfield College
Bradfield College is a coeducational independent school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire.The college was founded in 1850 by Thomas Stevens, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Bradfield...
and Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
before entering the Indian Civil Service. In the Civil Service, he served as an Assistant Commissioner in Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
and the city magistrate of Delhi.
During the First World War, Wingate was given a special assignment with the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as an assistant political officer. After the war, he served as British Consul in Muscat, Oman
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
, and helped to negotiate the Treaty of Seeb
Treaty of Seeb
The Treaty of Seeb, or Treaty of As Sib was an agreement reached between Sultan Taimur bin Feisal of Muscat and the Imam of Oman in 1920. It gave autonomy to the Imamate of Oman regarding the interior regions of the Muscat and Oman Protectorate, while the sultan would retain sovereignty over the...
. He then briefly served in Kashmir before returning to Oman. After his second tour in Oman, Wingate held a variety of positions in British India, including service as the Acting Secretary of the Foreign and Political Department of the Indian Government and Commissioner of Baluchistan
Baluchistan Agency
The Baluchistan Agency was one of the agencies of British India. Agency Territories, with an area of 44,345 square miles , composed of tracts which had, from time to time, been acquired by lease or otherwise brought under control and been placed directly under British officers.This agency consisted...
.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Wingate served with the Ministry of Economic Warfare in Africa and Southeast Asia. Then, in 1942, he joined the London Controlling Section
London Controlling Section
The London Controlling Section was established in June 1942 within the Joint Planning Staff at the offices of the War Cabinet, which was presided over by Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. The purpose of the LCS was to devise and coordinate strategic military deception and cover plans. The plans...
(LCS), an organization within the War Cabinet
War Cabinet
A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members....
devoted to military deception
Military deception
Military deception is an attempt to amplify, or create an artificial fog of war or to mislead the enemy using psychological operations, information warfare and other methods. As a form of strategic use of information , it overlaps with psychological warfare...
. Wingate became the Deputy Controller of the LCS in 1943 and helped to form numerous deception plans including Plan Jael, later called Operation Bodyguard
Operation Bodyguard
Operation Bodyguard was the code name for a World War II military deception employed by the Allied nations during the build up to the 1944 invasion of north-western Europe. The aim of the operation was to mislead the German high command as to the exact date and location of the invasion...
. At the conclusion of the war, he was chosen to write the official history of Allied deception operations during it.
After the war, Wingate served as the British delegate on the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold
Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold
The Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold, also known as the Tripartite Gold Commission, was a panel established in September 1946 by the United Kingdom, United States and France to recover gold stolen by Nazi Germany from other nations and eventually return it to the rightful...
and as a director on the board of the Imperial Continental Gas Association
Imperial Continental Gas Association
Imperial Continental Gas Association plc was a leading British gas utility operating in various cities in Continental Europe . It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
. He also wrote three books: Wingate of the Sudan, a biography of his father, Reginald Wingate; Not in the limelight, his own memoirs; and Lord Ismay, a biography of General Hastings Ismay. Wingate died on 31 August 1978 at the age of 88.
Early life
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, and his wife Catherine Wingate
Catherine Wingate
Dame Catherine Leslie Wingate DBE , née Catherine Leslie Rundle, was a British humanitarian.She was the daughter of Royal Navy Captain Joseph Rundle and his wife, Renira Catherine , and the sister of General Sir Leslie Rundle. On 18 June 1888 she married Reginald Wingate, a Royal Artillery officer...
. Wingate was also a cousin of Lawrence of Arabia and Orde Wingate. Wingate spent his early childhood in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
with his family, but in 1889 he was sent to live in England and enter school. From a very young age, he hoped to follow his father into military service, and he began his education at Bradfield College
Bradfield College
Bradfield College is a coeducational independent school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire.The college was founded in 1850 by Thomas Stevens, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Bradfield...
planning to join the British Navy. While at Bradfield; however, Wingate discovered that he could not pass the Navy's medical exam because he was severely near-sighted and decided to instead pursue a civil service career.
Wingate left Bradfield and entered Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
, where he went to receive an MA. While at Oxford, Wingate hoped for a career in the Foreign Office, but his father convinced him that a posting abroad would be more favorable financially. Thus, in 1912, Wingate passed the civil service examinations and entered the Indian Civil Service (ICS). He was immediately sent back to Oxford, where he spent a year studying Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
and Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
. During the Christmas holiday of his year at Oxford, Wingate visited his father in Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
and met May Harpoth, the daughter of Paul Vinogradoff
Paul Vinogradoff
Sir Paul Vinogradoff November 1854, Kostroma, Russia– 19 December 1925, Paris, France) was a highly reputable Anglo-Russian historian-medievalist.-Career:...
, a prominent scholar at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. In his memoirs, Wingate described their encounter as "love at first sight," and the two were engaged six months later before Wingate left for his first posting in India.
In 1913, Wingate began his ICS career as an Assistant Commissioner in Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
, posted in Sialkot
Sialkot
Sialkot is a city in Pakistan situated in the north-east of the Punjab province at the foothills of snow-covered peaks of Kashmir near the Chenab river. It is the capital of Sialkot District. The city is about north-west of Lahore and only a few kilometers from Indian-controlled Jammu.The...
. Wingate "worked ceaselessly" at the various tasks of administration during the period, but enjoyed his duties. In 1916, Harpoth visited Wingate in India and the two were married in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
. After a honeymoon in the Kangra Valley
Kangra Valley
Kangra Valley is situated in Himachal Pradesh, India. It is a popular tourist destination, with the peak season around March and April.Dharamsala, the headquarters of Kangra district, lies on the southern spur of Dhauladhar in the valley .-Geography:...
, Wingate returned to work, becoming an aide de camp and assistant private secretary for the Governor of Punjab, and then the city magistrate of Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
.
First World War
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
into the war, Wingate hoped that his Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
skills would result in a posting with the army, but he remained in India until 1917. In June 1917, after only a year in Delhi, Wingate joined the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as an assistant political officer. As a political officer, Wingate initially took part in administrative tasks, helping to rebuild a political system in areas conquered by the British. Wingate first worked to re-establish a customs system in liberated territories. He then led the team of political officers in Najaf
Najaf
Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
, where he worked to establish a police force and establish a basic system of taxation. Wingate also was responsible for entertaining notable Western guests who passed through Najaf, including Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia was a Russian imperial dynast. He is known for being involved in the murder of the mystic peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin, who he felt held undue sway over Tsar Nicholas II.-Early life:Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was born at Ilinskoe near Moscow, the...
. During the war, Wingate also helped to negotiate British protectorates for the Gulf States
Arab states of the Persian Gulf
"Arab states of the Persian Gulf" or "Arab Persian Gulf states" or "Persian Gulf Arab states" or "Arabic Persian Gulf states" or "Arab States of The Gulf", are terms that refer to the six Arab states of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, bordering the Persian Gulf....
.
In addition to his work in traditional political matters, Wingate worked with Percy Cox, Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along...
and other British agents on several special operations. Most notably, he helped to bribe a Turkish army officer who had cut off a British force near Kut
Kut
Al-Kūt is a city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about 160 kilometres south east of Baghdad. the estimated population is about 374,000 people...
and helped keep the Ottomans out of Najaf
Najaf
Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
. Wingate also helped to foil a plot by the Committee of Union and Progress
Committee of Union and Progress
The Committee of Union and Progress began as a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" in 1889 by the medical students İbrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti and Ali Hüseyinzade...
(CUP) to promote an uprising in Najaf by ordering ones of his aides to get the CUP agent drunk, leading him to reveal the details of the plot.
First term as Consul to Oman
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
, the capital of Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
. When Wingate arrived in Oman, the country was in a state of turmoil due to a long-standing power struggle between the Imamate of Oman and the Sultan of Oman
Sultan of Oman
-List of Imams :-Nabhan Dynasty :-Ya'ariba Dynasty :-Banu Ghafir Dynasty :-Ya'ariba Dynasty :-Al Said Dynasty :-See also:...
. The tribesmen in the interior of Oman, who supported the Imam, sought the overthrow of the Sultan, who was kept in power in the coastal regions through British intervention. Upon assuming his position, Wingate was charged with negotiating a peace between the two groups that would ensure the power of the Sultan and prevent the outbreak of open warfare.
Wingate initially found the Sultan, Taimur bin Feisal
Taimur bin Feisal
al-Wasik Billah al-Majid Sayyid Taimur bin Faisal bin Turki, KCIE, CSI was the sultan of Muscat and Oman from October 15, 1913 to February 10, 1932. He was born at Muscat and succeeded his father Faisal bin Turki, Sultan of Muscat and Oman as Sultan.Taimur ibn Faisal succeeded his father as...
, uncooperative in efforts to reach a settlement. After years trapped in Muscat
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
with no power over the majority of his country, Feisal saw no reason to continue the struggle and told Wingate that "he wished to abdicate and be guarnateed some small pension which would enable him at lest to live live in peace somewhere outside Muscat and Arabia." Knowing that the Sultan's support would be key to any plan, Wingate arranged for the Sultan to make a long state visit to the Viceroy of India, staying in a villa in the Himalayas. Before the Feisal departed, Wingate established a Council of Ministers, nominally to advise the Sultan, but actually designed to hold the effective power during his absence. The sultan also gave Wingate the power to negotiate with the Imam on his behalf.
Having acquired the power to negotiate with the Imam and the tribesmen, Wingate needed to reassert the power of the Sultanate and find some leverage to force the Imam into negotiations. He began by collecting unpaid customs duties in order to raise more revenue for the Sultan, and sent emissaries to Isa Bin Salih, the Imam's chief deputy. Wingate's initial overtures proved unsuccessful, so he threatened to impose a "punitive tax" on dates, the chief export crop of Oman. Because the Sultan controlled the ports and coastal areas, he had the power to collect such a tax, which would have ruined the Omani farmers. After the imposition of the tax, riots erupted in the interior, and the Imam was murdered by angry farmers. A new Imam, who was more willing to negotiate, was selected and requested a meeting with Wingate.
