Nugent, Sir Oliver Stewart Wood (1860–1926), army officer, was born 9 November 1860 at Aldershot, Hampshire, son of Major-General St George Mervyn Nugent (1825–84) of Farren Connell, Mount Nugent, Co. Cavan, and his wife Emily Frances (d. c.1920), daughter of Sir Edward Litton, judge and conservative MP for Coleraine. Three brothers died young; there were no sisters. Educated at Harrow School, in 1882 Nugent was commissioned from the militia into the Royal Munster Fusiliers, transferring in 1883 to the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He served in India from 1886 to 1895, seeing action on the north-west frontier in 1891–2 and in the Chitral campaign in 1895, and receiving the DSO for his service. He attended the staff college at Camberley (1897–8), and in 1899 married Catherine (‘Kitty’) Percy Lees, daughter of a Dorset landowner; they had a son and two daughters. Early in the South African war, in October 1899, while serving with the 1st King's Royal Rifle Corps, he was severely wounded at Talana Hill; he was captured and remained a prisoner until the following year. He subsequently held various staff regimental appointments, including command of the 4th King's Royal Rifle Corps (1906–10) and a territorial brigade (1911–14), consolidating his reputation as a capable if demanding officer.
In early 1914 Nugent was in Cavan on half-pay as the home rule crisis deepened, and was persuaded by his friend Lord Farnham to help train the Cavan UVF (Cavan Volunteer Force). Nugent's objective was to provide leadership to an isolated protestant community, and his instructions to his force stressed its defensive role. Nevertheless he was not afterwards comfortable with the episode. A southern unionist in outlook, he had limited sympathy for the methods and objectives of the Ulster unionist leadership, and the events of this period were the origin of later tensions. On the outbreak of war Nugent was sent to command the Hull defences. In May 1915 he took over 41st brigade of the 14th division, which in July suffered heavy losses near Ypres in a German attack in which flame throwers were used for the first time against the British. In September he assumed command of the 36th (Ulster) division at Aldershot and the following month took it to France.
The division was raised from the UVF, and its senior appointments as well as its rank-and-file were dominated by ex-UVF personnel. Nugent was determined, however, that this political dimension would not impinge on his command's military efficiency. He immediately began intensive training and a ruthless purge of elderly and incompetent officers (several of whom had political connections), and forbade political and sectarian displays. His powerful personality dominated the division: he demanded high standards and had a severe temper. But he was also a very competent professional soldier, and by 1916 the Ulster division had become the effective formation it remained throughout the war. Its first and most famous battle was the assault on the Schwaben redoubt near Thiepval on 1 July 1916, the first day of the battle of the Somme. The position was exceptionally strong and Nugent devoted special effort to his division's preparations, conducting repeated rehearsals, stressing the need for initiative, and, crucially, deciding to push his troops into no-man's-land before zero hour to rush the German front line before it could be manned.
At 7.30 am. on 1 July the assault began. Nugent's main attack was launched to the south of the Ancre, where seven battalions in two waves assaulted the German forward trenches. (Two battalions mounting a diversionary attack north of the river were decimated on poorly cut wire.) After heavy fighting the German front position, including the Schwaben redoubt, was taken and Nugent's reserve brigade passed through to capture part of the German second position, an advance of almost 2 miles. Strong counter-attacks gradually forced the isolated Ulstermen back, till by nightfall they were left clinging to a section of the German front line. Nugent, without adequate communications or reserves, could do little to assist. The survivors were withdrawn the following day. The division lost over 5,000 men, and its outstanding performance immediately entered Ulster unionist mythology.
For Nugent pride was mingled with concern over how, given poor Irish recruiting, his losses could be replaced. For a time amalgamation of the 16th and 36th divisions seemed likely, but the proposal was eventually dropped for political reasons. Nugent favoured Irish conscription and was critical of both unionist and nationalist politicians for their perceived lack of support. His unhappiness increased when the Ulster unionists favoured a partitionist Irish settlement which excluded Cavan, and by late 1916 his relations with James Craig (qv) had effectively broken down. There were also strains with military superiors. In early 1917 Douglas Haig invited Nugent to offer to drop the division's Ulster title (a response to criticism in Britain that Irish units were being filled with English conscripts): Nugent declined, earning Haig's ire.
The division's next battle was Messines on 7 June 1917 when, alongside the 16th (Irish) division, in a highly symbolic partnership – Nugent and William Hickie (qv), GOC of the 16th, worked with some success to build good relations between their formations – it stormed the southern part of the ridge at Wytschaete, following the detonation of several huge mines. But the next joint attack by the two divisions, on 16 August at Ypres, proved disastrous. Nugent lost 1,500 men holding the line before the assault began, and 2,000 more as his exhausted troops floundered through mud against uncut wire and machine guns. The 16th division suffered equally severely. This hopeless operation ended the experiment of deploying the two divisions together.
In November–December 1917 the Ulster division was heavily engaged at Cambrai, both in the initial assault and during the German counter-attack. In March 1918 it only narrowly escaped annihilation during the German spring offensive; Nugent held it together during nine days of ferocious combat and a series of fighting withdrawals, at a cost of over 6,000 casualties. In May 1918 he was replaced by a younger officer and sent to command a division in India, retiring in 1920. Knighted in 1922 (an honour for whose delay many blamed Haig), he died on 31 May 1926 and was buried at Mount Nugent.
Tough-minded and energetic, Nugent was not always tactful in dealing with politicians and military superiors; his overriding concern, however, was always for the well-being of his soldiers, for which he earned their respect and affection.