Wilson was born in China on 8 April 1891 and was educated at Liverpool University graduating in medicine in 1914 and taking the Conjoint Diploma on 30 July 1914. On 4 August the first world war broke out and he served throughout it in the RAMC, winning the Military Cross. On demobilisation he returned to Liverpool and held resident and registrar appointments at the Royal Infirmary and the Shaw Street Hospital for Women, having decided to specialise as a gynaecological surgeon; he also studied in Vienna. He took the Fellowship and the Liverpool Master of Surgery degree in 1921. He became assistant gynaecological surgeon at the Royal Infirmary and assistant surgeon at the Maternity Hospital, and later was a consultant at the Walton Hospital and the Hoylake and West Kirby Hospital. He had one of the leading practices in the north-west of England at 13 Rodney Street, Liverpool, and was a regular attendant at meetings of the North of England Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society. He was a member of the Gynaecological Club, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1933, having been a foundation member in 1929. Throughout his career he valued independence above success, and was an outspoken master of repartee. His great ability, vision and experience made him widely respected; he was generous and careful of the interests of his juniors. At the formation of the National Health Service in 1948 he retired from his hospital posts, and withdrew completely from professional contacts, though he practised privately for a time in the home counties and went briefly to South Africa. He was always restless and was said never to have lived in the same house for more than three years. When he finally gave up practice he farmed for some time, and also kept a market-garden. He had been in the forefront of the improvement of obstetric practice, and published a very influential paper *Lower uterine segment Caesarian section* in the *Journal of obstetrics and gynaecology of the British Empire* in 1931, and an excellent handbook *Prenatal and postnatal management* in 1937. He died at Wem, Shropshire on 4 June 1967 aged 76, survived by his wife with their daughter and three sons, one of whom is a member of the medical profession.