​James Wilson
Author
Noble Savages
The foreword to the book, by Alan Williams, former Chair of the Savage Club:
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This book is about the extraordinary record of eminent individuals who were members of the Savage Club over its long history. James Wilson has written about some of those members who fought in the First World War, a war in which, as James Wilson says, a million British and Empire troops never returned, and for those that did, it was not to the land fit for heroes that politicians had promised.
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It is James Wilson’s aim in this book to remember those members of the Savage Club who fought for King and Country. And he does it superbly.
In total 147 members of the Club served in that conflict and the author has chosen a selection who became well known in their later careers and who were without doubt fascinating and interesting men.
The first qualification to be a Savage is to fall into one of the membership categories: science, art, music, drama or literature. Law became a category much later although the Club had lawyers of distinction, as this book vividly reveals, who had fallen into other categories.
James Wilson has made an important contribution to Savage history with his book. His impeccable research has thrown up some Savage Club gems. There have been many books about the Club: Aaron Watson’s history of 1907, and the later history by Percy V Bradshaw (1958), are remarkable works. Later writings, too, of Alan Wykes (with Matthew Norgate) of 1976, and John Wade in 2007, show the “indefinable atmosphere of good fellowship, a feeling that all men were equal no matter what rank or profession, and the blending of tradition with the present”, as Joseph Batten put it so well in his book of 1956. Indeed, there can be no Club in the Country that has had the distinction of four future Kings of England chairing Club Dinners.
This book by James Wilson joins that succession of histories in a very real and profound way. It is the first time that a number of eminent members have been researched in depth and their contribution to society has been put against the background of a Club which was a very significant part of their lives.
The Club, of course, has a library and all books have either been written by members of the Club or are books about members of the Club. The names of James Agate and Eric Midwinter frequently appear. Indeed, to show the versatility of James Wilson, three books in the library are written by him.
James is an accomplished author and his latest book will bring further distinction to our Library.
Alan Williams
Chairman of the Savage Club 2015–2018
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"It is James Wilson's aim in this book to remember those members of the Savage Club who fought for King and Country. And he does it superbly."
A review for the Savage Club magazine Drumbeat, by Eric Midwinter, one of the great polymaths of the club:
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This is a literally staggering book – and, a rarity, I use the adverb literally, literally. It is momentous. It takes up the lives and experiences of Savages with World War I duties and drops them delicately in the teeming lake of Savagery. Then, with meticulous research, it smoothly follows the ripples that touch on other Savages, so that the whole becomes a sumptuous review of Savage society and its impact over the generations. It reaches back to the glory of Victorian days and it embraces Savages known to current members of long standing...and all these twists and turns, footnotes and all, without a hint, given the fluency of the prose, of chunky digression.
It is perhaps helped by the then Savage practice of appointing as honorary members royals, generals and other notables, not the sort you would find propping up the bar over a gin and tonic on a wintry Tuesday night. Personally, I think the Club is right to avoid this habit, especially in these days of full disclosure. I recall several secondary schools in the 1970s and 1980s who had named ‘houses’ after imperial heroes. The schools were acutely embarrassed when revisionist biographers dished the alleged dirt on the likes of Captain Scott, Lawrence of Arabia and Cecil Rhodes.
However, James Wilson adopts a liberal and evenhanded view of all Savages. It is this non-partisan stance that elevates his book above the rank and file of club memoirs, Savage or otherwise. Most err on the side of the hagiographical; most Club geese are Club swans.
Not so with James. Earl Mountbatten is justly riddled with both barrels of the Wilsonian shotgun, while the Duke of Windsor is critically wounded with one such cartridge. He
possibly deserved the second but the point is that these notices are kindly but fearless. Henry Williamson is lauded for his Tarka the Otter and environmental awareness but assailed for his relentlessly noisome Fascist sympathies.
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Above all, Noble Savages gets you thinking. The multiple assortment – no less the consequent humbleness felt under the weight of the heritage – of the famous who have
been Savages means that every paragraph could motivate a conversation.
