Alexander Joseph Patrick Wilson (24 October 18934 April 1963) was an English writer, spy and

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

officer. He wrote under the names Alexander Wilson, Geoffrey Spencer, Gregory Wilson, and Michael Chesney. After his death, his family discovered that he had been a serial polygamist who had lied to many people. As of 2018, documents that could shed light on his activities remain classified as "sensitive" by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, under section 3(4) of the

Public Records Act 1958 The Public Records Act 1958 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom forming the main legislation governing public records in the United Kingdom. It established a cohesive regulatory framework for public records at the Public Record Off ...

. The effect of his deceptions on his wives and descendants were dramatised in the 2018 BBC

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

Mrs Wilson ''Mrs Wilson'' (formerly known as ''The Wilsons'') is a 2018 British historical drama serial, executive-produced by and starring Ruth Wilson. The actress plays her real-life grandmother, a widow who uncovers a mysterious and secret life followi ...

'', in which his granddaughter, actress Ruth Wilson, portrayed her grandmother, Alison (Wilson's third wife).

Early life

Wilson was born in

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

, the eldest son and second of four children of Alexander Wilson (1864-1919), from

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, and Annie Marie (née O'Toole; 1865–1936), from

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2016 census, it had a combined urban and rural population of 24,272. The River Barrow flows through the town and forms the historic bounda ...

County Carlow County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow Cou ...

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

, who were married in 1886. Wilson's paternal grandfather, Hugh Wilson (1839–1870), was born in

, where he married Elizabeth Bracken (b. 1842) in 1863. Hugh helped found the Army Hospital Corps and participated in the

Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...

(1860) in China, consequently receiving the China War Medal. Hugh died at the age of 30–31 in 1870, and was buried in the grounds of Netley Hospital, Hampshire. The couple had only one child, Alexander Wilson, Alec's father. Wilson's father had a 40-year career in the British Army, progressing from a 15-year-old bugler to a Lieutenant Colonel Quartermaster in the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

by the time he died in 1919. The elder Wilson served throughout the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

, consequently receiving the Queen's South Africa and King's South Africa medals. He was

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

for managing and supplying hospital ships and trains from the Western Front during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1918 he was responsible for all medical supplies to the British Army in Europe. He was buried on the

Isle of Sheppey The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. ''Sheppey'' is derived ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. In his childhood Alec Wilson's family followed his father to

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. Alec was educated at

St. Joseph's College, Hong Kong St. Joseph's College also referred to by its acronym SJC is an elite Catholic all-boys secondary education institution run by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Central Mid-Levels district, Hong Kong. It was established ...

, a prestigious public school, and St Boniface's Catholic College in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, where he played amateur football.

First marriage and World War I

Wilson enlisted in the

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

in 1914, at the start of

, according to a reference in a War Office document which also indicated that he had crashed his aircraft. In 1915 he was commissioned as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the

Royal Army Service Corps The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service, staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and dom ...

, escorting motor transports and supplies to France. He sustained disabling injuries to his knee and shrapnel wounds to the left side of his body which led to his being invalided out of the Army in 1917, and for which he was awarded the

Silver War Badge The Silver War Badge was issued in the United Kingdom and the British Empire to service personnel who had been honourably discharged due to wounds or sickness from military service in World War I. History The badge, sometimes known as the "Disc ...

. In March 1916 Alec married his first wife, Gladys Ellen Kellaway (1896 – 1981), in Lyndhurst,

. He tried to reenlist in 1917, but due to his medical record was unsuccessful. He joined the merchant navy in 1919, serving as a purser – first on a Scottish shipping line, then on a requisitioned German liner, SS ''Prinzessin'', which sailed from London to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

via South Africa, China and Japan. While working on the ''Prinzessin'', he was arrested and prosecuted in

in September 1919, a day after his father's death. He received a six-month sentence of hard labour at Oakalla Prison near Burnaby, British Columbia. From 1920 to 1925 Alec and Gladys managed a touring repertory theatre company and lived in

Thame Thame is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about east of the city of Oxford and southwest of Aylesbury. It derives its name from the River Thame which flows along the north side of the town and forms part of the county border wi ...

, eastern

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. In his romantic comic novel ''The Magnificent Hobo'' (1935), a touring theatrical company moves from town to town.

