ABSTRACT
Field Marshal Earl Wavell’s service as a subaltern in the Second Boer War and in Edwardian India from 1901 to 1908 were formulative experiences in the professional development of the future Field Marshal. The officers of the Edwardian Army were born and bred — or at least educated as gentlemen. Life in military garrisons abroad at the zenith of the Victorian Empire undoubtedly influenced the impressionable young Wavell, especially when he lived, from 1889 to 1891, in the “idyllic hill station” of Wellington, India. A study of Wavell’s embryonic career from 1901 to 1908 reveals the further development of the future Field Marshal’s attributes of leadership and character which he would later demonstrate so well during the Second World War. In 1891 the Norfolk Regiment was ordered to Burma, and due to its inhospitable climate and lack of sanitary facilities and adequate housing, Major Wavell was on the verge of being separated from his wife and children.
