Frederick Wing

Last updated

Frederick Wing
General Wing.jpg
Born29 November 1860
Christchurch, Hampshire, England [1]
Died2 October 1915 (aged 54)
AllegianceFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
Service / branchFlag of the British Army.svg  British Army
Years of service1880−1915
Rank Major-General
Unit Royal Artillery
Commands 12th (Eastern) Division
Battles / wars Second Boer War
First World War   †
Awards Companion of the Order of the Bath
Mentioned in dispatches

Major-General Frederick Drummond Vincent Wing, CB (29 November 1860 – 2 October 1915) was a senior officer of the British Army during the First World War and was one of three British divisional commanders killed in action in the space of a week in the aftermath of the Battle of Loos. Wing had served in the army for over thirty years at the time of his death, having been commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1880. He had served with distinction in the Second Boer War and been an aide de camp to Lord Roberts in 1903.

Contents

Military career

Frederick Wing was born in Christchurch, Hampshire [1] in November 1860, the son of Major Vincent Wing and Gertrude Elizabeth Wing (née Vane). In May 1880 aged nineteen , Wing joined the Royal Horse Artillery after graduating from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. [2] Wing rose in prominence in the regiment, and was promoted to captain on 12 September 1888, and major on 31 March 1898.

He served in South Africa for the Second Boer War between 1899 and 1902, [3] where he took part in operations in Natal in late 1899, including engagements at Talana. The following year, he took part in the defence of Ladysmith and was present at the Battle of Lombard's Kop, where he was slightly wounded, and for which he was mentioned in despatches and received a brevet promotion as lieutenant-colonel on 29 November 1900. In early 1902, he was again wounded, but discharged to duty shortly before the end of hostilities, in May 1902. [4] In a despatch dated 23 June 1902, Lord Kichener wrote that Wing had "high reputation for boldness and dash" and had "rendered good service." [5] He left Cape Town on board the SS Dunvegan Castle in late June 1902, [6] and arrived at Southampton the next month. For his service in the war, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the October 1902 South Africa Honours list. [7]

Following his return to the United Kingdom, Wing was appointed in command of the Z Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, stationed at Newbridge. [8] He did not stay there long, however, as he was seconded to the staff of Lord Roberts, whom he served as aide-de-camp in 1903. [3]

In 1905, Wing married Mary FitzClarence, sister of Charles FitzClarence VC and a granddaughter of the Earl of Munster and Earl of Clonmell. [9] In November 1905 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. [10] After serving as a staff officer for the Royal Horse Artillery and the RFA, Wing was promoted to colonel became an assistant adjutant-general at the War Office in September 1910. [11]

In January 1913, Wing was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general [12] and given command of the artillery of the 3rd Division and accompanied them to France in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War. Wing, promoted to major general in October 1914, [13] served at all the major battles of 1914 and was wounded on 22 September 1915 by a shrapnel bullet in the calf, but returned to duty the next day. Wing also had a close escape early in 1915, when a German shell burst directly over his car during a tour of his artillery positions. Wing was unhurt in the blast, but his chauffeur was wounded in the arm. [14]

Later in 1915, Wing took overall command of the newly raised New Army 12th (Eastern) Division. In the September 1915 Battle of Loos, generals George Thesiger and Thompson Capper were killed, and less than a week later, on 2 October 1915, a shell exploded in the road outside the 12th Division's forward report centre at Mazingarbe and killed Wing and his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant C. C. Tower of the Essex Yeomanry, outright at 3:45pm. [15] Both were buried in the nearby Noeux-les-Mines Communal Cemetery which is now maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. [16] [17]

Time for his men

In the diaries of Lieut A A de Jongh of the 7th Battalion, Suffolks who fought at Loos under Major General Wing, he described meeting him on 5 June 1915 while marching to Campagne. "On the way we passed Major General Wing our Divisional Commander, a simply topping man. He stopped his car and I had quite a long chat with him." On 8 July 1915, he inspected the trenches just outside Plugstreet (Ploegsteert) where Lieut. de Jongh was based. "He was please with everything and spent a long time with me."[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Maude</span> British Army general (1864–1917)

Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude KCB CMG DSO was a British Army officer. He is known for his operations in the Mesopotamian campaign during the First World War and for conquering Baghdad in 1917.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Congreve</span> British Army general and recipient of the Victoria Cross

General Sir Walter Norris Congreve,, was a British Army officer in the Second Boer War and the First World War, and Governor of Malta from 1924 to 1927. He received the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Bridges</span> British Army officer (1871–1939)

Lieutenant General Sir George Tom Molesworth Bridges known as Sir Tom Bridges, was a British Army officer and the 19th Governor of South Australia.

