Harold Albert Wilson, 1874-1964

Abstract

Harold Albert Wilson was born at York on 1 December 1874, the son of a clerk in the General Offices of the North Eastern Railway at York who afterwards became a District Manager. His mother ( née Anne Gill) was the daughter of a farmer and innkeeper who lived in the village of Topcliffe about 30 miles north of York. He had one sister, Lilian, who married O. W. Richardson (later Sir Owen), physicist and Nobel Prize winner, whose work was closely related to Wilson’s. H.A. was a man of fine physique which he inherited from his father and in his Cavendish days was known as ‘Big’ Wilson to distinguish him from C.T.R. or ‘Cloud’ Wilson. The family was an interesting one. The father studied mathematics and philosophy, though this did not prevent him from taking an active part in outdoor sports and playing cricket with the York Club. H.A. records that his mother was ‘a beautiful woman active in church work, an expert seamstress and an excellent cook’. One of her brothers won the Queen’s Prize at Bisley.