Wingate agreed to the negotiations, and scheduled a meeting at the coastal town of As Sib in late September. The first two days of the meeting went well, and both sides reached a general agreement that the Imam and tribal leaders would not interfere with the Sultan's rule in the coastal areas if the Sultan would not interfere in the interior. Wingate also promised that upon the conclusion of an agreement, the tax on dates would be reduced to five percent. On the third day, however, trouble arose when the tribal leaders insisted that the Imam be formally acknowledged as a ruler equal to the Sultan and as a religious leader in the text of the agreement. Wingate, however, convinced the tribal leaders that the Imam should sign the agreement only in his capacity as a representative of the Omani tribes. Although the agreement became known as the Treaty of Sib, it was not in fact a treaty at all, but rather "an agreement between the Sultan and his subjects" as the sovereignty of the Sultan in all external affairs was recognized. Though the Treaty of Sib was a "bitter blow" to the Sultan, it led to an unprecedented thirty years of peace in the interior of Oman. The agreement was also well-received in Britain and India, and Wingate received congratulatory telegrams from the Viceroy of India and the Secretary of State for India
Secretary of State for India
The Secretary of State for India, or India Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister responsible for the government of India and the political head of the India Office...
.
Kashmir and second term in Oman
In July 1921, Wingate contracted malariaMalaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
and was given six weeks of medical leave, which he decided to spend in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
. While in Kashmir, Wingate visited, Joe Windham, the British Resident, who offered to find him a job in India. Wingate went back to Oman, but returned to Kashmir in November as a special assistant to the Resident.
In Kashmir, Wingate first served in Poonch
Poonch
Poonch is a town and a municipal committee in Poonch District in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Based on the Mahābhārata evidence, and the evidence from 7th Chinese traveler Xuanzang, the districts of Poonch along with Rajauri and Abhisara had been under the sway of the Republican Kambojas...
, but the post of Assistant Resident in Poonch was abolished in December. Wingate then was moved to an assignment in Srinagar
Srinagar
Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...
. Srinagar was the site of a large club for British military officers and civil servants, and Wingate, finding that he had "a minimum of work", spent much of his time socializing and playing golf. In January 1923, Wingate was ordered back to Oman to serve as Consul a second time.
Wingate's second term as consul was relatively uneventful and lasted only until October when he again contracted malaria. The only major event came when the citizens of the town of Sur
Sur, Oman
Sur is a capital city of Ash Sharqiyah Region, northeastern Oman, on the coast of the Gulf of Oman. It is located at around , and is 93 miles southeast of the Omani capital Muscat. Historically the city is known for being an important destination point for sailors...
refused to pay their customs duties. In order to coerce the town into payment, Wingate sent a detachment of 50 soldiers with machine guns to the town. Under the cover of darkness, the soldiers landed on the narrow spit of land connecting Sur to the mainland, cutting the town off from its water supply. The people of the town made no attempt to resist militarily and after two days without water, they paid the customs dues.
Rajputana and Baluchistan
Wingate left Oman after contracting malaria in October and returned to England for medical care. After several weeks in a nursing home, Wingate had recovered sufficiently to visit St. MoritzSt. Moritz
St. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden...
for New Years, but he spent nearly a year on leave much of it golfing at Muirfield. Then, in September 1924, he returned to India to serve as secretary to the agent of the Governor-General of Rajputana
Rajputana
Rājputāna was the pre-1949 name of the present-day Indian state of Rājasthān, the largest state of the Republic of India in terms of area. George Thomas was the first in 1800 A.D., to term this region as Rajputana...
, the chief British official in Rajputana. In that capacity, Wingate accompanied the agent on all of his state visits, and encountered for the first time what he considered "real India," rather than the frontier regions in which he had previously served.
In 1927, Wingate moved to the same position in Baluchistan
Baluchistan Agency
The Baluchistan Agency was one of the agencies of British India. Agency Territories, with an area of 44,345 square miles , composed of tracts which had, from time to time, been acquired by lease or otherwise brought under control and been placed directly under British officers.This agency consisted...
. Soon thereafter, in 1928, he was appointed the Deputy Commissioner and Political Agent in Quetta
Quetta
is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. Known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan" due to the diversity of its plant and animal wildlife, Quetta is home to the Hazarganji Chiltan National Park, which contains some of the rarest species of wildlife in the...
and Pishin
Pishin
Pishin is a small town located in the Pishin District of Balochistan province, Pakistan. It is the capital of the district, and is located in the east of the province at 30°35'0N 67°0'0E near the border with Afghanistan with an altitude of 1555 metres . Tremors from the 2008 Pakistan earthquake...
. Wingate would later call his years in Quetta, "the happiest time that [he] spent in India," and greatly enjoyed the autonomy and respect he was granted there. While serving in Quetta, Wingate established a new water supply the city, and frequently became involved in matters relating to security and criminal justice.
While in Quetta, Wingate ordered the arrest of several leaders of the Achakzai
Achakzai
Achakzai are Durrani primarily found in southern Afghanistan and northern regions of Balochistan Province, Pakistan.-Demographics:Achakzais of Afghanistan are mainly located in Spin Boldak, Reg, Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan and Herat...
tribe. In retaliation, members of the tribe kidnapped
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
two British military officers near the town of Chaman
Chaman
Chaman is the capital of Qilla Abdullah District, Balochistan, Pakistan. It is situated just south of the border with Afghanistan. Across the border in Afghanistan is the neighbouring town of Spin Boldak, in Kandahar Province...
and held them for ransom, leading to "considerable criticism" of Wingate by the Army. In the end, Wingate paid a small portion of the ransom demanded, and threatened to send troops after the kidnappers, leading to the release of both the hostages. During his time in Quetta, Wingate also briefly hosted King Amanullah who was en route to Europe. In 1930, Wingate received a year's leave from India, during which he traveled around Europe. Upon his return to Baluchistan, in 1931, he became the Political Agent in Sibi
Sibi
Sibi is a city of Balochistan province of Pakistan. The city is located at 29°33'0N 67°52'60E at an altitude of 130 metres and is headquarters of the district and tehsil of the same name.. According to the 2001 census of Pakistan the population of Sibi is 52,100...
, but after only a few months he received a new assignment with the Indian government in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
.
Indian government
In 1932, Wingate was appointed the Deputy Secretary of the Foreign and Political Department of the Indian government. As India was in the middle of reforms aimed at eventual independence, the result of the report of the Simon CommissionSimon Commission
The Indian Statutory Commission was a group of seven British Members of Parliament that had been dispatched to India in 1927 to study constitutional reform in Britain's most important colonial dependency. It was commonly referred to as the Simon Commission after its chairman, Sir John Simon...
, Wingate found the period a very interesting time to be in the high levels of the government. His first job was to help integrate the princely state
Princely state
A Princely State was a nominally sovereign entitity of British rule in India that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule such as suzerainty or paramountcy.-British relationship with the Princely States:India under the British Raj ...
s into federation with the rest India in preparation for independence. A particular challenge in the process involved determining how many representatives each of the states would have in the Constituent Assembly of India
Constituent Assembly of India
The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to write the Constitution of India, and following independence served as the nation's first Parliament.-Nature of the Assembly:...
. Wingate proposed "a scheme based upon permutations and combinations of the number of guns which were fired to salute the categories of Indian princes". The idea was acclaimed "as a stroke of genius" and adopted by the government.
Vichy
Vichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...
for a much needed vacation with is wife. While in Vichy, Wingate heard of the terrible 1935 Balochistan earthquake
1935 Balochistan earthquake
The 1935 Balochistan Earthquake occurred on May 31, 1935 at 3:02am at Quetta, Balochistan, British India . The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.7 Mw and anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000 people died from the impact. This ranks as one of the deadliest earthquakes that hit South Asia...
and returned immediately to England to see if his services were required by the government. Because of his loyalty to Quetta, Wingate volunteered to return there immediately. He was not asked to return immediately, but in October (after less than half of his promised leave), Wingate was ordered to return to India and become the Revenue Commissioner of Baluchistan.
Upon returning to Quetta, Wingate was saddened to find that most of his friends and acquaintances in the city had been killed by earthquake, and he spent the first six weeks of his time in the city helping to remove "four hundred smashed and disintregating corpses a day" from the ruins of the city. Shortly thereafter, the Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan, Alexander Cater
Alexander Cater
Sir Alexander Norman Ley Cater KCIE was an administrator in British India. He joined the ICS in 1904 and served in the First World War, during which he rose to the rank of Captain. He later became a Lieutenant in the Hyderabad Rifles. In 1921, he received the Order of the White Elephant, 3rd Class...
, left his position and Wingate became the Acting Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan.
During this period, Wingate, like most officers of the Indian Civil Service, supported Indian self-rule, and began to see the end of British India as inevitable. As such, Wingate decided in 1936 that he would leave India once his term as revenue commissioner ended. In November 1937, he was offered the position of Minister to Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
but declined. Instead, he took two years of leave that he had saved, planning to retire at its conclusion.
Wingate spent the next year traveling throughout Europe, and in early 1939, he rented a flat on the Chelsea Embankment
Chelsea Embankment
Chelsea Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and walkway along the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England.The western end of Chelsea Embankment, including a stretch of Cheyne Walk, is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea; the eastern end, including...
, where he planned to live with his wife. He spent his time exploring London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and soon began planning to run for a seat in House of Commons as the member from his constituency was planning to retire. After the outbreak of the Second World War; however, the member of parliament decided not to retire, and Wingate abandoned his hopes at politics, deciding that he would "have been quite useless as a Member of Parliament."
Second World War
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
in the Army. In September 1942, he was assigned to the London Controlling Section
London Controlling Section
The London Controlling Section was established in June 1942 within the Joint Planning Staff at the offices of the War Cabinet, which was presided over by Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. The purpose of the LCS was to devise and coordinate strategic military deception and cover plans. The plans...
