Alexander Wilson (English writer)

Wilson was born in Dover, the eldest son and second of four children of Alexander Wilson (1864–1919), from Winchester, Hampshire, and Annie Marie (née O'Toole; 1865–1936), from Carlow, County Carlow, Leinster, who were married in 1886. Wilson's paternal grandfather, Hugh Wilson (1839–1870), was born in Winchester, Hampshire, where he married Elizabeth Bracken (b. 1842) in 1863. (Hugh helped found the Army Hospital Corps and participated in the Second Opium War (1860) in China, consequently receiving the China War Medal. Hugh died at the age of 30–31 in 1870, and was buried in the grounds of Netley Hospital, Hampshire.) The couple had only one child, Alexander Wilson, Alec's father.) In his childhood Alec Wilson's family followed his father to Mauritius, Singapore, Hong Kong and Ceylon. Alec was educated at St. Joseph's College, Hong Kong, a prominent private school, and St Boniface's Catholic College in Plymouth, where he played amateur football. == First marriage and World War I ==

Wilson enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service in 1914, at the start of World War I, according to a reference in a War Office document which also indicated that he had crashed his aircraft. In 1915 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Army Service Corps, escorting motor transports and supplies to France. He sustained disabling injuries to his knee and shrapnel wounds to the left side of his body which led to his being invalided out of the Army in 1917, and for which he was awarded the Silver War Badge. In his romantic comic novel The Magnificent Hobo (1935), a touring theatrical company moves from town to town. ==Second marriage and academic appointment==

In 1925 Wilson answered an advertisement in The Times for a position as Professor of English Literature at Islamia College at the University of Punjab in Lahore (now part of Pakistan). Wilson was interviewed and appointed by the college's principal, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, an author and educator who translated the Quran. Biographer Tim Crook discovered that Wilson had fabricated the credentials which led to his appointment. Wilson provided a portrait of Abdullah in his second novel, ''The Devil's Cocktail'' (1928), as principal of the fictional Sheranwalla College in Lahore. Leaving behind Gladys and his children, Adrian Wilson (b. 1917), Dennis B. Wilson (b. 1921), and Daphne Wilson (b. 1922), Wilson left for British India in October 1925. Wilson travelled around the North-West Frontier and learned Urdu and Persian. He set up and led Islamia College's University Training Corps and was appointed an honorary Major in the British Indian Army Reserve. At the time the all-Muslim college's students were a minority in Lahore. Sons of Waziristan Chiefs and farmers from the North West Frontier received training here for the British Indian Army. Wilson succeeded Yusuf Ali as ninth principal of Islamia College in November 1927 and resigned in March 1931. In his 1939 application to join the Emergency War Officers' Reserve, Wilson claimed that he had been the editor of a daily newspaper in Lahore between 1931 and 1934. He also stated that he'd spent time in Arabia, Ceylon, and Palestine. Crook suggests that Wilson's role at Islamia College may have been a cover for work conducted on behalf of British intelligence agencies as a recruiter and informant. Tensions were raised by hunger strikes and the Lahore Conspiracy Case, during which pro-independence activists died and others were sentenced to death. ==Writing career==

While in Lahore, Wilson began writing spy novels and received his first contract for The Mystery of Tunnel 51 from Longmans, Green & Co. in 1927. Tunnel 51 and eight subsequent novels featured the struggle of Sir Leonard Wallace, his intelligence officers and his agents against terrorism and subversion in the British Empire, the influence of the Soviet Union, the tentacles of global organised crime, and Nazi Germany. The Wallace character appears to be closely based on the first "C" (chief, or director) of MI6, Mansfield Smith-Cumming. In 2015–16 Allison & Busby re-published nine of Wilson's Wallace of the Secret Service novels. In total, Wilson wrote and published 24 novels and edited three academic books, aside from four unpublished manuscripts. == Third marriage and World War II intelligence work ==

