Birth in Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford of Sir Henry Wilson

Sir Henry Wilson is born in Edgeworthstown, County Longford, on May 5, 1864. A career British Army officer, he rises to become Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1918 to 1922, playing a key role in post–World War I military strategy and the British response to Irish unrest. During the Irish War of Independence, Wilson is instrumental in establishing British military intelligence operations in Dublin, including the infamous Cairo Gang, a group of undercover agents later targeted in Michael Collins’s intelligence campaign. Wilson is assassinated in London in 1922 by two Irish republicans.