Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/1054

Rh the German arms. His flight to Holland speedily followed that of the Emperor in Nov. 1918, and he went to Wieringen, an island in the Zuider Zee. He formally renounced on Dec. 1 1918 his rights of succession to the crowns of Prussia and the German Empire. The ex-Crown Princess and her children continued to reside at Potsdam, where she enjoyed considerable popularity among all classes of the population.

WILLY, the pen-name adopted by the French novelist (1859–), born at Villiers-sur-Orge Aug. 10 1859. He was educated at the Lycée Condorcet and the Collège Stanislas, and afterward adopted a literary career. His early works include a Recueil des Sonnets (1878), and various volumes of essays and criticism, including Essais sur Mark Twain et les Parnassiens (1882), but he is best known for his novels, many of which were written in collaboration with the actress and authoress Colette Willy. The most famous of these is Claudine à l’École (1900), with its sequels Claudine à Paris (1901), Claudine en Menage (1902) and Claudine s’en va (1903). Willy contributed largely to leading reviews, and also published various plays, including a theatrical version of Claudine à Paris, produced in 1902.

WILSON, SIR ARTHUR KNYVET, (1842–1921), English admiral, was born at Swaffham, Norfolk, March 4 1842, the son of Rear-Adml. George Knyvet Wilson. He entered the navy in 1855, and served in the naval operations of the Crimean War and the Chinese campaign of 1857–8. In 1876 he was appointed to the “Vernon,” the torpedo school-ship at Portsmouth. Having reached the rank of captain in 1880, he took part in 1881 in the operations against Alexandria and in 1884 won the Victoria Cross for bravery at El Teb. He became rear-admiral in 1895, was appointed Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy in 1897, and in 1901 became Vice-Admiral, receiving the K.C.B. in 1902. From 1901 to 1903 he commanded the Channel Squadron, and from 1903 to 1907 was Commander-in-chief of the Home and Channel Fleets. Ln 1907 he was promoted by Order in Council to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet, and in 1909 was appointed First Sea Lord in succession to Lord Fisher. He retired in 1912, and received the Order of Merit. He died at Swaffham May 25 1921.

Wilson was from the early 'nineties till practically the end of his life the most universally respected figure in the British navy. Himself the most unassuming man, careless of honours (he refused a peerage) and indeed of his personal appearance, he was a scientific sailor of the highest type, and a recognized master of strategy and tactics, whose advice, in and out of office, carried . the greatest weight. He had no party, no favourites, and did not advertise. He was a silent man, whom everyone trusted; and during the World War he was still a power behind the Admiralty, and the ungrudging servant of his country.

WILSON, SIR CHARLES RIVERS (1831–1916), English public official, son of Melvil Wilson, was born in 1831, and educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. He entered the Treasury in 1856, was private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Robert Lowe) 1868–73, and was Royal Commissioner for the Paris Exhibition of 1878, having been already appointed Comptroller General of Office for Reduction of National Debt in 1874. Whilst holding this position, he visited Egypt in 1876 and early in 1878 was selected as vice-president of the Commission to enquire into the Egyptian financial situation. Some months later he was nominated Financial Minister in Egypt and, in 1879, he and the Prime Minister, Nubar Pasha, were the victims of a serious outrage by the mob in the streets of Cairo— an incident which was the direct precursor of the Arabi revolt and the British occupation of Egypt in 1882. In April 1880, on the fall of the Khedive Ismail and the inauguration of his son Tewfik as Khedive, Rivers Wilson was appointed president of the Commission for the Liquidation of the Egyptian Debt, with full powers to regulate the financial position of Egypt. On the conclusion of this duty he returned to his post in London, and in March 1885 he became joint British Representative on the Suez Canal Board. On retiring from his post as Comptroller General of the National Debt Office in 1894, he became in 1895 president of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. He was created a K.C.M.G. in 1880 and was promoted G.C.M.G. in 1895. He died on Feb. 9 1916.

WILSON, SIR HENRY HUGHES, BART. (1864–), British Field-Marshal, was born in Ireland May 5 1864, and joined the army in 1884. He served in the field in Burma between 1886 and 1888, and was wounded. After some years on the staff at home he went out with the expeditionary force to S. Africa in 1899, and he served there, first with the Natal army, and afterward at headquarters till the end of 1900. The period from 1901 to 1906 he spent at the War Office, and after 1904, in which year he was promoted colonel, he had much to do with working out the organization of the newly created general staff. He then became commandant of the Staff College, a position which he occupied until 1910, when he was appointed Director of Military Operations. In this latter capacity he got into close touch with high French military authorities, and gave special attention to the study of strategical possibilities in the event of war with Germany. He was promoted Major-General in 1913.

On mobilization in Aug. 1914 he was appointed deputy-chief of the general staff to the expeditionary force, and he served in that position for the first five months of the struggle, after which he became principal liaison officer between British and French headquarters in the field. He was given the K.C.B., and at the end of 1915 he took up command of the IV. Army Corps; this he held until the opening of 1917 when he went out as head of a military mission to Russia, returning just before the revolution. He was promoted Lt.-General on his return and was theft in charge of the eastern command until Nov., when he was sent to Versailles to act as British Military Representative on the newly established Supreme War Council. In the following Feb. he succeeded Sir W. Robertson as Chief of the Imperial General Staff. The great German offensive of March took place almost immediately after his taking up this high appointment, and he played a prominent part in the steps taken to strengthen Sir D. Haig's forces. The friendly terms on which he stood with the French supreme authorities, no less than with the Home Government, contributed materially to ensure that cooperation between the Allies which so greatly assisted in giving victory to their cause. He had been promoted General soon after taking up the appointment, and on the final distribution of honours for the war he was promoted Field-Marshal, was given a baronetcy, and received a grant of 10,000. In December 1921, however, he resigned his position at the War Office (being succeeded by Lord Cavan); and soon afterwards he ranged himself with the supporters of the Northern Irish Parliament in Ulster of which he was elected a member.

WILSON, JOHN COOK (1849–1915), English philosopher, was born at Nottingham June 6 1849. He was educated at Derby and at Balliol College, Oxford, and in 1874 was elected to a fellowship at Oriel College. After graduating, he studied logic under Hermann Lotze at Göttingen. Returning to Oxford, he became well-known as a lecturer and in 1889 was appointed Wykeham professor of Logic. He died at Oxford Aug. 11 1915. Among his publications were Aristotelian Studies (1879, republished 1912) ; lectures on Axioms, on Plato’s Timaeus (1889) and on the Traversing of Geometrical Figures (1905).

WILSON, WOODROW (1856–), twenty-eighth president of the United States, was born in Staunton, Va., Dec. 28 1856. He was baptized with the name of Thomas Woodrow Wilson. The Scotch strain predominated in his ancestry, for his paternal grandfather came from county Down, in Ulster, and his maternal grandfather, Thomas Woodrow, a graduate of Glasgow University, from Scotland. The stern Presbyterianism of his father, a minister of small means but marked capacity as a theologian, early influenced him and left an indelible mark upon his character. His early years were spent in Georgia and South Carolina, where he was deeply affected by the sufferings of the South during the reconstruction period. In 1875 he entered Princeton, graduating four years later. His record for scholarship in college was not remarkable, but he was prominent in debating and literary circles, and became student director of athletic sport.