(LCS), an organization devoted to military deception
Military deception
Military deception is an attempt to amplify, or create an artificial fog of war or to mislead the enemy using psychological operations, information warfare and other methods. As a form of strategic use of information , it overlaps with psychological warfare...
, and part of the joint planning staff of the War Cabinet
War Cabinet
A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members....
. Wingate initially served as the Army representative of the operations subsection, and from March 1943 onward he served as Deputy Controller of the LCS under Colonel John Henry Bevan, Wingate was well-qualified for the position due to his extensive social connections, including friendships with several European monarchs, as well as his reputation for cunning. While at LCS, Wingate also worked closely with Hastings Ismay about whom he later wrote a biography. The two were already friendly with each other, having spent time together in India. While serving with the LCS, Wingate held the rank of lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
.
Early in 1943, Wingate and Bevan devised Plan Jael, an effort to disguise the true nature and location of the D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
landings. Wingate first presented Plan Jael to a meeting of American and British officers in the summer of 1943, who found the plan "so ambitious as to be the subject of some question as to its general plausibility." In the end, the plan evolved into Operation Bodyguard, which Wingate helped to coordinate.
Wingate participated in the planning for many other deception schemes, including Operation Mincemeat
Operation Mincemeat
Operation Mincemeat was a successful British deception plan during World War II. As part of the widespread deception plan Operation Barclay to cover the intended invasion of Italy from North Africa, Mincemeat helped to convince the German high command that the Allies planned to invade Greece and...
, for which he approved the letters planted on a fake corpse.
Wingate was also involved in the cover plans for Operation Neptune
Operation Neptune
The Normandy landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 , beginning at 6:30 AM British Double Summer Time...
, the cross channel phase of Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
. Sir Frederick Morgan
Frederick E. Morgan
Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Edgeworth Morgan KCB was a British Army officer who fought in the First World War and the Second World War...
, the original planner of Operation Overlord, initially believed that no deception plan could successfully disguise Neptune, but Wingate convinced him to at least allow LCS to make an effort.
Wingate also devised another deception plan for Overlord codenamed Royal Flush, which recommended that the Allies approach three neutral countries: Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, and ask for their assistance with landings in Southern France. The Allies hoped that the Spanish in particular would pass this information along to the Germans, who would then expect landings in southern France, rather than in Normandy. The plan proved greatly successful; the Spanish passed the information to the Germans and even agreed to provide humanitarian aid for soldiers wounded in the landings. After the Normandy landings, the British used the Spanish for further deception by replying that they no longer needed Spanish assistance as the Normandy landings had been so successful that the plans for the south of France had been canceled. The Spanish reported this information to the Germans, helping to deceive them about the actual landings in the South of France
Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, followed a day later by a force made up...
in August 1944.
At the end of the war, Wingate was chosen by the Combined Chiefs of Staff
Combined Chiefs of Staff
The Combined Chiefs of Staff was the supreme military command for the western Allies during World War II. It was a body constituted from the British Chiefs of Staff Committee and the American Joint Chiefs of Staff....
to write an official history of Allied deception during the war. The report, which has been described as "urbane, literate and readable" dealt more with the British than the Americans, but provided an excellent reference and was approved by a conference in London in June 1947. Like other reports of the Allied deception strategies, the report was kept secret for many years as Wingate explained: "We wanted no articles in the Reader's Digest about how the Allies had outwitted the German General Staff. It was felt we might have to take the Russian General Staff on."
Later life and publications
After the war, Wingate served on the British delegation to the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary GoldTripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold
The Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold, also known as the Tripartite Gold Commission, was a panel established in September 1946 by the United Kingdom, United States and France to recover gold stolen by Nazi Germany from other nations and eventually return it to the rightful...
and in 1947, he became the British delegate on the Commission. Wingate retired from the Commission in 1958, after it had completed most of its work. Shortly after leaving the Tripartite Commission, Wingate was named a Companion in The Most Honourable Order of the Bath in the New Year's list of 1959. Wingate also entered the world of business, serving on the board of the Imperial Continental Gas Association
Imperial Continental Gas Association
Imperial Continental Gas Association plc was a leading British gas utility operating in various cities in Continental Europe . It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
from 1953 until 1966.
In his later life, Wingate also wrote several books, beginning with Wingate of the Sudan, a biography of his father published in 1955. Next, Wingate wrote his own memoirs, Not in the Limelight, published in 1959. Finally, in 1970, he wrote Lord Ismay, a biography of Hastings Ismay.
Wingate of the Sudan was a fairly short biography, primarily based on private correspondence and diaries, to which Wingate naturally had access. Writing in the Middle East Journal
Middle East Journal
The Middle East Journal is published by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Institute. It was first published in 1947, making it the oldest U.S. peer-reviewed publication on the modern Middle East...
, Muhammad Sabry called the book "a real contribution to African history," applauding Wingate's style an accuracy.
Wingate named his memoirs, Not in the Limelight, as a reference to his own career, perpetually around significant events but rarely playing a central role in them. Olaf Caroe
Olaf Caroe
Sir Olaf Kirkpatrick Kruuse Caroe KCSI KCIE was an administrator in British India. He later became a writer on the Middle East and Asia.-Life:...
wrote that the book was "engaging" with "flashes of shrewdness" and "a sense of wit." Caroe and others also praised the variosu intriguing details which Wingate revealed about both colonial India and the Second World War, for example Wingate's revelations about the Treaty of Seeb
Treaty of Seeb
The Treaty of Seeb, or Treaty of As Sib was an agreement reached between Sultan Taimur bin Feisal of Muscat and the Imam of Oman in 1920. It gave autonomy to the Imamate of Oman regarding the interior regions of the Muscat and Oman Protectorate, while the sultan would retain sovereignty over the...
.
Wingate's final book, Lord Ismay: A Biography was released in 1970. The book was "an adulatory biography" which made Wingate's personal respect for Ismay quite clear. As such, the book stood in contrast to Ismay's own memoirs which were "modest and discreet." The book was well-received and Brian Porter wrote in International Affairs
International Affairs (journal)
International Affairs is Britain's leading peer-reviewed academic journal of international relations founded by Chatham House in 1924. It is published bi-monthly by Wiley-Blackwell . Currently its editor-in-chief is Caroline Soper...
that it was a "welcome contribution to recent history."
Wingate died on August 31, 1978 at the age of 88.
Sir Ronald Evelyn Leslie Wingate, 2nd Baronet, CB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
, CMG
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
, CIE
Order of the Indian Empire
The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...
, OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(30 September 1889 – 31 August 1978) was a British colonial administrator, soldier and author. Wingate was born in 1889 in Kensington, London, and educated at Bradfield College
Bradfield College
Bradfield College is a coeducational independent school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire.The college was founded in 1850 by Thomas Stevens, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Bradfield...
and Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
before entering the Indian Civil Service. In the Civil Service, he served as an Assistant Commissioner in Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
and the city magistrate of Delhi.
During the First World War, Wingate was given a special assignment with the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as an assistant political officer. After the war, he served as British Consul in Muscat, Oman
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
, and helped to negotiate the Treaty of Seeb
Treaty of Seeb
The Treaty of Seeb, or Treaty of As Sib was an agreement reached between Sultan Taimur bin Feisal of Muscat and the Imam of Oman in 1920. It gave autonomy to the Imamate of Oman regarding the interior regions of the Muscat and Oman Protectorate, while the sultan would retain sovereignty over the...
. He then briefly served in Kashmir before returning to Oman. After his second tour in Oman, Wingate held a variety of positions in British India, including service as the Acting Secretary of the Foreign and Political Department of the Indian Government and Commissioner of Baluchistan
Baluchistan Agency
The Baluchistan Agency was one of the agencies of British India. Agency Territories, with an area of 44,345 square miles , composed of tracts which had, from time to time, been acquired by lease or otherwise brought under control and been placed directly under British officers.This agency consisted...
.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Wingate served with the Ministry of Economic Warfare in Africa and Southeast Asia. Then, in 1942, he joined the London Controlling Section
London Controlling Section
The London Controlling Section was established in June 1942 within the Joint Planning Staff at the offices of the War Cabinet, which was presided over by Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. The purpose of the LCS was to devise and coordinate strategic military deception and cover plans. The plans...
(LCS), an organization within the War Cabinet
War Cabinet
A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members....
devoted to military deception
Military deception
Military deception is an attempt to amplify, or create an artificial fog of war or to mislead the enemy using psychological operations, information warfare and other methods. As a form of strategic use of information , it overlaps with psychological warfare...
. Wingate became the Deputy Controller of the LCS in 1943 and helped to form numerous deception plans including Plan Jael, later called Operation Bodyguard
Operation Bodyguard
Operation Bodyguard was the code name for a World War II military deception employed by the Allied nations during the build up to the 1944 invasion of north-western Europe. The aim of the operation was to mislead the German high command as to the exact date and location of the invasion...
. At the conclusion of the war, he was chosen to write the official history of Allied deception operations during it.
After the war, Wingate served as the British delegate on the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold
Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold
The Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold, also known as the Tripartite Gold Commission, was a panel established in September 1946 by the United Kingdom, United States and France to recover gold stolen by Nazi Germany from other nations and eventually return it to the rightful...
and as a director on the board of the Imperial Continental Gas Association
Imperial Continental Gas Association
Imperial Continental Gas Association plc was a leading British gas utility operating in various cities in Continental Europe . It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
. He also wrote three books: Wingate of the Sudan, a biography of his father, Reginald Wingate; Not in the limelight, his own memoirs; and Lord Ismay, a biography of General Hastings Ismay. Wingate died on 31 August 1978 at the age of 88.
Early life
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, and his wife Catherine Wingate
Catherine Wingate
Dame Catherine Leslie Wingate DBE , née Catherine Leslie Rundle, was a British humanitarian.She was the daughter of Royal Navy Captain Joseph Rundle and his wife, Renira Catherine , and the sister of General Sir Leslie Rundle. On 18 June 1888 she married Reginald Wingate, a Royal Artillery officer...
