Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/698

 request of Colonel Sir Henry James [q. v.], director of the ordnance survey, he ran a line of levels by way of Jericho to Jerusalem and thence by El Jeb and Lydda to Jaffa to ascertain the difference of level between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, and showed that in the month of March the Dead Sea was 1292 feet below the Mediterranean Sea, and in summer about six feet more. Wilson returned home in July 1865. The results of the survey were published, and included plans with photographs of Jerusalem and the vicinity. This survey led to the formation of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and Wilson undertook the preliminary work, starting for Palestine on 5 Nov. 1865. A general reconnaissance which he made of the country between Beirut and Hebron showed how little was known of the antiquities of Palestine, and the need of a thorough investigation. Elected a member of the executive committee of the fund on his return in June 1866, Wilson was one of its most energetic supporters for life, becoming chairman in 1901.

From October 1866 to October 1868 Wilson was at Inverness in charge of the ordnance survey in Scotland, being also employed, in the summer of 1867, as an assistant commissioner under the parliamentary boundary commission for part of the west midland districts of England. Between October 1868 and May 1869 he was surveying the Sinaitic peninsula, with, among others, Professor E. H. Palmer [q. v.]. Appointed on 16 May 1869 executive officer of the topographical branch of the ordnance survey in London under Sir Henry James, Wilson became on 1 April 1870 first director of the topographical department at the war office, when the other departments of the ordnance survey were transferred to the office of works; at his suggestion this department was reconstructed in 1873 as a branch of an intelligence department for war, and his title was changed to that of an assistant quartermaster general in the intelligence department. From 1876 Wilson was in charge of the ordnance survey in Ireland. Promoted major on 23 May 1873, he was created C.B., civil division, in 1877. In 1874 he was elected F.R.S.

The autumn of 1878 Wilson spent in Servia as British commissioner of the international commission for the demarcation of the new frontier under the treaty of Berlin, and in February 1879 he was appointed British military consul-general in Anatolia, Asia Minor. Wilson was promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel for his services in Servia (19 April 1879). Fixing his headquarters at Sivas, Wilson divided Anatolia into four consulates, with a British military vice-consul in each. One of the vice-consuls was Lieutenant (now Field-marshal Viscount) Kitchener. Wilson travelled much about Anatolia, learning the ways of the people and of the Turkish authorities, exerting a highly humane influence, and reporting to the foreign office through the British ambassador at Constantinople. Many of his notes on the geography, history, and archæology of the country he embodied in ‘Handbooks for Asia Minor and Constantinople,’ which he edited for John Murray in 1892 and 1895. In the summer of 1880, by direction of G. J. (afterwards Viscount) Goschen, then special ambassador to the Porte, Wilson inquired into the state of affairs in Eastern Roumelia, Bulgaria, and Macedonia (see Parl. Paper, Turkey, No. 19, 1880). He returned to his duties in Anatolia in November. In 1881 he was created a K.C.M.G.

In Oct. 1882 Wilson was summoned to Egypt to serve under Sir Edward Malet, the British consul-general. He arrived at Alexandria on 3 Sept. 1882, when an English army was in the field against Arabi Pasha. Nominated British commissioner with an expected Turkish force, which, owing to the prompt success of the British arms, was not sent, he was next appointed military attaché to the British agency in Egypt, and took charge of the Egyptian prisoners of war, including Arabi and Toulba Pashas. Sir Charles watched for the British government the trial of Arabi and his companions, and later arranged for sending the exiles and their families to Ceylon. Resuming his duties on 1 April 1883 at the head of the ordnance survey in Ireland, Wilson was promoted brevet colonel on the 19th, and was made hon. D.C.L. of Oxford in June.

Appointed chief of the intelligence department (with the grade of deputy adjutant-general) in Lord Wolseley's Nile expedition to Khartoum for the rescue of Gordon in September 1884, Wilson reached Dongola on 11 Oct. and on 15 Dec. accompanied Lord Wolseley and the rest of the staff to Korti, going on with Sir Herbert Stewart across the desert on 30 Dec. He left Korti the second time on 8 Jan. 1885, and failing to reach Khartoum by steamer in time to save Gordon, he returned to Korti a month later. He published his journal of the experience in ‘From Korti to