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........

© The Times of Israel