. Wingate was also a cousin of Lawrence of Arabia and Orde Wingate. Wingate spent his early childhood in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
with his family, but in 1889 he was sent to live in England and enter school. From a very young age, he hoped to follow his father into military service, and he began his education at Bradfield College
Bradfield College
Bradfield College is a coeducational independent school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire.The college was founded in 1850 by Thomas Stevens, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Bradfield...
planning to join the British Navy. While at Bradfield; however, Wingate discovered that he could not pass the Navy's medical exam because he was severely near-sighted and decided to instead pursue a civil service career.
Wingate left Bradfield and entered Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
, where he went to receive an MA. While at Oxford, Wingate hoped for a career in the Foreign Office, but his father convinced him that a posting abroad would be more favorable financially. Thus, in 1912, Wingate passed the civil service examinations and entered the Indian Civil Service (ICS). He was immediately sent back to Oxford, where he spent a year studying Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
and Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
. During the Christmas holiday of his year at Oxford, Wingate visited his father in Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
and met May Harpoth, the daughter of Paul Vinogradoff
Paul Vinogradoff
Sir Paul Vinogradoff November 1854, Kostroma, Russia– 19 December 1925, Paris, France) was a highly reputable Anglo-Russian historian-medievalist.-Career:...
, a prominent scholar at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. In his memoirs, Wingate described their encounter as "love at first sight," and the two were engaged six months later before Wingate left for his first posting in India.
In 1913, Wingate began his ICS career as an Assistant Commissioner in Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
, posted in Sialkot
Sialkot
Sialkot is a city in Pakistan situated in the north-east of the Punjab province at the foothills of snow-covered peaks of Kashmir near the Chenab river. It is the capital of Sialkot District. The city is about north-west of Lahore and only a few kilometers from Indian-controlled Jammu.The...
. Wingate "worked ceaselessly" at the various tasks of administration during the period, but enjoyed his duties. In 1916, Harpoth visited Wingate in India and the two were married in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
. After a honeymoon in the Kangra Valley
Kangra Valley
Kangra Valley is situated in Himachal Pradesh, India. It is a popular tourist destination, with the peak season around March and April.Dharamsala, the headquarters of Kangra district, lies on the southern spur of Dhauladhar in the valley .-Geography:...
, Wingate returned to work, becoming an aide de camp and assistant private secretary for the Governor of Punjab, and then the city magistrate of Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
.
First World War
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
into the war, Wingate hoped that his Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
skills would result in a posting with the army, but he remained in India until 1917. In June 1917, after only a year in Delhi, Wingate joined the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as an assistant political officer. As a political officer, Wingate initially took part in administrative tasks, helping to rebuild a political system in areas conquered by the British. Wingate first worked to re-establish a customs system in liberated territories. He then led the team of political officers in Najaf
Najaf
Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
, where he worked to establish a police force and establish a basic system of taxation. Wingate also was responsible for entertaining notable Western guests who passed through Najaf, including Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia was a Russian imperial dynast. He is known for being involved in the murder of the mystic peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin, who he felt held undue sway over Tsar Nicholas II.-Early life:Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was born at Ilinskoe near Moscow, the...
. During the war, Wingate also helped to negotiate British protectorates for the Gulf States
Arab states of the Persian Gulf
"Arab states of the Persian Gulf" or "Arab Persian Gulf states" or "Persian Gulf Arab states" or "Arabic Persian Gulf states" or "Arab States of The Gulf", are terms that refer to the six Arab states of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, bordering the Persian Gulf....
.
In addition to his work in traditional political matters, Wingate worked with Percy Cox, Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along...
and other British agents on several special operations. Most notably, he helped to bribe a Turkish army officer who had cut off a British force near Kut
Kut
Al-Kūt is a city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about 160 kilometres south east of Baghdad. the estimated population is about 374,000 people...
and helped keep the Ottomans out of Najaf
Najaf
Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
. Wingate also helped to foil a plot by the Committee of Union and Progress
Committee of Union and Progress
The Committee of Union and Progress began as a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" in 1889 by the medical students İbrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti and Ali Hüseyinzade...
(CUP) to promote an uprising in Najaf by ordering ones of his aides to get the CUP agent drunk, leading him to reveal the details of the plot.
First term as Consul to Oman
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
, the capital of Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
. When Wingate arrived in Oman, the country was in a state of turmoil due to a long-standing power struggle between the Imamate of Oman and the Sultan of Oman
Sultan of Oman
-List of Imams :-Nabhan Dynasty :-Ya'ariba Dynasty :-Banu Ghafir Dynasty :-Ya'ariba Dynasty :-Al Said Dynasty :-See also:...
. The tribesmen in the interior of Oman, who supported the Imam, sought the overthrow of the Sultan, who was kept in power in the coastal regions through British intervention. Upon assuming his position, Wingate was charged with negotiating a peace between the two groups that would ensure the power of the Sultan and prevent the outbreak of open warfare.
Wingate initially found the Sultan, Taimur bin Feisal
Taimur bin Feisal
al-Wasik Billah al-Majid Sayyid Taimur bin Faisal bin Turki, KCIE, CSI was the sultan of Muscat and Oman from October 15, 1913 to February 10, 1932. He was born at Muscat and succeeded his father Faisal bin Turki, Sultan of Muscat and Oman as Sultan.Taimur ibn Faisal succeeded his father as...
, uncooperative in efforts to reach a settlement. After years trapped in Muscat
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
with no power over the majority of his country, Feisal saw no reason to continue the struggle and told Wingate that "he wished to abdicate and be guarnateed some small pension which would enable him at lest to live live in peace somewhere outside Muscat and Arabia." Knowing that the Sultan's support would be key to any plan, Wingate arranged for the Sultan to make a long state visit to the Viceroy of India, staying in a villa in the Himalayas. Before the Feisal departed, Wingate established a Council of Ministers, nominally to advise the Sultan, but actually designed to hold the effective power during his absence. The sultan also gave Wingate the power to negotiate with the Imam on his behalf.
Having acquired the power to negotiate with the Imam and the tribesmen, Wingate needed to reassert the power of the Sultanate and find some leverage to force the Imam into negotiations. He began by collecting unpaid customs duties in order to raise more revenue for the Sultan, and sent emissaries to Isa Bin Salih, the Imam's chief deputy. Wingate's initial overtures proved unsuccessful, so he threatened to impose a "punitive tax" on dates, the chief export crop of Oman. Because the Sultan controlled the ports and coastal areas, he had the power to collect such a tax, which would have ruined the Omani farmers. After the imposition of the tax, riots erupted in the interior, and the Imam was murdered by angry farmers. A new Imam, who was more willing to negotiate, was selected and requested a meeting with Wingate.
Wingate agreed to the negotiations, and scheduled a meeting at the coastal town of As Sib in late September. The first two days of the meeting went well, and both sides reached a general agreement that the Imam and tribal leaders would not interfere with the Sultan's rule in the coastal areas if the Sultan would not interfere in the interior. Wingate also promised that upon the conclusion of an agreement, the tax on dates would be reduced to five percent. On the third day, however, trouble arose when the tribal leaders insisted that the Imam be formally acknowledged as a ruler equal to the Sultan and as a religious leader in the text of the agreement. Wingate, however, convinced the tribal leaders that the Imam should sign the agreement only in his capacity as a representative of the Omani tribes. Although the agreement became known as the Treaty of Sib, it was not in fact a treaty at all, but rather "an agreement between the Sultan and his subjects" as the sovereignty of the Sultan in all external affairs was recognized. Though the Treaty of Sib was a "bitter blow" to the Sultan, it led to an unprecedented thirty years of peace in the interior of Oman. The agreement was also well-received in Britain and India, and Wingate received congratulatory telegrams from the Viceroy of India and the Secretary of State for India
Secretary of State for India
The Secretary of State for India, or India Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister responsible for the government of India and the political head of the India Office...
.
Kashmir and second term in Oman
In July 1921, Wingate contracted malariaMalaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
and was given six weeks of medical leave, which he decided to spend in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
. While in Kashmir, Wingate visited, Joe Windham, the British Resident, who offered to find him a job in India. Wingate went back to Oman, but returned to Kashmir in November as a special assistant to the Resident.
In Kashmir, Wingate first served in Poonch
Poonch
Poonch is a town and a municipal committee in Poonch District in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Based on the Mahābhārata evidence, and the evidence from 7th Chinese traveler Xuanzang, the districts of Poonch along with Rajauri and Abhisara had been under the sway of the Republican Kambojas...
, but the post of Assistant Resident in Poonch was abolished in December. Wingate then was moved to an assignment in Srinagar
Srinagar
Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...
. Srinagar was the site of a large club for British military officers and civil servants, and Wingate, finding that he had "a minimum of work", spent much of his time socializing and playing golf. In January 1923, Wingate was ordered back to Oman to serve as Consul a second time.
Wingate's second term as consul was relatively uneventful and lasted only until October when he again contracted malaria. The only major event came when the citizens of the town of Sur
Sur, Oman
Sur is a capital city of Ash Sharqiyah Region, northeastern Oman, on the coast of the Gulf of Oman. It is located at around , and is 93 miles southeast of the Omani capital Muscat. Historically the city is known for being an important destination point for sailors...
refused to pay their customs duties. In order to coerce the town into payment, Wingate sent a detachment of 50 soldiers with machine guns to the town. Under the cover of darkness, the soldiers landed on the narrow spit of land connecting Sur to the mainland, cutting the town off from its water supply. The people of the town made no attempt to resist militarily and after two days without water, they paid the customs dues.