Second marriage and academic appointment

In 1925 Wilson answered an advertisement in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' for a position as Professor of English Literature at

Islamia College ''Islamia'' is a genus of small freshwater snails with a gill and an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the family Hydrobiidae. MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Islamia Radoman, 1973. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Spe ...

at the University of Punjab in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

(now part of Pakistan). Wilson was interviewed and appointed by the college's principal, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, an author and educator who translated the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

. Biographer Tim Crook discovered that Wilson had fabricated the credentials which led to his appointment. Wilson provided a portrait of Abdullah in his second novel, ''The Devil's Cocktail'' (1928), as principal of the fictional Sheranwalla College in Lahore. Islamia College Lahore 1

Leaving behind Gladys and his children, Adrian Wilson (b. 1917), Dennis B. Wilson (b. 1921), and Daphne Wilson (b. 1922), Wilson left for

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

in October 1925. En route to British India, Wilson met actress Dorothy Phyllis Wick (1893 – 1965) on the SS ''City of Nagpur'', bound from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

. Wick was on a tour in the place of Dame

Sybil Thorndike Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike, Lady Casson (24 October 18829 June 1976) was an English actress whose stage career lasted from 1904 to 1969. Trained in her youth as a concert pianist, Thorndike turned to the stage when a medical problem with her ...

. Wilson married Dorothy in

some time in 1928, while he was still married to Gladys, his first wife. Although a public wedding ceremony apparently took place at the

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

in Lahore, no certificate has been found to confirm that a formal marriage occurred. For a while the Wilsons made their home at 11 Mason Road in Lahore. Wilson travelled around the North-West Frontier and learned

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. He set up and led Islamia College's University Training Corps and was appointed an honorary Major in the

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

Reserve. At the time the all-Muslim college's students were a minority in Lahore. Sons of Waziristan Chiefs and farmers from the North West Frontier received training here for the British Indian Army. Wilson succeeded Yusuf Ali as ninth principal of Islamia College in November 1927 and resigned in March 1931. In his 1939 application to join the Emergency War Officers' Reserve, Wilson claimed that he had been the editor of a daily newspaper in Lahore between 1931 and 1934. He also stated that he'd spent time in Arabia,

, and

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

. Crook suggests that Wilson's role at Islamia College may have been a cover for work conducted on behalf of British intelligence agencies as a recruiter and informant. Crook maintains that Yusuf Ali had connections with intelligence work. The Soviet

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

was active in subversion and insurrection, and the British authorities were combating an increasing number of terrorist plots and assassinations between 1928 and 1932. Tensions were raised by hunger strikes and the Lahore Conspiracy Case, during which pro-independence activists died and others were sentenced to death.

Writing career

While in Lahore, Wilson began writing spy novels and received his first contract for ''The Mystery of Tunnel 51'' from Longmans, Green & Co. in 1927. ''Tunnel 51'' and eight subsequent novels featured the struggle of Sir Leonard Wallace, his intelligence officers and his agents against terrorism and subversion in the British Empire, the influence of the Soviet Union, the tentacles of global organised crime, and Nazi Germany. The Wallace character appears to be closely based on the first " C" (chief, or director) of MI6, Mansfield Smith-Cumming. There is no documentary evidence that Wilson had any connections at this time with

(the Secret Intelligence Service), MI5 (the Security Service), IPI (the Indian Political Intelligence in London), or the Indian Intelligence Bureau in Delhi. But his Wallace shared with Smith-Cumming a wooden limb, grey eyes, and "a wife whose forename began with 'M' ". In addition, Wilson published two crime thrillers, ''Murder Mansion'' (1929) and ''The Death of Dr. Whitelaw'' (1930). From 1933 Wilson's publisher was Herbert Jenkins, and his novels included titles in the Sir Leonard Wallace series and others in the crime, romance, comedy and thriller genres. Apart from books that he wrote under his own name, he also published under three pseudonyms. In 1933 ''Confessions of a Scoundrel'' was published under the pseudonym "Geoffrey Spencer" — the surname used by Smith-Cumming when he rented MI6's headquarters at 2 Whitehall Court. As "Gregory Wilson" Alec wrote ''The Factory Mystery'' and ''The Boxing Mystery'' for The Modern Publishing Company in 1938. Between 1938 and 1939, as "Michael Chesney", he wrote a trilogy of spy novels of imperial adventure that featured Colonel Geoffrey Callaghan, Chief of Military Intelligence as central character: ''Callaghan of Intelligence'', ''"Steel" Callaghan'', and ''Callaghan Meets His Fate''. What appear to be his last two novels, ''Chronicles of the Secret Service'' and ''Double Masquerade'', were published by Herbert Jenkins in 1940. Wilson wrote "forceful, exciting, thrilling, vibrant, vivid, intriguing, daring" stories, according to reviewers in ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'', ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'', ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'' and ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

''. In January 1940 ''The Observer'''s reviewer, Maurice Richardson, said ''Wallace Intervenes'': "... is another spy story featuring Hitler in person, if not name. This time he is kidnapped, put in a trunk, and successfully impersonated by Sir Leonard Wallace, Chief of the Intelligence Service. This comes at the end of an exciting love-duel in which one of our younger agents has to seduce a beautiful Austrian Baroness, who fortunately turns out to be on our side all the time". In 2015–16 Allison & Busby re-published nine of Wilson's ''Wallace of the Secret Service'' novels. In total, Wilson wrote and published 24 novels and edited three academic books, aside from four unpublished manuscripts.

