The Sirdar

Francis Reginald Wingate (1861-1953) was a major figure in the political, administrative, and military history of the Middle East from the early 1880s until the end of WWI. As dir. of military intelligence in the British-officered Egyptian Army during the Sudan campaigns; as sirdar (commander-in-chief) of that army and gov.-gen. of the Sudan during the formative period of its colonial admin.; and as high commissioner in Egypt during the latter half of the first world war and the crisis that led to the Egyptian revolution of 1919, he stands with Cromer and Kitchener as architects of the British empire in the Middle East. Yet Wingate has received much less notice than his famous contemporaries such as Gordon of Khartoum and Lawrence of Arabia. This biography corrects the historical imbalance. Illus.