While using Geoff's search engine looking for MPs killed in WW2, I can across this chap: Name: WIENHOLT, ARNOLD Initials: A Nationality: United Kingdom Rank: Second Lieutenant Regiment/Service: General List Secondary Unit Text: and 101 Mission (Abyssinian Border) Age: 62 Date of Death: 10/09/1940 Service No: 183659 Awards: D S O, M C and Bar, Mentioned in Despatches Additional information: Son of Edward and Ellen Wienholt; husband of Enid F. Wienholt, of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Also served in the South African and 1914-18 wars. Was elected member for Fassifern in the Queensland Parliament (1909-13 and 1930-35) and Member for Moreton in the Australian Federal Parliament (1919-22). Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 2. Memorial: KHARTOUM MEMORIAL I had never come across this chap before, who was he and what was Mission 101?
Found this biography of him here: Wienholt, Arnold (1877 - 1940) Biographical Entry - Australian Dictionary of Biography Online WIENHOLT, ARNOLD (1877-1940), army officer, adventurer, pastoralist, politician and author, was born on 25 November 1877 at Goomburra station, near Allora, Queensland, eldest son of Edward Wienholt, pastoralist, and his Victorian-born wife Ellen, née Williams. Educated in England at Eton, Arnold returned to Australia and gained experience in the pastoral industry. Enlisting in the 4th (Queensland Imperial Bushmen) Contingent, on 18 May 1900 he embarked for South Africa; he was promoted sergeant in June and established a reputation for firmness and fairness. The contingent saw twelve months active service before being disbanded in Brisbane on 10 August 1901. In 1908 Wienholt became manager of Wienholt Estates Co. of Australasia Ltd and was responsible for the firm's Queensland properties. He was a good cattleman and devised his own method of dealing with the ravages of tick. Entering politics in 1909, he was the member for Fassifern in the Legislative Assembly until 1913. That year, having failed to win the Federal seat of Wide Bay, he decided to go on safari to German South-West Africa (Namibia). While hunting, he was mauled by a wounded lion; his wrist was mangled and he lost full use of his right hand. Learning of the outbreak of World War I, Wienholt made his way to Rhodesia. His offer to scout for the British was refused and he returned to Brisbane. In March 1915 he sailed for Africa accompanied by Ivan Lewis, a friend and one of his station managers. They served briefly on border patrol as special service troopers in the British South African Police, then enlisted in the East Africa Mounted Rifles. Early in 1916 they were seconded to the Intelligence Branch and Wienholt was promoted warrant officer. Leading a patrol into German East Africa (Tanzania), he collected valuable information before being wounded and captured on 1 July. He escaped six months later and spent fifteen days crossing unfamiliar country to regain his own lines. For his gallantry he was awarded the Military Cross. Wienholt performed further successful reconnaissance missions, among them an arduous six-month expedition during which his party was frequently attacked by superior enemy forces. His courage and endurance won him the Distinguished Service Order in October 1918. A bar to his M.C. had been gazetted in September; he had also been promoted captain. Two months after arriving home, on 29 April 1919 Wienholt married Enid Frances Sydney Jones at St Philip's Anglican Church, Sydney. They made their home at his property, Washpool Farm, near Kalbar, Queensland. That year he was elected to the House of Representatives as National Party member for Moreton and immediately urged the government to repeal restrictions on German settlers disfranchised during the war. A prudent businessman, he spoke against public indebtedness and state enterprise. He voted in accordance with his conscience on all matters except 'motions of censure or want of confidence'. He did not contest the 1922 election. In 1930 the Fassifern electorate returned him to the assembly. Retaining the seat in 1932, he did not contest the 1935 election. He had published The Story of a Lion Hunt (London, 1922), an account of his adventures on safari and in World War I, and gone lion-hunting on four occasions between 1923 and 1929. Following the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, Wienholt arrived in Addis Ababa in December 1935 as war correspondent for the Brisbane Courier Mail. Two months later he joined the Ethiopian Red Cross as a transport officer and left for the front. Impeded by Italian air attacks and hostile tribesmen, he skilfully assisted various philanthropic groups to retreat to the capital. He recorded his experiences in The Africans' Last Stronghold: in Naboth's Vineyard (London, 1938) and continued to promote the Ethiopian cause in Australia and England, but failed to gain official or public