Rajputana and Baluchistan
Wingate left Oman after contracting malaria in October and returned to England for medical care. After several weeks in a nursing home, Wingate had recovered sufficiently to visit St. MoritzSt. Moritz
St. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden...
for New Years, but he spent nearly a year on leave much of it golfing at Muirfield. Then, in September 1924, he returned to India to serve as secretary to the agent of the Governor-General of Rajputana
Rajputana
Rājputāna was the pre-1949 name of the present-day Indian state of Rājasthān, the largest state of the Republic of India in terms of area. George Thomas was the first in 1800 A.D., to term this region as Rajputana...
, the chief British official in Rajputana. In that capacity, Wingate accompanied the agent on all of his state visits, and encountered for the first time what he considered "real India," rather than the frontier regions in which he had previously served.
In 1927, Wingate moved to the same position in Baluchistan
Baluchistan Agency
The Baluchistan Agency was one of the agencies of British India. Agency Territories, with an area of 44,345 square miles , composed of tracts which had, from time to time, been acquired by lease or otherwise brought under control and been placed directly under British officers.This agency consisted...
. Soon thereafter, in 1928, he was appointed the Deputy Commissioner and Political Agent in Quetta
Quetta
is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. Known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan" due to the diversity of its plant and animal wildlife, Quetta is home to the Hazarganji Chiltan National Park, which contains some of the rarest species of wildlife in the...
and Pishin
Pishin
Pishin is a small town located in the Pishin District of Balochistan province, Pakistan. It is the capital of the district, and is located in the east of the province at 30°35'0N 67°0'0E near the border with Afghanistan with an altitude of 1555 metres . Tremors from the 2008 Pakistan earthquake...
. Wingate would later call his years in Quetta, "the happiest time that [he] spent in India," and greatly enjoyed the autonomy and respect he was granted there. While serving in Quetta, Wingate established a new water supply the city, and frequently became involved in matters relating to security and criminal justice.
While in Quetta, Wingate ordered the arrest of several leaders of the Achakzai
Achakzai
Achakzai are Durrani primarily found in southern Afghanistan and northern regions of Balochistan Province, Pakistan.-Demographics:Achakzais of Afghanistan are mainly located in Spin Boldak, Reg, Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan and Herat...
tribe. In retaliation, members of the tribe kidnapped
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
two British military officers near the town of Chaman
Chaman
Chaman is the capital of Qilla Abdullah District, Balochistan, Pakistan. It is situated just south of the border with Afghanistan. Across the border in Afghanistan is the neighbouring town of Spin Boldak, in Kandahar Province...
and held them for ransom, leading to "considerable criticism" of Wingate by the Army. In the end, Wingate paid a small portion of the ransom demanded, and threatened to send troops after the kidnappers, leading to the release of both the hostages. During his time in Quetta, Wingate also briefly hosted King Amanullah who was en route to Europe. In 1930, Wingate received a year's leave from India, during which he traveled around Europe. Upon his return to Baluchistan, in 1931, he became the Political Agent in Sibi
Sibi
Sibi is a city of Balochistan province of Pakistan. The city is located at 29°33'0N 67°52'60E at an altitude of 130 metres and is headquarters of the district and tehsil of the same name.. According to the 2001 census of Pakistan the population of Sibi is 52,100...
, but after only a few months he received a new assignment with the Indian government in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
.
Indian government
In 1932, Wingate was appointed the Deputy Secretary of the Foreign and Political Department of the Indian government. As India was in the middle of reforms aimed at eventual independence, the result of the report of the Simon CommissionSimon Commission
The Indian Statutory Commission was a group of seven British Members of Parliament that had been dispatched to India in 1927 to study constitutional reform in Britain's most important colonial dependency. It was commonly referred to as the Simon Commission after its chairman, Sir John Simon...
, Wingate found the period a very interesting time to be in the high levels of the government. His first job was to help integrate the princely state
Princely state
A Princely State was a nominally sovereign entitity of British rule in India that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule such as suzerainty or paramountcy.-British relationship with the Princely States:India under the British Raj ...
s into federation with the rest India in preparation for independence. A particular challenge in the process involved determining how many representatives each of the states would have in the Constituent Assembly of India
Constituent Assembly of India
The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to write the Constitution of India, and following independence served as the nation's first Parliament.-Nature of the Assembly:...
. Wingate proposed "a scheme based upon permutations and combinations of the number of guns which were fired to salute the categories of Indian princes". The idea was acclaimed "as a stroke of genius" and adopted by the government.
Vichy
Vichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...
for a much needed vacation with is wife. While in Vichy, Wingate heard of the terrible 1935 Balochistan earthquake
1935 Balochistan earthquake
The 1935 Balochistan Earthquake occurred on May 31, 1935 at 3:02am at Quetta, Balochistan, British India . The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.7 Mw and anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000 people died from the impact. This ranks as one of the deadliest earthquakes that hit South Asia...
and returned immediately to England to see if his services were required by the government. Because of his loyalty to Quetta, Wingate volunteered to return there immediately. He was not asked to return immediately, but in October (after less than half of his promised leave), Wingate was ordered to return to India and become the Revenue Commissioner of Baluchistan.
Upon returning to Quetta, Wingate was saddened to find that most of his friends and acquaintances in the city had been killed by earthquake, and he spent the first six weeks of his time in the city helping to remove "four hundred smashed and disintregating corpses a day" from the ruins of the city. Shortly thereafter, the Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan, Alexander Cater
Alexander Cater
Sir Alexander Norman Ley Cater KCIE was an administrator in British India. He joined the ICS in 1904 and served in the First World War, during which he rose to the rank of Captain. He later became a Lieutenant in the Hyderabad Rifles. In 1921, he received the Order of the White Elephant, 3rd Class...
, left his position and Wingate became the Acting Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan.
During this period, Wingate, like most officers of the Indian Civil Service, supported Indian self-rule, and began to see the end of British India as inevitable. As such, Wingate decided in 1936 that he would leave India once his term as revenue commissioner ended. In November 1937, he was offered the position of Minister to Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
but declined. Instead, he took two years of leave that he had saved, planning to retire at its conclusion.
Wingate spent the next year traveling throughout Europe, and in early 1939, he rented a flat on the Chelsea Embankment
Chelsea Embankment
Chelsea Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and walkway along the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England.The western end of Chelsea Embankment, including a stretch of Cheyne Walk, is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea; the eastern end, including...
, where he planned to live with his wife. He spent his time exploring London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and soon began planning to run for a seat in House of Commons as the member from his constituency was planning to retire. After the outbreak of the Second World War; however, the member of parliament decided not to retire, and Wingate abandoned his hopes at politics, deciding that he would "have been quite useless as a Member of Parliament."
Second World War
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
in the Army. In September 1942, he was assigned to the London Controlling Section
London Controlling Section
The London Controlling Section was established in June 1942 within the Joint Planning Staff at the offices of the War Cabinet, which was presided over by Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. The purpose of the LCS was to devise and coordinate strategic military deception and cover plans. The plans...
(LCS), an organization devoted to military deception
Military deception
Military deception is an attempt to amplify, or create an artificial fog of war or to mislead the enemy using psychological operations, information warfare and other methods. As a form of strategic use of information , it overlaps with psychological warfare...
, and part of the joint planning staff of the War Cabinet
War Cabinet
A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members....
. Wingate initially served as the Army representative of the operations subsection, and from March 1943 onward he served as Deputy Controller of the LCS under Colonel John Henry Bevan, Wingate was well-qualified for the position due to his extensive social connections, including friendships with several European monarchs, as well as his reputation for cunning. While at LCS, Wingate also worked closely with Hastings Ismay about whom he later wrote a biography. The two were already friendly with each other, having spent time together in India. While serving with the LCS, Wingate held the rank of lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
.
Early in 1943, Wingate and Bevan devised Plan Jael, an effort to disguise the true nature and location of the D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
landings. Wingate first presented Plan Jael to a meeting of American and British officers in the summer of 1943, who found the plan "so ambitious as to be the subject of some question as to its general plausibility." In the end, the plan evolved into Operation Bodyguard, which Wingate helped to coordinate.
Wingate participated in the planning for many other deception schemes, including Operation Mincemeat
Operation Mincemeat
Operation Mincemeat was a successful British deception plan during World War II. As part of the widespread deception plan Operation Barclay to cover the intended invasion of Italy from North Africa, Mincemeat helped to convince the German high command that the Allies planned to invade Greece and...
, for which he approved the letters planted on a fake corpse.
Wingate was also involved in the cover plans for Operation Neptune
Operation Neptune
The Normandy landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 , beginning at 6:30 AM British Double Summer Time...
, the cross channel phase of Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
. Sir Frederick Morgan
Frederick E. Morgan
Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Edgeworth Morgan KCB was a British Army officer who fought in the First World War and the Second World War...
, the original planner of Operation Overlord, initially believed that no deception plan could successfully disguise Neptune, but Wingate convinced him to at least allow LCS to make an effort.
Wingate also devised another deception plan for Overlord codenamed Royal Flush, which recommended that the Allies approach three neutral countries: Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, and ask for their assistance with landings in Southern France. The Allies hoped that the Spanish in particular would pass this information along to the Germans, who would then expect landings in southern France, rather than in Normandy. The plan proved greatly successful; the Spanish passed the information to the Germans and even agreed to provide humanitarian aid for soldiers wounded in the landings. After the Normandy landings, the British used the Spanish for further deception by replying that they no longer needed Spanish assistance as the Normandy landings had been so successful that the plans for the south of France had been canceled. The Spanish reported this information to the Germans, helping to deceive them about the actual landings in the South of France
Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, followed a day later by a force made up...
in August 1944.
At the end of the war, Wingate was chosen by the Combined Chiefs of Staff
Combined Chiefs of Staff
The Combined Chiefs of Staff was the supreme military command for the western Allies during World War II. It was a body constituted from the British Chiefs of Staff Committee and the American Joint Chiefs of Staff....
to write an official history of Allied deception during the war. The report, which has been described as "urbane, literate and readable" dealt more with the British than the Americans, but provided an excellent reference and was approved by a conference in London in June 1947. Like other reports of the Allied deception strategies, the report was kept secret for many years as Wingate explained: "We wanted no articles in the Reader's Digest about how the Allies had outwitted the German General Staff. It was felt we might have to take the Russian General Staff on."