Here’s my two-pennyworth. I would have liked Charles Alcock to have been developed more. He has been dubbed ‘the Father of Modern Sport’. I am certain of that because I did the dubbing. And then there’s Tommy Handley, downgraded to the appendix. His musical sketch which he did on the halls for some twenty years and which led to his radio fame with ITMA, in which no less than seven Savages were involved, was entitled ‘the Disorderly Room’ and was based on his WWI experience.
How good is this book? Well, when asked what influence the 1789 French Revolution had had on history, Chou En Lai replied it was too early to tell. It’s on that same precept that, a fervent novel reader, I rarely pick a text published after 1914 on the ground that it is too early to tell whether it is going to endure. I am also a great admirer of Percy Bradshaw’s splendid 1958 work on Savage history. I mention this perhaps obsessive yearning for the past to underscore the unlikelihood of my making a favourable judgement about the present, as I tender here my unexpected but resolute verdict.
This is the best book ever written about the Savage Club.
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"This is the best book ever written about the Savage Club."
Review by David Filsell in Stand To! magazine, vol 115, May 2019, the journal of the Western Front Association. Mr Filsell is the book review editor of the publication:
"... fascinating and incisive evaluation ... Throughout his evaluations, James Wilson displays keen judgement, extensive research and an awareness of recent thinking about the Great War in revealing his subjects. Whilst above all a memorial volume, Noble Savages is actually far more: it is a fine, enjoyable read. .... Recommended."
From Kathryn White, a PhD student at Pembroke College, Oxford. The review is for the Great War Group, a new First World War group I have joined.
Noble Savages is James Wilson’s remarkably thorough study of the Savage Club of London in the First World War. A product of centenary research, the hardcover was originally published in 2018 and due to demand has now been reissued as an updated paperback.
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Early in the book Wilson describes the Club’s memorial plaque, carved by member and sculptor Albert Toft in memory of the nine ‘Savages’ who were killed during the war. Yet in truth, this book is a far greater memorial; a tribute to the war work of more than one hundred men and a testament to the way the conflict cut through British society.
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But we can also tell a lot from that simple plaque, upon which the nine names are listed in alphabetical order. All but one are officers. Yet one name stands out, despite it being no more prominent than the Second Lieutenants. That of Field Marshal the Earl Kitchener. The hero of Khartoum and the face of 1914 Army recruitment, Kitchener had been a member of the Savage Club. He wasn’t their only famous face. The King, George V, was an honorary member until he came to the throne. Admiral Jellicoe and Field Marshal Sir William Robertson also called the club home.
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In many ways the membership of the Savage Club reads like a Who’s Who of the war. Artist CRW Nevinson, architect Edwin Lutyens, and correspondent Hillaire Belloc were all also members, with Wilson giving each of them an in depth biography. A collection of extraordinary men, each prominent in their fields, they were united by their membership of one bohemian gentlemen’s club. Selection for membership required (and still does to this day) professional distinction alongside societal connection.
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Noble Savages can therefore be seen to transcend the Club itself, reflecting the interconnected nature of London society at the time of the war. The elite circle to which membership of the Club was possible were the very same men at the top of the social hierarchy to whom positions of military and government influence were open.
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One can only wonder about the conversations held in the Savage bar between the great and good of the war. Between the Army and Navy; the sciences and arts. And unfortunately, one is largely left to wonder. Likely a result of limited written evidence pertaining to what occurred behind those closed doors, Wilson doesn’t go beyond the biographies to explore the relationships fostered and the deals done within the Savage Club.
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Even a century later the secrecy of Club Land prevails. A remarkable place for men living remarkable lives, James Wilson provides us with an amazing cast of historical figures, upon whom the success and legacy of the First World War depended. By placing them within the community of the Savage Club, we are given a new appreciation for the context in which they lived and experienced life, as well as for the historical legacy of the Club itself.
"... remarkably thorough study .... James Wilson provides us with an amazing cast of historical figures ... we are given a new appreciation for the context in which they lived and experienced life, as well as for the historical legacy of the Club itself."
