Leslie Orme Wilson

Infobox Officeholder
honorific-prefix = Sir
name = Leslie Wilson
honorific-suffix =
GCMG, GCSI, GCIE, DSO, PC

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small

caption =
order =
office = Governor of Bombay
term_start = 10 December 1923
term_end = 20 March 1926
lieutenant =
monarch = King George V
predecessor = Sir George Lloyd
successor = Sir Frederick Sykes
order2 = 15th
office2 = Governor of Queensland
term_start2 = 13 June 1932
term_end2 = 23 April 1946
lieutenant2 =
monarch2 = King George V
King Edward VIII
King George VI
predecessor2 = Sir John Goodwin
successor2 = Sir John Lavarack
birth_date = birth date|1876|8|1
birth_place = London, England, UK
death_date = death date and age|1955|9|29|1876|8|1
death_place = Chertsey, Surrey, England, UK
nationality = flagicon|UK British
spouse = Winifred May Smith
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =
occupation =
profession =
net worth =
religion =


footnotes =

Sir Leslie Orme Wilson GCMG, GCSI, GCIE, DSO, PC (1 August 1876 – 29 September 1955), was a British soldier, Conservative politician and governor in Australia.

Wilson was the son of Henry Wilson, a stockbroker, and his wife Ada Alexandrina (née Orme), and was educated at St Michael's School, Westgate, and St Paul's School, London. He was commissioned into the Royal Marine Light Infantry and served in the Second Boer War, where he was wounded, mentioned in despatches and awarded the Queen's Medal with five clasps and the Distinguished Service Order. In 1901 he achieved the rank of Captain. In 1913 Wilson was returned to Parliament for Reading, a seat he held until 1922. During the First World War he commanded the Hawke Battalion of the Royal Naval Division with the rank of temporary Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Marines and fought at Gallipoli, where he was again mentioned in despatches, and in France, where he was severely wounded.

In 1919 Wilson was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Shipping in the coalition government headed by David Lloyd George, a position he held until the Ministry of Shipping was abolished in 1921, and then served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from 1921 to 1922. He was also the Conservative Chief Whip. At the general election he abandoned his Reading constituency to contest the Westminster St. George's division, but was defeated by an Independent Conservative. However within a few weeks he was re-elected at a by-election at Portsmouth South. He was again Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from 1922 to 1923 under Andrew Bonar Law and later Stanley Baldwin, and was admitted to the Privy Council in 1922. In July 1923 he resigned from this position and his seat in the House of Commons on his appointment as Governor of Bombay. Wilson remained in Bombay until 1928. In 1932 he was made Governor of Queensland, a post he held until 1946, one of the longest gubernatorial tenures in British history. He was appointed a CMG in 1916, a GCIE in 1923, a GCSI in 1929 and a GCMG in 1937.

Wilson married Winifred May, daughter of Charles Smith, of Sydney, Australia, in 1909. They had one son and one daughter. He died after a road accident in September 1955, aged 79.

References

* [http://www.angeltowns.com/town/peerage/ Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page]
* [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120594b.htm Australian Dictionary of Biography Online]

External links

* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp04874 Sir Leslie Orme Wilson at the National Portrait Gallery]