Later life and publications
After the war, Wingate served on the British delegation to the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary GoldTripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold
The Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold, also known as the Tripartite Gold Commission, was a panel established in September 1946 by the United Kingdom, United States and France to recover gold stolen by Nazi Germany from other nations and eventually return it to the rightful...
and in 1947, he became the British delegate on the Commission. Wingate retired from the Commission in 1958, after it had completed most of its work. Shortly after leaving the Tripartite Commission, Wingate was named a Companion in The Most Honourable Order of the Bath in the New Year's list of 1959. Wingate also entered the world of business, serving on the board of the Imperial Continental Gas Association
Imperial Continental Gas Association
Imperial Continental Gas Association plc was a leading British gas utility operating in various cities in Continental Europe . It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
from 1953 until 1966.
In his later life, Wingate also wrote several books, beginning with Wingate of the Sudan, a biography of his father published in 1955. Next, Wingate wrote his own memoirs, Not in the Limelight, published in 1959. Finally, in 1970, he wrote Lord Ismay, a biography of Hastings Ismay.
Wingate of the Sudan was a fairly short biography, primarily based on private correspondence and diaries, to which Wingate naturally had access. Writing in the Middle East Journal
Middle East Journal
The Middle East Journal is published by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Institute. It was first published in 1947, making it the oldest U.S. peer-reviewed publication on the modern Middle East...
, Muhammad Sabry called the book "a real contribution to African history," applauding Wingate's style an accuracy.
Wingate named his memoirs, Not in the Limelight, as a reference to his own career, perpetually around significant events but rarely playing a central role in them. Olaf Caroe
Olaf Caroe
Sir Olaf Kirkpatrick Kruuse Caroe KCSI KCIE was an administrator in British India. He later became a writer on the Middle East and Asia.-Life:...
wrote that the book was "engaging" with "flashes of shrewdness" and "a sense of wit." Caroe and others also praised the variosu intriguing details which Wingate revealed about both colonial India and the Second World War, for example Wingate's revelations about the Treaty of Seeb
Treaty of Seeb
The Treaty of Seeb, or Treaty of As Sib was an agreement reached between Sultan Taimur bin Feisal of Muscat and the Imam of Oman in 1920. It gave autonomy to the Imamate of Oman regarding the interior regions of the Muscat and Oman Protectorate, while the sultan would retain sovereignty over the...
.
Wingate's final book, Lord Ismay: A Biography was released in 1970. The book was "an adulatory biography" which made Wingate's personal respect for Ismay quite clear. As such, the book stood in contrast to Ismay's own memoirs which were "modest and discreet." The book was well-received and Brian Porter wrote in International Affairs
International Affairs (journal)
International Affairs is Britain's leading peer-reviewed academic journal of international relations founded by Chatham House in 1924. It is published bi-monthly by Wiley-Blackwell . Currently its editor-in-chief is Caroline Soper...
that it was a "welcome contribution to recent history."
Wingate died on August 31, 1978 at the age of 88.
Sir Ronald Evelyn Leslie Wingate, 2nd Baronet, CB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
, CMG
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
, CIE
Order of the Indian Empire
The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...
, OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(30 September 1889 – 31 August 1978) was a British colonial administrator, soldier and author. Wingate was born in 1889 in Kensington, London, and educated at Bradfield College
Bradfield College
Bradfield College is a coeducational independent school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire.The college was founded in 1850 by Thomas Stevens, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Bradfield...
and Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
before entering the Indian Civil Service. In the Civil Service, he served as an Assistant Commissioner in Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
and the city magistrate of Delhi.
During the First World War, Wingate was given a special assignment with the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as an assistant political officer. After the war, he served as British Consul in Muscat, Oman
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
, and helped to negotiate the Treaty of Seeb
Treaty of Seeb
The Treaty of Seeb, or Treaty of As Sib was an agreement reached between Sultan Taimur bin Feisal of Muscat and the Imam of Oman in 1920. It gave autonomy to the Imamate of Oman regarding the interior regions of the Muscat and Oman Protectorate, while the sultan would retain sovereignty over the...
. He then briefly served in Kashmir before returning to Oman. After his second tour in Oman, Wingate held a variety of positions in British India, including service as the Acting Secretary of the Foreign and Political Department of the Indian Government and Commissioner of Baluchistan
Baluchistan Agency
The Baluchistan Agency was one of the agencies of British India. Agency Territories, with an area of 44,345 square miles , composed of tracts which had, from time to time, been acquired by lease or otherwise brought under control and been placed directly under British officers.This agency consisted...
.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Wingate served with the Ministry of Economic Warfare in Africa and Southeast Asia. Then, in 1942, he joined the London Controlling Section
London Controlling Section
The London Controlling Section was established in June 1942 within the Joint Planning Staff at the offices of the War Cabinet, which was presided over by Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. The purpose of the LCS was to devise and coordinate strategic military deception and cover plans. The plans...
(LCS), an organization within the War Cabinet
War Cabinet
A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members....
devoted to military deception
Military deception
Military deception is an attempt to amplify, or create an artificial fog of war or to mislead the enemy using psychological operations, information warfare and other methods. As a form of strategic use of information , it overlaps with psychological warfare...
. Wingate became the Deputy Controller of the LCS in 1943 and helped to form numerous deception plans including Plan Jael, later called Operation Bodyguard
Operation Bodyguard
Operation Bodyguard was the code name for a World War II military deception employed by the Allied nations during the build up to the 1944 invasion of north-western Europe. The aim of the operation was to mislead the German high command as to the exact date and location of the invasion...
. At the conclusion of the war, he was chosen to write the official history of Allied deception operations during it.
After the war, Wingate served as the British delegate on the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold
Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold
The Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold, also known as the Tripartite Gold Commission, was a panel established in September 1946 by the United Kingdom, United States and France to recover gold stolen by Nazi Germany from other nations and eventually return it to the rightful...
and as a director on the board of the Imperial Continental Gas Association
Imperial Continental Gas Association
Imperial Continental Gas Association plc was a leading British gas utility operating in various cities in Continental Europe . It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
. He also wrote three books: Wingate of the Sudan, a biography of his father, Reginald Wingate; Not in the limelight, his own memoirs; and Lord Ismay, a biography of General Hastings Ismay. Wingate died on 31 August 1978 at the age of 88.
Early life
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, and his wife Catherine Wingate
Catherine Wingate
Dame Catherine Leslie Wingate DBE , née Catherine Leslie Rundle, was a British humanitarian.She was the daughter of Royal Navy Captain Joseph Rundle and his wife, Renira Catherine , and the sister of General Sir Leslie Rundle. On 18 June 1888 she married Reginald Wingate, a Royal Artillery officer...
. Wingate was also a cousin of Lawrence of Arabia and Orde Wingate. Wingate spent his early childhood in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
with his family, but in 1889 he was sent to live in England and enter school. From a very young age, he hoped to follow his father into military service, and he began his education at Bradfield College
Bradfield College
Bradfield College is a coeducational independent school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire.The college was founded in 1850 by Thomas Stevens, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Bradfield...
planning to join the British Navy. While at Bradfield; however, Wingate discovered that he could not pass the Navy's medical exam because he was severely near-sighted and decided to instead pursue a civil service career.
Wingate left Bradfield and entered Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
, where he went to receive an MA. While at Oxford, Wingate hoped for a career in the Foreign Office, but his father convinced him that a posting abroad would be more favorable financially. Thus, in 1912, Wingate passed the civil service examinations and entered the Indian Civil Service (ICS). He was immediately sent back to Oxford, where he spent a year studying Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
and Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
. During the Christmas holiday of his year at Oxford, Wingate visited his father in Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
and met May Harpoth, the daughter of Paul Vinogradoff
Paul Vinogradoff
Sir Paul Vinogradoff November 1854, Kostroma, Russia– 19 December 1925, Paris, France) was a highly reputable Anglo-Russian historian-medievalist.-Career:...
, a prominent scholar at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. In his memoirs, Wingate described their encounter as "love at first sight," and the two were engaged six months later before Wingate left for his first posting in India.
In 1913, Wingate began his ICS career as an Assistant Commissioner in Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
, posted in Sialkot
Sialkot
Sialkot is a city in Pakistan situated in the north-east of the Punjab province at the foothills of snow-covered peaks of Kashmir near the Chenab river. It is the capital of Sialkot District. The city is about north-west of Lahore and only a few kilometers from Indian-controlled Jammu.The...
. Wingate "worked ceaselessly" at the various tasks of administration during the period, but enjoyed his duties. In 1916, Harpoth visited Wingate in India and the two were married in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
. After a honeymoon in the Kangra Valley
Kangra Valley
Kangra Valley is situated in Himachal Pradesh, India. It is a popular tourist destination, with the peak season around March and April.Dharamsala, the headquarters of Kangra district, lies on the southern spur of Dhauladhar in the valley .-Geography:...
, Wingate returned to work, becoming an aide de camp and assistant private secretary for the Governor of Punjab, and then the city magistrate of Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
.
First World War
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
into the war, Wingate hoped that his Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
skills would result in a posting with the army, but he remained in India until 1917. In June 1917, after only a year in Delhi, Wingate joined the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as an assistant political officer. As a political officer, Wingate initially took part in administrative tasks, helping to rebuild a political system in areas conquered by the British. Wingate first worked to re-establish a customs system in liberated territories. He then led the team of political officers in Najaf
Najaf
Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
, where he worked to establish a police force and establish a basic system of taxation. Wingate also was responsible for entertaining notable Western guests who passed through Najaf, including Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia was a Russian imperial dynast. He is known for being involved in the murder of the mystic peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin, who he felt held undue sway over Tsar Nicholas II.-Early life:Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was born at Ilinskoe near Moscow, the...