Third marriage and World War II intelligence work

A pregnant Dorothy Wilson returned to England in 1933, where her son, Michael Chesney, was born in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

. The birth certificate listed the father as Alexander Douglas Chesney Wilson, a

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

with the Middlesex Regiment. Crook's research in the Middlesex Regiment's archives did not find a Major by that name. And the only photograph that Michael had of Alec Wilson showed him wearing the uniform of an Officer in one of the

Punjab Regiment Punjab Regiment may refer to the following existing units: *Punjab Regiment (India) *Punjab Regiment (Pakistan) From 1922 to 1947, the British Indian Army included 6 numbered Punjab Regiments: *1st Punjab Regiment * 2nd Punjab Regiment *8th Punj ...

s of the

. Alec arrived in London in 1934, but left Dorothy and their baby son and returned to Gladys, his first and still-legitimate wife and his family, who now lived in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. He stayed with Gladys for only 18 months. After a falling out over finances with Gladys' Aunt Ruth, Alec moved back to London in 1935 to live with Dorothy and Michael. He told Gladys that he would find a place for them all to live. Instead, he and Dorothy lived in

Little Venice Little Venice is a district in West London, England, around the junction of the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, the Regent's Canal, and the entrance to Paddington Basin. The junction forms a triangular shape basin. Many of the buildi ...

. Michael later suspected that his father had been involved in intelligence activities as an agent in the 1920s and 1930s. He remembered seeing his father meet

Joachim von Ribbentrop Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's not ...

at the German Embassy in Carlton House Terrace in London in the spring of 1938, and recalled other meetings with men with whom his father spoke fluent German. A letter written by Dorothy in 1936 mentions that Alec intended to travel to Spain during that country's civil war. Bankruptcy forced Alec to move with Dorothy and Michael to Yorkshire in 1940. In 1941 Alec finally left Dorothy, departing in uniform on a train after kissing his son Michael goodbye for the last time. Broadway Buildings, London

By 1940 Wilson was working as a translator for Secret Intelligence Service (then MI6) in Section X, which conducted communications surveillance of embassies. There he met Alison Mary McKelvie (1920 – 2005), a secretary for the Service. When her apartment became uninhabitable during a German bombing raid on London, she moved in with him. In 1941 Wilson married Alison, who became his third wife. Although he had shown her a divorce certificate, it was later found to have been falsified. Wilson was almost 30 years older than Alison. They had two sons: Gordon Wilson (b. 1942) and Nigel Wilson (b. 1944). In 1942 a maternal uncle told Dorothy's son, Michael, aged nine, that Alec had been killed in the Battle of El Alamein. But Wilson was living with Alison in London at the time. While a

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

Wilson, who had served with the Punjab Regiment, is listed as killed at El Alamein by artillery fire, his photograph and personal history is not that of Alec Wilson. Foreign Office files released to

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

in May 2013 confirmed that a translator of Hindustani, Persian and Arabic had joined the SIS in October 1939 and had been forced to resign in October 1942. Although the translator's name is redacted, it is likely to be Alexander Wilson, since the details disclosed match those included in the first part of a memoir, written by Alison Wilson for her two sons, and quoted in Crook's 2010 biography of Wilson. The Foreign Office documents included a 1943 file marked "The Case of the Egyptian Ambassador", an MI5 investigation into alleged espionage by ambassador Hassan Nachat Pasha and his staff in London from the beginning of the war. The documents reveal that the SIS/MI6 translator, presumably Wilson, was accused of embellishing translations of intercepted telephone calls to and from the Embassy. The agent investigating Wilson's translations, Alex Kellar, was later found to have been working for the

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America * Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...

at MI5,

Anthony Blunt Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), styled Sir Anthony Blunt KCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian and Soviet spy. Blunt was professor of art history at the University of London, dire ...