Brigadier General Sir Dalrymple Arbuthnot, 5th Baronet, was a British baronet and Army officer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Marshall (British Army officer, born 1865)</span> British Army general (1865–1939)

Lieutenant-General Sir William Raine Marshall was a British Army officer who in November 1917 succeeded Sir Stanley Maude as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in Mesopotamia. He kept that position until the end of the First World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claud Jacob</span> British Indian Army officer (1863–1948)

Field Marshal Sir Claud William Jacob, was a British Indian Army officer. He served in the First World War as commander of the Dehra Dun Brigade, as General Officer Commanding 21st Division and as General Officer Commanding II Corps in the Fifth Army. During the Battle of the Somme, his corps undertook the British attack during the Battle of Thiepval Ridge in September 1916 and the subsequent assault on St Pierre Divion during the Battle of the Ancre in November 1916. He remained in command of II Corps for the Battle of Passchendaele in Autumn 1917. After the War he commanded a corps of the British Army of the Rhine during the occupation there and then served as Chief of the General Staff in India. He went on to be General Officer Commanding Northern Command in India before temporarily becoming Commander-in-Chief, India and then taking over as Military Secretary to the India Office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Lomax</span>

Lieutenant General Samuel Holt Lomax, was a British Army officer who commanded the 1st Division during the early battles of the First World War. He was fatally wounded in action in October 1914 at the First Battle of Ypres, being one of the most senior British officers to die on active service during the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Thesiger</span> British Army general

Major General George Handcock Thesiger, was a senior officer in the British Army during the First World War who was killed in action during the Battle of Loos by German shellfire. His career had encompassed military service in Egypt, South Africa, Ireland, British India and France and had been rewarded with membership in two chivalric orders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thompson Capper</span> British Army general (1863–1915)

Major General Sir Thompson Capper, was a senior British Army officer who served with distinction in the Second Boer War and was a divisional commander during the First World War. At the Battle of Loos in 1915, Capper was shot by a sniper as he reconnoitered the front line during an assault by his division on German positions. He died the next day in a casualty clearing station from wounds to both lungs; his grave is in the nearby Lillers Communal Cemetery.

General Sir William Thwaites, was a British Army officer who served as commander of the British Army of the Rhine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick McCracken</span> British Army general (1859–1949)

Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick William Nicholas McCracken, was a British Army officer who saw regimental service in Africa during the late nineteenth century, and later held senior command during the First World War. He commanded an infantry brigade in the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) of 1914, was appointed to command 15th (Scottish) Division in the New Armies from 1915 to 1917, and then briefly commanded XIII Corps on the Western Front before being posted to a home command in the United Kingdom.

Lieutenant General Sir John Lindesay Keir was a British soldier and general of the late 19th and early 20th century. He fought in the Second Boer War, and commanded the 6th Division and the VI Corps of the British Army on the Western Front during World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Fanshawe (British Army officer)</span>

Major-General Sir Robert Fanshawe, was a British Army officer, who commanded the 48th Division from 1915 to 1918 during the First World War. He was the youngest of three brothers who all rose to command divisions or corps during the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archibald Paris (Royal Marines officer)</span>

Major-General Sir Archibald Paris, was a Royal Marine officer who commanded the Royal Naval Division in the First World War. His son, Brigadier Archibald Paris, served in the Second World War in Malaya.

Major General Sir George Townshend Forestier-Walker KCB was a senior British Army officer during World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Ingouville-Williams</span> British Army general

Major-General Edward Charles Ingouville-Williams was a British Army officer of the First World War. He was killed in action while serving as commander of the 34th Division during the Battle of the Somme in July 1916.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Frederick Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis</span> British Army general

Brigadier-General John Frederick Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis,, known as 'Jack Tre', was a British Army officer in World War I. At the time of his death he was the youngest Brigadier-General in the British Army.

Major-General Sir Archibald Buchanan Ritchie, KBE CB CMG was a British Army officer, who commanded the 11th (Northern) Division and 16th (Irish) Division during the First World War.

Major-General Eric George William Warde Harrison, CB, CBE, MC, was a British Army officer who served in both world wars, a rugby player, Olympic athlete, and later a painter and author.

Major-General Thomas Stanford Baldock was a British Army officer.

References

  1. 1 2 Ummond Vincent Wing on Lives of the First World War
  2. ↑ "No. 24848". The London Gazette . 28 May 1880. p. 3221.
  3. 1 2 Davies 1997, p. 107.
  4. ↑ "The War - Officers discharged to duty". The Times. No. 36764. London. 10 May 1902. p. 12.
  5. ↑ "No. 27459". The London Gazette . 29 July 1902. pp. 4835–4837.
  6. ↑ "The Army in South Africa - Troops returning home". The Times. No. 36804. London. 26 June 1902. p. 10.
  7. ↑ "No. 27490". The London Gazette . 31 October 1902. p. 6899.
  8. ↑ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36926. London. 15 November 1902. p. 12.
  9. ↑ Maj.-Gen Frederick Drummond Vincent Wing, peerage.com, Daryl Lundy, Retrieved 5 July 2008
  10. ↑ "No. 27854". The London Gazette . 14 November 1905. p. 7598.
  11. ↑ "No. 28419". The London Gazette . 27 September 1910. p. 6842.
  12. ↑ "No. 28684". The London Gazette . 24 January 1913. p. 589.
  13. ↑ "No. 28961". The London Gazette . 3 November 1914. p. 8881.
  14. ↑ Davies 1997, pp. 107–108.
  15. ↑ Davies 1997, p. 108.
  16. ↑ Wing, Frederick Drummond Vincent, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Retrieved 5 July 2008
  17. ↑ Davies 1997, pp. 34, 108.

Bibliography

Military offices
Preceded by GOC 12th (Eastern) Division
March−October 1915		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.