. During the war, Wingate also helped to negotiate British protectorates for the Gulf States
Arab states of the Persian Gulf
"Arab states of the Persian Gulf" or "Arab Persian Gulf states" or "Persian Gulf Arab states" or "Arabic Persian Gulf states" or "Arab States of The Gulf", are terms that refer to the six Arab states of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, bordering the Persian Gulf....
.
In addition to his work in traditional political matters, Wingate worked with Percy Cox, Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along...
and other British agents on several special operations. Most notably, he helped to bribe a Turkish army officer who had cut off a British force near Kut
Kut
Al-Kūt is a city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about 160 kilometres south east of Baghdad. the estimated population is about 374,000 people...
and helped keep the Ottomans out of Najaf
Najaf
Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
. Wingate also helped to foil a plot by the Committee of Union and Progress
Committee of Union and Progress
The Committee of Union and Progress began as a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" in 1889 by the medical students İbrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti and Ali Hüseyinzade...
(CUP) to promote an uprising in Najaf by ordering ones of his aides to get the CUP agent drunk, leading him to reveal the details of the plot.
First term as Consul to Oman
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
, the capital of Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
. When Wingate arrived in Oman, the country was in a state of turmoil due to a long-standing power struggle between the Imamate of Oman and the Sultan of Oman
Sultan of Oman
-List of Imams :-Nabhan Dynasty :-Ya'ariba Dynasty :-Banu Ghafir Dynasty :-Ya'ariba Dynasty :-Al Said Dynasty :-See also:...
. The tribesmen in the interior of Oman, who supported the Imam, sought the overthrow of the Sultan, who was kept in power in the coastal regions through British intervention. Upon assuming his position, Wingate was charged with negotiating a peace between the two groups that would ensure the power of the Sultan and prevent the outbreak of open warfare.
Wingate initially found the Sultan, Taimur bin Feisal
Taimur bin Feisal
al-Wasik Billah al-Majid Sayyid Taimur bin Faisal bin Turki, KCIE, CSI was the sultan of Muscat and Oman from October 15, 1913 to February 10, 1932. He was born at Muscat and succeeded his father Faisal bin Turki, Sultan of Muscat and Oman as Sultan.Taimur ibn Faisal succeeded his father as...
, uncooperative in efforts to reach a settlement. After years trapped in Muscat
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
with no power over the majority of his country, Feisal saw no reason to continue the struggle and told Wingate that "he wished to abdicate and be guarnateed some small pension which would enable him at lest to live live in peace somewhere outside Muscat and Arabia." Knowing that the Sultan's support would be key to any plan, Wingate arranged for the Sultan to make a long state visit to the Viceroy of India, staying in a villa in the Himalayas. Before the Feisal departed, Wingate established a Council of Ministers, nominally to advise the Sultan, but actually designed to hold the effective power during his absence. The sultan also gave Wingate the power to negotiate with the Imam on his behalf.
Having acquired the power to negotiate with the Imam and the tribesmen, Wingate needed to reassert the power of the Sultanate and find some leverage to force the Imam into negotiations. He began by collecting unpaid customs duties in order to raise more revenue for the Sultan, and sent emissaries to Isa Bin Salih, the Imam's chief deputy. Wingate's initial overtures proved unsuccessful, so he threatened to impose a "punitive tax" on dates, the chief export crop of Oman. Because the Sultan controlled the ports and coastal areas, he had the power to collect such a tax, which would have ruined the Omani farmers. After the imposition of the tax, riots erupted in the interior, and the Imam was murdered by angry farmers. A new Imam, who was more willing to negotiate, was selected and requested a meeting with Wingate.
Wingate agreed to the negotiations, and scheduled a meeting at the coastal town of As Sib in late September. The first two days of the meeting went well, and both sides reached a general agreement that the Imam and tribal leaders would not interfere with the Sultan's rule in the coastal areas if the Sultan would not interfere in the interior. Wingate also promised that upon the conclusion of an agreement, the tax on dates would be reduced to five percent. On the third day, however, trouble arose when the tribal leaders insisted that the Imam be formally acknowledged as a ruler equal to the Sultan and as a religious leader in the text of the agreement. Wingate, however, convinced the tribal leaders that the Imam should sign the agreement only in his capacity as a representative of the Omani tribes. Although the agreement became known as the Treaty of Sib, it was not in fact a treaty at all, but rather "an agreement between the Sultan and his subjects" as the sovereignty of the Sultan in all external affairs was recognized. Though the Treaty of Sib was a "bitter blow" to the Sultan, it led to an unprecedented thirty years of peace in the interior of Oman. The agreement was also well-received in Britain and India, and Wingate received congratulatory telegrams from the Viceroy of India and the Secretary of State for India
Secretary of State for India
The Secretary of State for India, or India Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister responsible for the government of India and the political head of the India Office...
.
Kashmir and second term in Oman
In July 1921, Wingate contracted malariaMalaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
and was given six weeks of medical leave, which he decided to spend in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
. While in Kashmir, Wingate visited, Joe Windham, the British Resident, who offered to find him a job in India. Wingate went back to Oman, but returned to Kashmir in November as a special assistant to the Resident.
In Kashmir, Wingate first served in Poonch
Poonch
Poonch is a town and a municipal committee in Poonch District in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Based on the Mahābhārata evidence, and the evidence from 7th Chinese traveler Xuanzang, the districts of Poonch along with Rajauri and Abhisara had been under the sway of the Republican Kambojas...
, but the post of Assistant Resident in Poonch was abolished in December. Wingate then was moved to an assignment in Srinagar
Srinagar
Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...
. Srinagar was the site of a large club for British military officers and civil servants, and Wingate, finding that he had "a minimum of work", spent much of his time socializing and playing golf. In January 1923, Wingate was ordered back to Oman to serve as Consul a second time.
Wingate's second term as consul was relatively uneventful and lasted only until October when he again contracted malaria. The only major event came when the citizens of the town of Sur
Sur, Oman
Sur is a capital city of Ash Sharqiyah Region, northeastern Oman, on the coast of the Gulf of Oman. It is located at around , and is 93 miles southeast of the Omani capital Muscat. Historically the city is known for being an important destination point for sailors...
refused to pay their customs duties. In order to coerce the town into payment, Wingate sent a detachment of 50 soldiers with machine guns to the town. Under the cover of darkness, the soldiers landed on the narrow spit of land connecting Sur to the mainland, cutting the town off from its water supply. The people of the town made no attempt to resist militarily and after two days without water, they paid the customs dues.
Rajputana and Baluchistan
Wingate left Oman after contracting malaria in October and returned to England for medical care. After several weeks in a nursing home, Wingate had recovered sufficiently to visit St. MoritzSt. Moritz
St. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden...
for New Years, but he spent nearly a year on leave much of it golfing at Muirfield. Then, in September 1924, he returned to India to serve as secretary to the agent of the Governor-General of Rajputana
Rajputana
Rājputāna was the pre-1949 name of the present-day Indian state of Rājasthān, the largest state of the Republic of India in terms of area. George Thomas was the first in 1800 A.D., to term this region as Rajputana...
, the chief British official in Rajputana. In that capacity, Wingate accompanied the agent on all of his state visits, and encountered for the first time what he considered "real India," rather than the frontier regions in which he had previously served.
In 1927, Wingate moved to the same position in Baluchistan
Baluchistan Agency
The Baluchistan Agency was one of the agencies of British India. Agency Territories, with an area of 44,345 square miles , composed of tracts which had, from time to time, been acquired by lease or otherwise brought under control and been placed directly under British officers.This agency consisted...
. Soon thereafter, in 1928, he was appointed the Deputy Commissioner and Political Agent in Quetta
Quetta
is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. Known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan" due to the diversity of its plant and animal wildlife, Quetta is home to the Hazarganji Chiltan National Park, which contains some of the rarest species of wildlife in the...
and Pishin
Pishin
Pishin is a small town located in the Pishin District of Balochistan province, Pakistan. It is the capital of the district, and is located in the east of the province at 30°35'0N 67°0'0E near the border with Afghanistan with an altitude of 1555 metres . Tremors from the 2008 Pakistan earthquake...
. Wingate would later call his years in Quetta, "the happiest time that [he] spent in India," and greatly enjoyed the autonomy and respect he was granted there. While serving in Quetta, Wingate established a new water supply the city, and frequently became involved in matters relating to security and criminal justice.
While in Quetta, Wingate ordered the arrest of several leaders of the Achakzai
Achakzai
Achakzai are Durrani primarily found in southern Afghanistan and northern regions of Balochistan Province, Pakistan.-Demographics:Achakzais of Afghanistan are mainly located in Spin Boldak, Reg, Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan and Herat...
tribe. In retaliation, members of the tribe kidnapped
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
two British military officers near the town of Chaman
Chaman
Chaman is the capital of Qilla Abdullah District, Balochistan, Pakistan. It is situated just south of the border with Afghanistan. Across the border in Afghanistan is the neighbouring town of Spin Boldak, in Kandahar Province...
and held them for ransom, leading to "considerable criticism" of Wingate by the Army. In the end, Wingate paid a small portion of the ransom demanded, and threatened to send troops after the kidnappers, leading to the release of both the hostages. During his time in Quetta, Wingate also briefly hosted King Amanullah who was en route to Europe. In 1930, Wingate received a year's leave from India, during which he traveled around Europe. Upon his return to Baluchistan, in 1931, he became the Political Agent in Sibi
Sibi
Sibi is a city of Balochistan province of Pakistan. The city is located at 29°33'0N 67°52'60E at an altitude of 130 metres and is headquarters of the district and tehsil of the same name.. According to the 2001 census of Pakistan the population of Sibi is 52,100...
, but after only a few months he received a new assignment with the Indian government in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
.
