Friday, 6 February 2026

New Orde Wingate Papers

https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-wingate-papers-shed-light-on-british-officer-revered-in-israel-as-the-friend/

New Wingate papers shed light on British officer revered in Israel as ‘the friend’

Hebrew study sheets, photos and plans for the formation of a Zionist military are among items recently donated to Jerusalem’s National Library

The archives of Orde Charles Wingate, a senior officer in the British military during the pre-state Mandate period, arrived recently at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, offering insight into the mind of an extraordinary figure who is still revered in Israel over eight decades after his death.

Among the items given to the library are Wingate’s notebook, personal diary, detailed plans for the formation of a Jewish military, battle plans against Arab militias and dozens of photographs that had previously not been made public.

According to the National Library, the newly published archives further prove Wingate’s “deep identification with the Zionist movement and his significant contribution to the security of the state-in-the-making.”

Now known in Israel as “the friend,” Wingate arrived in then-British Mandatory Palestine in 1936 after spending a decade in the military, mostly in Sudan. He was assigned as an intelligence officer tasked with quelling Arab unrest that had ramped up in those years.

As an ardent Christian Zionist, Wingate quickly formed deep ties with Jewish political and militia leaders, believing that the formation of a Jewish state in British Palestine was of both religious and security necessity.

The young Wingate wrote extensively in his notebook and journal, using them to study Hebrew, which was quickly becoming the main spoken language among Jews in Mandatory Palestine.

The journal also shows Wingate’s fluency in Arabic, which he learned while stationed in Sudan, and his familiarity with counterinsurgency tactics that he would introduce to the Haganah, the paramilitary forerunner to the Israel Defense Forces, which had been struggling to organize against attacks by Arab militias during the 1920s and 1930s.

In 1938, Wingate formed the Special Night Squads (SNS), a joint British-Jewish militia force modeled in part on the famed British-Nepali Gurkha units, tasked with cracking down on Arab insurgency.

Yitzhak Sadeh, then-commander of the Haganah’s elite Palmach units and future founder of the IDF, sent Wingate 25 of his best troops, and the British officer drilled them into shape, turning the SNS into a well-oiled counterinsurgency force.

According to the library, Wingate’s SNS “operated in the Galilee and the Jezreel Valley and developed an innovative combat doctrine based on offensive activity beyond the boundaries of the settlements, precise intelligence, initiative, and covert night operations.”

The force would grow during the late 1930s, and Wingate’s successful leadership of the unit prompted the British government to award him the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), one of the highest medals given to officers in the crown’s service.

1938 (Orde second from left)

However, as British leadership began shifting away from the Zionist movement in the late 1930s, in part due to the more hardline Jewish militias Irgun and Lehi targeting British military and government personnel, Wingate was removed from service in Mandatory Palestine in May 1939 and transferred back to Britain.

According to contemporary reports, Wingate was removed from his post due to his deep personal and ideological ties with Jewish military and political leaders, which British leadership believed compromised him as an intelligence officer in the region.

While his personal Zionism led his superiors to believe he was unfit for duty in the Holy Land, his ideological commitment and role in organizing Jewish military forces in pre-state Israel led to deep reverence among his Jewish contemporaries, with Haganah commander and future IDF chief of staff and defense minister Moshe Dayan saying that Wingate “taught us everything we know.”

Wingate later served in the British military during World War II, mostly against Japan in the South East Asian theater, and died in a suspicious plane crash in India in 1944 (possibly assassinated) at the age of 41. After his death, Wingate was honored by Jewish leaders in Israel, and upon the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, the newly formed government named dozens of streets and squares after him.

A decade later, Israel created the Wingate Institute, officially known as the Orde Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sports, which serves as a national center for athletics.

Now, with his personal letters, journal and photographs made public, the National Library hopes that the archives will “contribute to a deeper understanding of Wingate’s character and his influence on the development of combat doctrines that shaped the military force-building of the State of Israel.”

The archives were donated to the library by Clive Lewis, “a private collector, history enthusiast, and Jewish businessman from London.”

According to the library, Lewis donated the archives because he believes that items of such significance “are not meant to be kept by individuals, but rather to be published, digitized, and made accessible to the general public.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-wingate-papers-shed-light-on-british-officer-revered-in-israel-as-the-friend/