Dr T.G. Wilson FRCSI FRCSE FRCS FACS FRSM MRIA HRHA |
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Chairman of the Commissioners of the Irish Lights | |
In office 1968–1969 |
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Preceded by | J.C. Colvill, R.N. |
President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland | |
In office 1958–1961 |
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Preceded by | Anthony Burton Clery |
Succeeded by | Alexander Kinnear |
Personal details | |
Born |
Thomas George Wilson 1 July 1901 |
Died | 11 June 1969 | (aged 67)
Alma mater | Trinity College, Dublin |
Thomas George Wilson FRCSI FRCSE FRCS FACS FRSM MRIA HRHA (1 July 1901 – 6 November 1969) was an eminent Anglo-Irish surgeon and medical administrator specialising in otorhinolaryngology, a field to which he made significant contributions. Wilson was also an accomplished author, artist and sailor. He was known as 'T.G' and was a leading figure in Dublin society until his sudden death in 1969.
He became a fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland and founded its section on the History of Medicine in January 1956, acting as honorary secretary until 1963, when he became president of the section as he had previously been president of the section of Laryngology and Otology (1946–48). In 1937 he was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy and a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine in London. However, Wilson was most influential within the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, where he served a record three years as president from 1958 to 1961. In 1963, he founded the journal of the college and continued to serve as editor until 1968.
Wilson was born on 1 July 1901 to Robert Charles Wilson of Dublin, a stockbroker, and Frances Lucinda Kellett, a descendant of Sir Henry Kellett. He had two other siblings, an elder brother Charles Herbert, and a younger sister, Edna, who went on to marry Sir Charles Read. His family were connected to war correspondent Lady Sarah Wilson and First World War Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson. His mother was alleged to have had an affair with Oscar Wilde, with whom she was a good friend, whilst in London, which would have made T.G. his illegitimate son. Weight was added to this claim by the fact that William Wilde, Oscar's father had an illegitimate son called Henry Wilson and that T.G. wrote the biography of Oscar's father. This gained T.G. the nickname 'Wilde bastard', leading T.G. to respond in 1942, after the publication of his book, 'I've often been called a bastard, but whatever I am I'm not a Wilde bastard.'