Indian government
In 1932, Wingate was appointed the Deputy Secretary of the Foreign and Political Department of the Indian government. As India was in the middle of reforms aimed at eventual independence, the result of the report of the Simon CommissionSimon Commission
The Indian Statutory Commission was a group of seven British Members of Parliament that had been dispatched to India in 1927 to study constitutional reform in Britain's most important colonial dependency. It was commonly referred to as the Simon Commission after its chairman, Sir John Simon...
, Wingate found the period a very interesting time to be in the high levels of the government. His first job was to help integrate the princely state
Princely state
A Princely State was a nominally sovereign entitity of British rule in India that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule such as suzerainty or paramountcy.-British relationship with the Princely States:India under the British Raj ...
s into federation with the rest India in preparation for independence. A particular challenge in the process involved determining how many representatives each of the states would have in the Constituent Assembly of India
Constituent Assembly of India
The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to write the Constitution of India, and following independence served as the nation's first Parliament.-Nature of the Assembly:...
. Wingate proposed "a scheme based upon permutations and combinations of the number of guns which were fired to salute the categories of Indian princes". The idea was acclaimed "as a stroke of genius" and adopted by the government.
Vichy
Vichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...
for a much needed vacation with is wife. While in Vichy, Wingate heard of the terrible 1935 Balochistan earthquake
1935 Balochistan earthquake
The 1935 Balochistan Earthquake occurred on May 31, 1935 at 3:02am at Quetta, Balochistan, British India . The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.7 Mw and anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000 people died from the impact. This ranks as one of the deadliest earthquakes that hit South Asia...
and returned immediately to England to see if his services were required by the government. Because of his loyalty to Quetta, Wingate volunteered to return there immediately. He was not asked to return immediately, but in October (after less than half of his promised leave), Wingate was ordered to return to India and become the Revenue Commissioner of Baluchistan.
Upon returning to Quetta, Wingate was saddened to find that most of his friends and acquaintances in the city had been killed by earthquake, and he spent the first six weeks of his time in the city helping to remove "four hundred smashed and disintregating corpses a day" from the ruins of the city. Shortly thereafter, the Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan, Alexander Cater
Alexander Cater
Sir Alexander Norman Ley Cater KCIE was an administrator in British India. He joined the ICS in 1904 and served in the First World War, during which he rose to the rank of Captain. He later became a Lieutenant in the Hyderabad Rifles. In 1921, he received the Order of the White Elephant, 3rd Class...
, left his position and Wingate became the Acting Chief Commissioner of Baluchistan.
During this period, Wingate, like most officers of the Indian Civil Service, supported Indian self-rule, and began to see the end of British India as inevitable. As such, Wingate decided in 1936 that he would leave India once his term as revenue commissioner ended. In November 1937, he was offered the position of Minister to Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
but declined. Instead, he took two years of leave that he had saved, planning to retire at its conclusion.
Wingate spent the next year traveling throughout Europe, and in early 1939, he rented a flat on the Chelsea Embankment
Chelsea Embankment
Chelsea Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and walkway along the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England.The western end of Chelsea Embankment, including a stretch of Cheyne Walk, is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea; the eastern end, including...
, where he planned to live with his wife. He spent his time exploring London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and soon began planning to run for a seat in House of Commons as the member from his constituency was planning to retire. After the outbreak of the Second World War; however, the member of parliament decided not to retire, and Wingate abandoned his hopes at politics, deciding that he would "have been quite useless as a Member of Parliament."
Second World War
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
in the Army. In September 1942, he was assigned to the London Controlling Section
London Controlling Section
The London Controlling Section was established in June 1942 within the Joint Planning Staff at the offices of the War Cabinet, which was presided over by Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. The purpose of the LCS was to devise and coordinate strategic military deception and cover plans. The plans...
(LCS), an organization devoted to military deception
Military deception
Military deception is an attempt to amplify, or create an artificial fog of war or to mislead the enemy using psychological operations, information warfare and other methods. As a form of strategic use of information , it overlaps with psychological warfare...
, and part of the joint planning staff of the War Cabinet
War Cabinet
A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members....
. Wingate initially served as the Army representative of the operations subsection, and from March 1943 onward he served as Deputy Controller of the LCS under Colonel John Henry Bevan, Wingate was well-qualified for the position due to his extensive social connections, including friendships with several European monarchs, as well as his reputation for cunning. While at LCS, Wingate also worked closely with Hastings Ismay about whom he later wrote a biography. The two were already friendly with each other, having spent time together in India. While serving with the LCS, Wingate held the rank of lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
.
Early in 1943, Wingate and Bevan devised Plan Jael, an effort to disguise the true nature and location of the D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
landings. Wingate first presented Plan Jael to a meeting of American and British officers in the summer of 1943, who found the plan "so ambitious as to be the subject of some question as to its general plausibility." In the end, the plan evolved into Operation Bodyguard, which Wingate helped to coordinate.
Wingate participated in the planning for many other deception schemes, including Operation Mincemeat
Operation Mincemeat
Operation Mincemeat was a successful British deception plan during World War II. As part of the widespread deception plan Operation Barclay to cover the intended invasion of Italy from North Africa, Mincemeat helped to convince the German high command that the Allies planned to invade Greece and...
, for which he approved the letters planted on a fake corpse.
Wingate was also involved in the cover plans for Operation Neptune
Operation Neptune
The Normandy landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 , beginning at 6:30 AM British Double Summer Time...
, the cross channel phase of Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
. Sir Frederick Morgan
Frederick E. Morgan
Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Edgeworth Morgan KCB was a British Army officer who fought in the First World War and the Second World War...
, the original planner of Operation Overlord, initially believed that no deception plan could successfully disguise Neptune, but Wingate convinced him to at least allow LCS to make an effort.
Wingate also devised another deception plan for Overlord codenamed Royal Flush, which recommended that the Allies approach three neutral countries: Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, and ask for their assistance with landings in Southern France. The Allies hoped that the Spanish in particular would pass this information along to the Germans, who would then expect landings in southern France, rather than in Normandy. The plan proved greatly successful; the Spanish passed the information to the Germans and even agreed to provide humanitarian aid for soldiers wounded in the landings. After the Normandy landings, the British used the Spanish for further deception by replying that they no longer needed Spanish assistance as the Normandy landings had been so successful that the plans for the south of France had been canceled. The Spanish reported this information to the Germans, helping to deceive them about the actual landings in the South of France
Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, followed a day later by a force made up...
in August 1944.
At the end of the war, Wingate was chosen by the Combined Chiefs of Staff
Combined Chiefs of Staff
The Combined Chiefs of Staff was the supreme military command for the western Allies during World War II. It was a body constituted from the British Chiefs of Staff Committee and the American Joint Chiefs of Staff....
to write an official history of Allied deception during the war. The report, which has been described as "urbane, literate and readable" dealt more with the British than the Americans, but provided an excellent reference and was approved by a conference in London in June 1947. Like other reports of the Allied deception strategies, the report was kept secret for many years as Wingate explained: "We wanted no articles in the Reader's Digest about how the Allies had outwitted the German General Staff. It was felt we might have to take the Russian General Staff on."
Later life and publications
After the war, Wingate served on the British delegation to the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary GoldTripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold
The Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold, also known as the Tripartite Gold Commission, was a panel established in September 1946 by the United Kingdom, United States and France to recover gold stolen by Nazi Germany from other nations and eventually return it to the rightful...
and in 1947, he became the British delegate on the Commission. Wingate retired from the Commission in 1958, after it had completed most of its work. Shortly after leaving the Tripartite Commission, Wingate was named a Companion in The Most Honourable Order of the Bath in the New Year's list of 1959. Wingate also entered the world of business, serving on the board of the Imperial Continental Gas Association
Imperial Continental Gas Association
Imperial Continental Gas Association plc was a leading British gas utility operating in various cities in Continental Europe . It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
from 1953 until 1966.
In his later life, Wingate also wrote several books, beginning with Wingate of the Sudan, a biography of his father published in 1955. Next, Wingate wrote his own memoirs, Not in the Limelight, published in 1959. Finally, in 1970, he wrote Lord Ismay, a biography of Hastings Ismay.
Wingate of the Sudan was a fairly short biography, primarily based on private correspondence and diaries, to which Wingate naturally had access. Writing in the Middle East Journal
Middle East Journal
The Middle East Journal is published by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Institute. It was first published in 1947, making it the oldest U.S. peer-reviewed publication on the modern Middle East...
, Muhammad Sabry called the book "a real contribution to African history," applauding Wingate's style an accuracy.
Wingate named his memoirs, Not in the Limelight, as a reference to his own career, perpetually around significant events but rarely playing a central role in them. Olaf Caroe
Olaf Caroe
Sir Olaf Kirkpatrick Kruuse Caroe KCSI KCIE was an administrator in British India. He later became a writer on the Middle East and Asia.-Life:...
wrote that the book was "engaging" with "flashes of shrewdness" and "a sense of wit." Caroe and others also praised the variosu intriguing details which Wingate revealed about both colonial India and the Second World War, for example Wingate's revelations about the Treaty of Seeb
Treaty of Seeb
The Treaty of Seeb, or Treaty of As Sib was an agreement reached between Sultan Taimur bin Feisal of Muscat and the Imam of Oman in 1920. It gave autonomy to the Imamate of Oman regarding the interior regions of the Muscat and Oman Protectorate, while the sultan would retain sovereignty over the...
.
Wingate's final book, Lord Ismay: A Biography was released in 1970. The book was "an adulatory biography" which made Wingate's personal respect for Ismay quite clear. As such, the book stood in contrast to Ismay's own memoirs which were "modest and discreet." The book was well-received and Brian Porter wrote in International Affairs
International Affairs (journal)
International Affairs is Britain's leading peer-reviewed academic journal of international relations founded by Chatham House in 1924. It is published bi-monthly by Wiley-Blackwell . Currently its editor-in-chief is Caroline Soper...
that it was a "welcome contribution to recent history."
Wingate died on August 31, 1978 at the age of 88.