William Wilson

William Wilson was born in Finsbury Park, North London, the son of a home builder. Growing up in Tottenham, he first came onto the British wrestling scene in the early 1910s, winning the Middlesex freestyle middleweight title in 1913. In 1914, he enlisted to serve in the territorial force with the 7th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, but was discharged in 1916 after being found physically unfit for service due to poor eyesight (he had congenital aphakia, the absence of the lens, in both eyes) and being clubfooted. These conditions, however, did not limit Wilson in his sporting exploits.

A longtime member of the Ashdown Athletic Club in Islington, W. G. Wilson competed at two Olympic Games, firstly at 1920 Antwerpen (Antwerp) where he lost a decision to American John Redman in only 25 seconds, competing in the light-heavyweight class.

In the following years, Wilson went on to win two consecutive national heavyweight titles (1922–23) before being selected once again for the Olympic Games in 1924 where he was the eldest member of the British wrestling team. In Paris, he was classified joint sixth as as a result of finishing runner-up to Sweden’s Rudolf Svensson in the 2nd place competition final, which was open to wrestlers beaten by the eventual gold medallist John Spellman of the USA.

Retiring from the sport shortly thereafter, Wilson, a trained carpenter, followed in his father’s vocation as a builder. He was married in 1926 and had one daughter. He switched careers by the early 1930s becoming the proprietor of a garage near his family residence on Lansdowne Road in Tottenham. By the late 1930s, he moved to Chingford, Essex with his family. Wilson died in 1955, aged 67.