Orde Charles Wingate (1903-1944) could read Israel’s road signs in all three languages. English was his mother tongue, Arabic he learned in Sudan, and Hebrew he studied diligently, writing and practicing it in a thick, hardbound notebook.
That notebook, belonging to the British officer known in the Jewish community as ‘the friend’ and regarded as the father of Israel’s reconnaissance units, recently arrived at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. It is part of Wingate’s personal archive, after whom the well-known Wingate Institute near Netanya is named.
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From Orde Wingate's notebook
(Photo: Orde Wingate collection, National Library of Israel)
Alongside diaries, photographs and operational plans, the archive offers fresh insight into Wingate’s worldview and the development of the innovative combat methods he championed, including ambushes, night operations, offensive initiative and operating beyond defensive lines. His Jewish colleagues adopted these approaches and went on to shape Israel’s security doctrine in decisive ways.
Wingate’s personal archive contains historically valuable materials, some of which have never been previously exposed. They include a personal diary documenting his activities in Mandatory Palestine, rare photographs, attack plans, intelligence reports, writings on weapons concepts and, above all, strategies that later became cornerstones of modern counterterrorism warfare.
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Orde Charles Wingate, known as ‘the friend’, was killed in a plane crash in the Far East
(Photo: Orde Wingate collection)
Raised in a devout Scottish Christian family, Wingate was educated in a religious and pro-Zionist spirit. During his service in Mandatory Palestine, he served as an intelligence officer, forged close ties with senior leaders of the Jewish community and openly expressed his belief in the Jewish people’s right to establish an independent state in the land of Israel.
His views provoked opposition within the British establishment and ultimately led to his removal from the country, but they did not diminish his fervent support for Zionism. During World War II, Wingate served in multiple fronts in Africa and Asia, was promoted to the rank of major general and was killed in 1944 when his plane crashed en route from Burma to India.
Chief Superintendent Dr. Shlomi Shitrit, head of the History and Heritage department of the Israel Police, researched Wingate for his doctoral dissertation and played a key role in bringing the archive to Israel.
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A guide to ambushes and nighttime military operations from Wingate’s archive
(Photo: Orde Wingate collection, National Library of Israel)
The archive had previously been sold to an American billionaire and was held in New York for years. In the summer of 2024, amid the establishment of a British parliamentary inquiry into the events of October 7, contact was made between a British representative and Shitrit, leading to the discovery that the documents were slated for public auction. "I think it should be with you, in Israel," the representative wrote.
Shitrit then contacted Shai Nitzan of the National Library of Israel, who approached Jewish philanthropist Clive Lewis to purchase the archive and donate it to the library. Lewis, a London-based businessman, told library officials that such manuscripts should not remain in private hands but be accessible to the public, digitized and preserved as part of the living historical record.
It was especially important, he said, that Wingate’s documents return to Israel, the place where they were written.