support for his stand. On the outbreak of World War II he sailed to Aden; while awaiting Italy's entry into the war, he learned Arabic and Amharic. In anticipation of a commission in the British Army, he was ordered on 31 August 1940 to proceed overland from the Sudan to Ethiopia in charge of a small party of natives. Wienholt's group was a component of Military Mission 101, a force tasked with fostering rebellion against Italy. Ambushed and wounded, probably on the morning of 10 September, he was last seen scrambling into the bush and was presumed to have died. Of military bearing, with a moustache and short beard, Wienholt had been alert and restless. At Eton 'he was conspicuous as a straight running, fearless boy of great energy'. The boy was father to the man: he never smoked or drank alcohol, and his physical fitness more than once saved his life. Although taciturn, he liked to tell a good yarn, and to listen to one. As a soldier and scout, he was brave and resourceful, in the style of the heroes in his book, The Work of a Scout (London, 1923). A man of 'ruthless integrity and exacting truthfulness', he abhorred sentimentality and exaggeration. Consequently, his books understated his deeds. An 'uncompromising individualist', he had affection for the peoples of Africa. Wienholt lived much of his life alone, and died alone for a cause which he embraced eagerly and with passion. His wife survived him, as did their only daughter Anne who became a prominent artist. His Queensland estate was sworn for probate at £174,978. Select Bibliography P. E. von Lettow-Vorbeck, My Reminiscences of East Africa (Lond, 1920); M. J. Fox (compiler), The History of Queensland (Brisb, 1921); A. D. Mickle, Many a Mickle (Melb, 1953); C. G. Grabs, Australian, and a Hero (Toowoomba, Qld, 1987); W. Thesiger, The Life of my Choice (Lond, 1987); Canberra Times, 11 May 1968; R. C. Foot, Arnold Wienholt: A Biography of an Independent Australian (manuscript, privately held); Wienholt collection (University of Queensland Library). More on the resources Author: P. J. Greville Print Publication Details: P. J. Greville, 'Wienholt, Arnold (1877 - 1940)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12, Melbourne University Press, 1990, pp 483-484.
Interesting article on Mission 101 here: Mission 101--the Operational Centres: the hidden Australian involvement in Ethiopia--WW2 and the formation of the Special Operations Executive, "SOE". Industry & Business Article - Research, News, Information, Contacts, Divisions, Subsidiaries, Busin
This also has a useful entry from the Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia: Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia - Google Book Search
Can add only this link Mission 101--the Operational Centres: the hidden Australian involvement in Ethiopia--WW2 and the formation of the Special Operations Executive, "SOE". | Sabretache | Find Articles at BNET.com
While using Geoff's search engine looking for MPs killed in WW2, What I have to ask is; any particular reason? Or just curious? There's been some interesting stuff on the radio recently about how the generation of politicians that went, almost without exception, to war has passed, their replacements being less cautious about engaging in warfare as they have no personal experience of it. Not really relevant to this chap I'm afraid, just something that interests me. He certainly seems to have had more than his fair share of conflict.
If I told you, I would have to kill you... but seriously, just doing some research on MPs, that's all.
There is a bit (around 8 pages) about Mission 101 in M.R.D. Foot's SOE: The Special Operations Executive 1940-46, BBC publications. 1984. Geoff
Interesting stuff. I noticed his name on the memorial in Khartoum Cemetery and knew there would be an interesting story behind the name on the wall. You dont see many 2Lt DSO, MC and bar! Although, as your thread indicates, he won these decorations whilst going through the ranks in the Australian Military! Carl
Have included Wienholts story in a new thread I've created. Hope you dont mind? Carl http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/north-africa-med/30058-stories-men-remembered-khartoum-war-cemetery.html
A somewhat belated response - just doing a spot of tidying up and came upon these posts. Duncan McNab here and I my book on Mission 101 was released in Australia by Pan in 2011 and by the History Press in the UK in 2012. It was a great pleasure to research the book and write about Arnold Wienholt and five incredible young Australians - one of them my uncle Ken Burke. There is quite a bit of intriguing research about Wienholt that I didn't use - the University of Queensland library was a great source. Best D
Ord Wingate got a DSO fighting with them by the looks of it amongst the files in the link below: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/s/res?_q=mission+101&x=0&y=0