. A report noted that the translator had faked a burglary at his flat and had been in serious trouble with the police. In one of the 1943 documents, MI5's Director General, Brigadier Sir David Petrie, states that the fact Wilson was no longer in the service was "...perhaps some small compensation for the amount of trouble to which his inventive mind has put us all. A fabricator, such as this man was, is a great public danger". Then-Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, Sir Stewart Menzies, wrote: "I do not think it at all likely that we shall again have the bad luck to strike a man who combines a blameless record, first-rate linguistic abilities, remarkable gifts as a writer of fiction, and no sense of responsibility in using them!". Crook believes that Wilson could have been the victim of an attempt by Blunt to discredit MI6. Wilson may have faked the burglary to hide from Alison that he'd sold her jewellery to buy antibiotics to treat her post-natal infections. Alison Wilson reported in her memoirs that the police had not investigated the alleged burglary, nor did she recall that Wilson had been in trouble with the police as a result. Crook proposes that the British government took steps to prevent Wilson from "obtaining any kind of official or responsible employment" ever again, ending his publishing career and plunging him and his families into poverty. In 1942 Wilson told Alison that MI6 had decided he should go into the field as an agent. He said his subsequent misadventures, including being declared bankrupt, though never discharged, and being jailed for petty theft, were part of the cover he had to adopt for operational reasons. In January 1944 ''The Times of London'' carried a notice declaring Alex Wilson bankrupt. At this time, he lived in

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...

. After his dismissal, Wilson worked in cinema management until 1948, when he was prosecuted at Marylebone Police Court and received a three-month jail sentence for embezzling funds from a

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

cinema. It was his second appearance before the court, having been prosecuted and fined in 1944 for allegedly posing as an Indian Army colonel and "wearing false decorations". Wilson said that the Hampstead sentence was to enable him to monitor

fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...

groups in Brixton prison.

Fourth marriage and post-World War II work

By the mid-1950s Wilson was working as a hospital porter in a casualty unit in West London, when he met and, in 1955, married a nurse, Elizabeth Hill (1921 – 2010), with whom he had a son, Douglas Wilson, that same year. In later years Wilson continued to pretend to work at the Foreign Office while actually working as a clerk at a wallpaper factory. After Elizabeth moved to Scotland with Douglas in 1957, Wilson again lived with Alison. On 4 April 1963, aged 69, Wilson died of a heart attack in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histor ...

, and was buried in Milton Cemetery,

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. His tombstone notes that he was "also known as Alexander Douglas Gordon Chesney Wilson", describes him as an "author and patriot", and quotes Shakespeare's ''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...

'': "He loved not wisely but too well". The monument is feet away from the grave of fellow MI6 agent Commander

Lionel Crabb Lieutenant-Commander Lionel Kenneth Phillip Crabb, (28 January 1909 – presumed dead 19 April 1956), known as Buster Crabb, was a Royal Navy frogman and diver who vanished during a reconnaissance mission for MI6 around a Soviet cruiser bert ...

Uncovering Wilson's parallel lives

Wilson never divorced any of his wives, "instead keeping the women ignorant of each other's existence as he juggled his many separate lives and parallel families." One way he avoided detection was "by changing his middle name on marriage certificates". Her husband's multiple marriages came to Alison Wilson's notice only after Alec's death in 1963, when she discovered from his papers that his first wife was Gladys. Alison telephoned Gladys to inform her of Alec's death and of his other family. Dennis Wilson said that they thought the call had come from Alec's landlady. Alison asked Gladys to pretend to be Alec's relative at his funeral, so as not to upset Alison's sons, Gordon and Nigel. As a result, neither Gordon, Nigel, nor Daphne knew about one another or about their father's bigamy. Alison never found out that her husband was also married to Dorothy and Elizabeth. Alison Wilson wrote a two-part memoir in an attempt to make sense of her husband's deceptions, lamenting that "he had not only died, he had evaporated into nothing." Her grandchildren were allowed to read her memoir only shortly before her death. All of Alec's wives kept his secrets, maintaining the image of him as a heroic figure for the sake of his children. In 2005, Wilson and Dorothy's son, Michael (then aged 73), asked his son's friend, journalist and academic Tim Crook, to investigate his father's life. An actor and poet, Michael had changed his name by

deed poll A deed poll (plural: deeds poll) is a legal document binding on a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an intention or create an obligation. It is a deed, and not a contract because it binds only one party (law), party. Et ...

to Mike Shannon. Crook spent six years on the project, publishing the results in a 2010 book entitled ''The Secret Lives of a Secret Agent: the Mysterious Life and Times of Alexander Wilson''. Crook uncovered Wilson's marriage to Gladys, whose son Dennis told him about the funeral arrangements, and so revealed the marriage to Alison. Alison's sons told him that they had been contacted by Elizabeth's son, Douglas Ansdell, and so had discovered Alec's fourth wife. Ruth Wilson by Gage Skidmore

