Field Marshal Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley, was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army who rose from fairly humble beginnings to become one of the most influential and admired British generals. He had a series of successes in Canada, West Africa, and Egypt, followed by a central role in modernizing the British Army in promoting efficiency. He served in Burma, the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, China, Canada and widely throughout Africa, in the Ashanti campaign (1873–1874) and the Nile Expedition against Mahdist Sudan in 1884–85. Wolseley served as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces from 1895 to 1900.