Arthur Wilson

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson, 3rd Baronet, was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War and then the Mahdist War, being awarded the Victoria Cross during the Battle of El Teb in February 1884. He went on to command HMS Raleigh, the torpedo school HMS Vernon and then the battleship HMS Sans Pareil before taking charge of the Experimental Torpedo Squadron. He later commanded the Channel Fleet. He served as First Sea Lord but in that role he "was abrasive, inarticulate, and autocratic" and was really only selected as Admiral Sir John Fisher's successor because he was a supporter of Fisher's reforms. Wilson survived for even less time than was intended by the stop-gap nature of his appointment because of his opposition to the establishment of a Naval Staff. Appointed an advisor at the outbreak of the First World War, he advocated offensive schemes in the North Sea including the capture of Heligoland and was an early proponent of the development and use of submarines in the Royal Navy.