Gordon Wilson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 3 August 1865 Longerenong, Victoria, Australia |
| Died | 6 November 1914 (aged 49) Ypres, Belgium |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service | British Army |
| Years of service | 1885–1914 |
| Rank | Lieutenant-Colonel |
| Unit | Royal Horse Guards |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | Member of the Royal Victorian Order Mentioned in dispatches × 2 Legion of Honour |
| Alma mater | Melbourne Grammar School Eton College Christ Church, Oxford |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Relations | Sir Samuel Wilson (father) Herbert Haydon Wilson (brother) |
Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon Chesney Wilson MVO (3 August 1865 – 6 November 1914) was a British Army officer and husband of the war correspondent Lady Sarah Wilson. As an Eton College student he assisted in thwarting Roderick Maclean's assassination attempt on Queen Victoria in 1882, before joining the Royal Horse Guards in 1887. Wilson was promoted quickly, and as a captain was appointed aide-de-camp to Robert Baden-Powell at the start of the Second Boer War, in which role he served through the Siege of Mafeking. He was created a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 1901.
During the inter-war years Wilson joined his friend Winston Churchill on a fact-finding trip to East Africa, and then participated in a controversial treasure hunting expedition in Jerusalem. Having been promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1907, when the First World War began in 1914 Wilson took the Royal Horse Guards to the Western Front. Fighting in the First Battle of Ypres, on 6 November 1914 he was shot in the head and killed while repelling a German breakthrough at Kleine Zillebeke.