The All Sir Garnet’s Team – teamwork for GSD
Ask someone to name a ‘Great’ General, and Sir Garnet Wolseley, despite his awesomeness, is unlikely to crop up. So, here’s a ‘short’ thread explaining why he’s my favourite (yep, even over Wellington (gasp!).
Almost invariably sent in afte (yet another) major politico-military cock-up, Wolseley was Whitehall’s Troubleshooter. In this context, quibbles around Sir Garnet’s (in)famous arrogance & ambiguous ‘victories’ thus often completely miss the point: he GSD (Got Shit Done) .
Outspoken reformist, contemptuous of sycophancy & intolerant of incompetence, Sir Garnet was loathed by an old establishment founded on nepotism & sinecure. But change in the C19th was merciless & Whitehall had no time for convention; it needed to get GSD. It needed Wolseley.
It’s HOW Sir Garnet GSD that elevates him. His low profile as a leader stems from a strong-man fallacy permeating strategic studies. It fails to understand the strength of a leader can derive not from their innate charisma & personality, but the PEOPLE they lead.
Sir Garnet’s ‘RING’, his A Team (or All Sir Garnet’s Team (ASG Team)) is well known, but often critiqued that his people were favoured, overpromoted, & never performed magnificently on their own (Colley in the 1st Boer War & Wood in the 2nd cases in point) but…
This misses the point. He didn’t choose based on leadership potential. He chose people because they were bloody good at something. They got results, they had clearly identifiable skills & strengths, & were people Wolseley knew he could use, & trust to get it done. Let's meet them:
Brackenbury: Skill - intelligence & situational awareness. Bit naf at soldiering, didn’t like soldiers, rubbish ADC. SirG didn’t care, he was the sharpest winkle pin in the Victorian army & key figure in the UK’s first intelligence services.
William Butler: Skill - logistical powerhouse with immense initiative, ideal for long-distance campaigns. Catholic, irascible, ahead of his time, loathing the racism of his countrymen. Likely his critique of Chelmsford’s expenditure helped Wolseley make his case in S Africa.
Redvers Buller: Skill – good tactician + solid, brave, dependable soldier. Tell him to get something done, he’d get it done, or die trying. Came close to that a few times. Very likely his recon, choice of ground & tactical advice won Ulundi, not Chelmsford.
What marks them out are their specific skills, get it done attitude, initiative and fortitude. SirG only judged a man by RESULTS (as Crealock found when his marquee and champagne were sent back with a terse note that he should focus more on the front line, not its rear).
He:
Knew what a task needed
Knew his team’s strengths & weaknesses
Allocated tasks based on aptitude
Made it v clear what was wanted, by when
Trusted they would Get It Done
Bear in mind this was also Wellington’s strength: a general who knew how to work with allies, where to use/ put his strongest & weakest commanders. When he told Blucher to turn up for Waterloo, no matter what, he knew he would. Generals win battles. Teamwork wins wars.