A pregnant Dorothy Wilson returned to England in 1933, where her son, Michael Chesney, was born in Paddington. The birth certificate listed the father as Alexander Douglas Chesney Wilson, a Major with the Middlesex Regiment. Crook's research in the Middlesex Regiment's archives did not find a Major by that name. A letter written by Dorothy in 1936 mentions that Alec intended to travel to Spain during that country's civil war. a secretary for the Service. When her apartment became uninhabitable during a German bombing raid on London, she moved in with him. In 1941 Wilson married Alison, who became his third wife. Although he had shown her a divorce certificate, it was later found to have been falsified. Wilson was almost 30 years older than Alison. They had two sons: Gordon Wilson (b. 1942) and Nigel Wilson (b. 1944). In 1942 a maternal uncle told Dorothy's son, Michael, aged nine, that Alec had been killed in the Battle of El Alamein. confirmed that a translator of Hindustani, Persian and Arabic had joined the SIS in October 1939 and had been forced to resign in October 1942. Although the translator's name is redacted, it is likely to be Alexander Wilson, since the details disclosed match those included in the first part of a memoir, written by Alison Wilson for her two sons, and quoted in Crook's 2010 biography of Wilson. The documents reveal that the SIS/MI6 translator, presumably Wilson, was accused of embellishing translations of intercepted telephone calls to and from the Embassy. The agent investigating Wilson's translations, Alex Kellar, was later found to have been working for the KGB mole at MI5, Anthony Blunt. A report noted that the translator had faked a burglary at his flat and had been in serious trouble with the police. Then-Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, Sir Stewart Menzies, wrote: "I do not think it at all likely that we shall again have the bad luck to strike a man who combines a blameless record, first-rate linguistic abilities, remarkable gifts as a writer of fiction, and no sense of responsibility in using them!" Crook believes that Wilson could have been the victim of an attempt by Blunt to discredit MI6. Wilson may have faked the burglary to hide from Alison that he'd sold her jewellery to buy antibiotics to treat her post-natal infections. Alison Wilson reported in her memoirs that the police had not investigated the alleged burglary, nor did she recall that Wilson had been in trouble with the police as a result. Crook proposes that the British government took steps to prevent Wilson from "obtaining any kind of official or responsible employment" ever again, ending his publishing career and plunging him and his families into poverty. In 1942 Wilson told Alison that MI6 had decided he should go into the field as an agent. He said his subsequent misadventures, including being declared bankrupt, though never discharged, and being jailed for petty theft, were part of the cover he had to adopt for operational reasons. In January 1944 The Times of London carried a notice declaring Alex Wilson bankrupt. At this time, he lived in Hendon. After his dismissal, Wilson worked in cinema management until 1948, when he was prosecuted at Marylebone Police Court and received a three-month jail sentence for embezzling funds from a Hampstead cinema. It was his second appearance before the court, having been prosecuted and fined in 1944 for allegedly posing as an Indian Army colonel and "wearing false decorations". Wilson said that the Hampstead sentence was to enable him to monitor fascist groups in Brixton prison. == Fourth marriage and post-World War II work ==

By the mid-1950s Wilson was working as a hospital porter in a casualty unit in West London, when he met and, in 1955, married a nurse, Elizabeth Hill (1921–2010), with whom he had a son, Douglas Wilson, that same year. == Uncovering Wilson's parallel lives ==

Wilson never divorced any of his wives, "instead keeping the women ignorant of each other's existence as he juggled his many separate lives and parallel families." Her grandchildren were allowed to read her memoir only shortly before her death. and discovered that the children of Mike Shannon were also professionals working in playwriting, filmmaking and drama education. Ruth's brother, Sam Wilson, a senior BBC journalist, wrote an article in The Times in 2010 that explored the impact of Alexander Wilson's complicated private life on his various families. == Mrs Wilson ==

Crook's book on Wilson and his numerous articles inspired the production of the BBC's 2018 three-part drama Mrs Wilson, starring Iain Glen as Alec Wilson. Ruth Wilson, daughter of Nigel Wilson, portrayed her own grandmother, Alison Wilson, and was also an executive producer. Mrs Wilson was nominated in three categories (mini-series, leading actress, supporting actress) for the 2019 Bafta TV awards. == Descendants ==

Wilson had seven children with his four wives in sequence as in the table below: == Books by Alexander Wilson ==

Wilson wrote and published 24 novels: • 1928: The Mystery of Tunnel 51. London: Longmans, Green and Co. • 1928: ''The Devil's Cocktail''. Longmans, Green and Co. • 1929: Murder Mansion. Longmans, Green and Co. • 1930: The Death of Dr. Whitelaw. Longmans, Green and Co. • 1933: The Confessions of a Scoundrel (as "Geoffrey Spencer".) T. Werner Laurie. • 1933: The Crimson Dacoit. Herbert Jenkins. • 1933: Wallace of the Secret Service. Herbert Jenkins. • 1934: Get Wallace! Herbert Jenkins. • 1934: The Sentimental Crook. Herbert Jenkins. • 1935: The Magnificent Hobo. Herbert Jenkins. • 1936: His Excellency, Governor Wallace. Herbert Jenkins. • 1937: Microbes of Power. Herbert Jenkins. • 1937: Mr Justice. Herbert Jenkins. • 1937: Double Events. Herbert Jenkins. • 1938: Wallace At Bay. Herbert Jenkins. • 1938: The Factory Mystery (as "Gregory Wilson".) Modern Publishing Company. • 1938: The Boxing Mystery (as "Gregory Wilson".) Modern Publishing Company. • 1938: Callaghan of Intelligence (as "Michael Chesney"). Herbert Jenkins. • 1939: Wallace Intervenes. Herbert Jenkins. • 1939: Scapegoats for Murder. Herbert Jenkins. • 1939: "Steel" Callaghan (as "Michael Chesney".) Herbert Jenkins. • 1939: Callaghan Meets His Fate (as "Michael Chesney".) Herbert Jenkins. • 1940: Chronicles of the Secret Service. Herbert Jenkins. • 1940: Double Masquerade. Herbert Jenkins. Wilson also edited three academic books: • 1926: Selected English Prose Stories for Indian Students (co-edited with Mohammad Din). Shamsher Singh & Co. • 1928: Four Periods of Essays. Rai Sahib M Gulab Singh & Sons. • 1930: Selected English Essays. Uttar Chand Kapur & Sons. A further four of his manuscripts remain unpublished: • Murder in Duplicate (as AJP Wilson). • The Englishman from Texas. • Out of the Land of Egypt (ca. 1958, as Col. Alan C. Wilson). • Combined Operations (ca. 1961, title assigned by Dennis Wilson). ==References==