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manoeuvres, spending time with each
branch of the army. Sadly, his Report on
the pre-Revolutionary Russian army did
not survive; but his Recollections do (and
also his small collection of photographs).
Extracts are published in booklet form
this centenary year, most for the first
time.
100 years ago, this was Wavell’s summary
of his impressions from three years
attendance at manoeuvres: ‘I had a great
admiration for the Russian soldier and
thought that he was adequately led up
to battalion commander. The higher
command I thought generally weak; the
General Staff unpractical and academic;
the equipment in many respects poor
and inadequate; and the transport and
administration behind the front line
troops almost entirely deficient. I think
this judgment was borne out by events.’
In the early part of the 1914-18 war,
Wavell was posted to GHQ in France,
working in Intelligence and advising
on Russian matters. The Allies had
an exaggerated view of the steam-
roller effect of the huge Tsarist army.
At a meeting of Sir John French and
his three Corps commanders, the
view was expressed that the Russians
would reach Breslau (Wroclaw) by 15 th
T he T rusty S ervant
October. Wavell was asked to comment.
He replied that he did not think the
Russians would reach Breslau either in
1914, or even that winter. He was right,
but his opinion was discounted.
After losing his left eye at the second
battle of Ypres in 1915, and recuperating
at home, Wavell was posted back to
GHQ for the opening of the Battle of
the Somme. Then he was posted to Tiflis
in the Caucasus, as Military Attaché to
the Grand Duke Nicholas. Of him he
wrote, ‘He was a great personality…full
of common sense and character. It was
a great pity he was not Tsar instead of
his nephew, and might have held Russia
together. I asked him once whether the
story was true that, when Rasputin wired
that he wished to come and visit the
troops, he had wired back that he hoped
he would, as he would certainly hang
him on arrival. He said the story was true
and that he would have done so.’
Wavell experienced the first revolution
of 1917, but returned home through
Moscow and Petrograd by the middle of
June that year, after eight months in the
Caucasus.
This was the occasion of the world’s
first ever parachute drop of an entire
brigade. The German observer was
Student, later to command the Air
Division that took Crete, with almost
annihilating casualties, in May 1941. A
more important war-winning weapon was
also on display, the Soviet tanks with the
famous Christie suspension system.
Wavell dictated his Recollections while
he was Viceroy, in the gaps of an always
busy diary. Using only a ‘Life Journal’
that he kept, with a record of where he
spent every night of his life, he told from
memory the stories of each phase of his
life. They were typed, single-spaced, on
foolscap, and fill nine folders each of 25-
35 pages. They were never intended for
publication, at any rate in the lifetime of
any of the major participants. Each folder
has the caveat on the opening page, ‘For
Family Eyes Only’.
Perhaps Old Wykehamists can count as
‘family’.
Wavell in Russia, compiled from the Field
Marshal’s Recollections and other family
papers, is now available. Enquiries to
[email protected].
Wavell’s next visit to Russia was for
the Soviet army manoeuvres of 1936.
Making Engineers
Simon Tarrant, Head of Design Technology,
reports:
With a desire to ‘support and encourage
future engineers at Winchester College’
Christopher Taylor-Young (F, 47-52)
stepped forward in 2013 to provide
a generous annual donation to the
College. On a visit to Mill, Christopher
was ‘hugely encouraged and enthused
to find engineering not being forgotten
at Win Coll’, and went on to write, ‘The
keenness and initiative of the boys that
I met was wonderful and so encouraging
for the future of this country. I have to
admit that DT is really something that
I knew little about: how wonderful that
the work is so much more practical than
it ever was in my day.’
Christopher studied Engineering as an
undergraduate at Cambridge University.
However, along with many of his peers,
he went on to pursue a career in finance.
Upon selling his investment firm after a
long and successful career in the City, he
noted the number of newspaper articles
highlighting the shortage of graduate
engineers in the UK and the damaging
effect this was having on the economy.
8
Keen to rally with the likes of Sir James
Dyson, Christopher approached the
College to find out what was being done
at his alma mater to cultivate the next
generation of engineers.
During his visit to Mill, he saw
the considerable opportunities for
Wykehamists to gain practical experience
of engineering through project work,
both within the Design Technology
curriculum but also through extensive
extra-curricular provision. He witnessed
the excitement of pupils taking
part in the Ingenuity Challenge, an