Crook concludes that Wilson's spy novels reveal details of intelligence work so precise as to indicate first-hand experience. Wilson may have been encouraged to write them by the intelligence services to portray themselves as all-powerful, Crook says. And the lack of evidence about Wilson's life may be due to an intelligence operation meant to expunge all traces of him from public records, Crook told a reporter. All of Alec Wilson's surviving offspring with their families, 28 persons in all, met for the first time in December 2007 in Hampshire. Each of Alec's children wore a badge indicating who their parents were. Since that first meeting the extended family has tried to meet regularly. Actress Ruth Wilson, daughter of Nigel, is one of Alec's grandchildren, and discovered that the children of Mike Shannon were also professionals working in playwriting, filmmaking and drama education. Ruth's brother, Sam Wilson, a senior BBC journalist, wrote an article in ''

'' in 2010 that explored the impact of Alexander Wilson's complicated private life on his various families.

''Mrs Wilson''

Crook's book on Wilson and his numerous articles inspired the production of the BBC's 2018 three-part drama ''

'', starring Iain Glen as Alec Wilson. Ruth Wilson, daughter of Nigel Wilson, portrayed her own grandmother, Alison Wilson, and was also an executive producer. ''Mrs Wilson'' was nominated in three categories (mini-series, leading actress, supporting actress) for the 2019 Bafta TV awards.

Descendants

Wilson had seven children with his four wives in sequence as in the table below:

Books by Alexander Wilson

Wilson wrote and published 24 novels: * 1928
''The Mystery of Tunnel 51''
London: Longmans, Green and Co. * 1928
''The Devil's Cocktail''
Longmans, Green and Co. * 1929: ''Murder Mansion''. Longmans, Green and Co. * 1930: ''The Death of Dr. Whitelaw''. Longmans, Green and Co. * 1933: ''The Confessions of a Scoundrel'' (as "Geoffrey Spencer".) T. Werner Laurie. * 1933: ''The Crimson Dacoit''. Herbert Jenkins. * 1933
''Wallace of the Secret Service''
Herbert Jenkins. * 1934
''Get Wallace!''
Herbert Jenkins. * 1934: ''The Sentimental Crook''. Herbert Jenkins. * 1935: ''The Magnificent Hobo''. Herbert Jenkins. * 1936
''His Excellency, Governor Wallace''
Herbert Jenkins. * 1937
''Microbes of Power''
Herbert Jenkins. * 1937: ''Mr Justice''. Herbert Jenkins. * 1937: ''Double Events''. Herbert Jenkins. * 1938
''Wallace At Bay''
Herbert Jenkins. * 1938: ''The Factory Mystery'' (as "Gregory Wilson".) Modern Publishing Company. * 1938: ''The Boxing Mystery'' (as "Gregory Wilson".) Modern Publishing Company. * 1938: ''Callaghan of Intelligence'' (as "Michael Chesney"). Herbert Jenkins. * 1939
''Wallace Intervenes''
Herbert Jenkins. * 1939: ''Scapegoats for Murder''. Herbert Jenkins. * 1939: ''"Steel" Callaghan'' (as "Michael Chesney".) Herbert Jenkins. * 1939: ''Callaghan Meets His Fate'' (as "Michael Chesney".) Herbert Jenkins. * 1940
''Chronicles of the Secret Service''
Herbert Jenkins. * 1940: ''Double Masquerade''. Herbert Jenkins. Wilson also edited three academic books: * 1926: ''Selected English Prose Stories for Indian Students'' (co-edited with Mohammad Din). Shamsher Singh & Co. * 1928: ''Four Periods of Essays''. Rai Sahib M Gulab Singh & Sons. * 1930: ''Selected English Essays.'' Uttar Chand Kapur & Sons. A further four of his manuscripts remain unpublished: * ''Murder in Duplicate'' (as AJP Wilson). * ''The Englishman from Texas''. * ''Out of the Land of Egypt'' (ca. 1958, as Col. Alan C. Wilson). * ''Combined Operations'' (ca. 1961, title assigned by Dennis Wilson).

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Alexander 1893 births 1963 deaths English spies World War II spies for the United Kingdom Secret Intelligence Service personnel English spy fiction writers Impostors People from Dover, Kent Academic staff of the University of the Punjab English academics of English literature English people of Irish descent English male novelists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English male writers Royal Naval Air Service personnel of World War I British Army personnel of World War I Royal Army Service Corps officers British Merchant Navy personnel