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]
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.
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]