Guy Greville Wilson

Lieutenant-Colonel Guy Greville Wilson, CMG, DSO (19 May 1877 – 1 February 1943[1]) was a British soldier, company director, and Liberal Party politician from Kingston upon Hull. His family owned Thomas Wilson Sons & Co., which was once the largest private shipowning concern in the world.[2]

Family and military service

Wilson was the second son of Charles Henry Wilson (later the first Baron Nunburnholme) and his wife Florence Jane Helen Wellesley.[3] He was educated at Eton, and in February 1895 he was commissioned in the Militia as a second lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment.[4] He transferred to the Regular British Army in the 11th Hussars on 11 May 1898, and served in South Africa with this regiment during the Second Boer War,[3] during which he was promoted to lieutenant on 12 June 1900. He was mentioned in despatches by Lord Kitchener in his final despatch dated 23 June 1902,[5] returned to the United Kingdom in August 1902,[6] and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in October 1902.[7] He retired from the full-time army service in 1903, but joined the East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry, being commissioned as a captain on 17 December 1904 and promoted to major on 20 December 1912. He later became lieutenant-colonel of the 1st battalion of the regiment on active service during World War I from 1915 to 1916. He was appointed Honorary Colonel of his former regiment, now the 26th (East Riding of York Yeomanry) Armoured Car Company, Royal Tank Regiment, on 2 January 1932.[3][8]

Wilson was married twice, firstly on 23 June 1904[9] to Lady Isabel Ines-Ker (1879–1905), daughter of the 7th Duke of Roxburghe.[3] She died in childbirth on 12 October 1905[9] (the year after their marriage). He married again in May 1911, to Avery Fowell Buxton (born 1889),[10] daughter of Lt.-Col. Geoffrey Fowell Buxton (1852–1929),[11] of Dunston Hall in Norfolk, a Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk[11] and a Director of Barclays Bank.

Political career

His father Charles had been a Member of Parliament (MP) for over 30 years,[2] and when he retired from the House of Commons in 1906 before being awarded a peerage, Charles's older son Charles H. W. Wilson was elected at the 1906 general election to succeed him as MP for Kingston upon Hull West.[12] However, their father died the following year, and Charles Jr. succeeded to his peerage, thereby gaining a seat in the House of Lords and automatically vacating his seat in the Commons. At the resulting by-election in November 1907, Guy was elected to succeed him,[1][13] with a narrow majority of 241 votes (1.5% of the total) over his Conservative Party opponent.[12]

He was re-elected at both the January 1910 and December 1910 elections and held the seat until the constituency was abolished at the 1918.[12] He then stood in the new Kingston upon Hull North West constituency, where he was one of 159 Liberal candidates to receive the "coalition coupon",[14] which signified the endorsement of the Conservative-dominated Coalition Government led by David Lloyd George. However, Wilson repudiated the coupon,[12] and was overwhelmingly defeated by the Conservative Party candidate Lambert Ward; Wilson took only 21.0% of the votes.[14]

After his defeat in 1918, Wilson did not stand for Parliament again.[14]

He was later made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG).[15]

References

  1. 1 2 Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 4)
  2. 1 2 L. P. Sidney, "Wilson, Charles Henry, first Baron Nunburnholme (1833–1907)", rev. Arthur G. Credland, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006. Accessed 22 July 2010
  3. 1 2 3 4 Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1916. 1867. p. 172. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
  4. ↑ "No. 26600". The London Gazette. 19 February 1895. p. 1004.
  5. ↑ "No. 27459". The London Gazette. 29 July 1902. pp. 4835–4838.
  6. ↑ "The Army in South Africa - Troops returning Home". The Times. No. 36834. London. 31 July 1902. p. 5.
  7. ↑ "No. 27490". The London Gazette. 31 October 1902. p. 6898.
  8. ↑ Army List.
  9. 1 2 Dewar, Peter Beauclerk (2001). Burke's landed gentry of Great Britain. p. 770. ISBN 9780971196605.
  10. ↑ Lundy, Darryl. "Avery Buxton". Retrieved 22 July 2010.
  11. 1 2 Lundy, Darryl. "Lt.-Col. Geoffrey Fowell Buxton". Retrieved 22 July 2010.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 130. ISBN 0-900178-27-2.
  13. ↑ "No. 28085". The London Gazette. 3 December 1907. p. 8439.
  14. 1 2 3 Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 157. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
  15. ↑ "No. 33786". The London Gazette. 1 January 1932. p. 51.
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