Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Murrough John Wilson

KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...

(14 September 1875 – 20 April 1946) was a British Army officer, member of parliament, and railway executive. He served as the Unionist MP for Richmond (Yorkshire) from 1918 to 1929.

Life

He was born at Cliffe Hall, the son of Col. John Gerald Wilson CB and his wife Angelina Rosa Geraldine O'Brien."Obituary: Lt.-Col. Sir Murrough Wilson." '' The Times'' (London, England), Thursday, 2 May 1946; pg. 7; Issue 50441. Retrieved 28 November 2014. His father was an officer in the York and Lancaster Regiment, and died of wounds during the Second Boer War, at the Battle of Tweebosch. Murrough Wilson was one of seven children, and the second-oldest of four brothers. The oldest brother, Lt. Richard Bassett Wilson, was also killed in the Boer War, at Rustenburg. The third brother, Lt.-Col. Denis Daly Wilson MC, was killed in action in France during the First World War, while the fourth brother, Capt. Sir

Frank O'Brien Wilson Sir Frank O'Brien Wilson CMG DSO (9 April 1876 – 7 April 1962) was a retired Royal Navy officer who settled in the Colony of Kenya. A volunteer in the East African Campaign of World War I, Wilson had a large property near Machakos, where he ...

, was a Royal Navy officer and later a member of the

Legislative Council of Kenya The Legislative Council of Kenya (LegCo) was the legislature of Kenya between 1907 and 1963. It was modelled on the Westminster system. It began as a nominated, exclusively European institution and evolved into an electable legislature with unive ...

. Educated at

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church ...

, Wilson joined the North Eastern Railway (NER) in 1893, and by 1912 was a director at the company. An officer with the 2nd/5th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment during the First World War, he was elected to parliament at the 1918 general election, which, as the first after the conclusion of the war, was considered a "khaki" election. Wilson, who stood as a Unionist for the Yorkshire constituency of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

, was one of the flood of

Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

MPs elected, although he was replacing a fellow Conservative, William Orde-Powlett (later Lord Bolton). He was elected unopposed at the following three general elections, in

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

, and

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

, but left parliament prior to the 1929 election. His successor, Thomas Dugdale (later Lord Crathorne), held the seat for the next 30 years. Maintaining his directorship of the NER throughout the war, Wilson continued as a director after the formation of the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

(LNER) in 1923. From 1924, he was chairman of the

Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes The Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI ) is a company created by the British government on 9 December 1920 to run recreational establishments needed by the British Armed Forces, and to sell goods to servicemen and their families. It runs c ...

, for which he was knighted in 1927. A Deputy Lieutenant of the

North Riding of Yorkshire The North Riding of Yorkshire is a subdivision of Yorkshire, England, alongside York, the East Riding and West Riding. The riding's highest point is at Mickle Fell with 2,585 ft (788 metres). From the Restoration it was used as ...

in later life, he was also a director of the

Yorkshire Insurance Company The Yorkshire Insurance Company was an English insurance company. The company was founded in 1824, in York, as the Yorkshire Fire and Life Insurance Company. Its objects were initially "to effect insurance against loss by fire and on lives and sur ...

(now part of

Aviva Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...

), and later sat on the board of the

London Electricity Board The London Electricity Board was the public sector utility company responsible for the supply and distribution of electricity to domestic, commercial and industrial consumers in London prior to 1990. It also sold and made available for hire and ...

. Wilson had succeeded his father as lord of Cliffe Hall, and died there in 1946, aged 70. He was described in his obituary in '' The Times'' as a "great Yorkshireman, very well known throughout the whole county", and had earlier succeeded the 3rd Baron Grimthorpe as president of the Society of Yorkshiremen in London.

Family

Wilson married in 1904 Sybil May Milbank, a daughter of Sir

Powlett Milbank Sir Powlett Charles John Milbank, 2nd Baronet (1 May 1852 – 30 January 1918), was a British Conservative Member of Parliament. Milbank was returned to Parliament for Radnorshire , HQ = Presteigne , Government = R ...

, 2nd Baronet, in 1904, with whom he had four children. She died in 1930, and he remarried in 1934, to Gladys Rhoda Henderson (née MacLean), a widow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Murrough 1875 births 1946 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Deputy Lieutenants of the North Riding of Yorkshire Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire London and North Eastern Railway people People educated at Marlborough College People from Richmondshire (district) UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 West Yorkshire Regiment officers British Army personnel of World War I