Wilson was
called to the Bar by the
Inner Temple in 1862 and rapidly advanced in the profession. One judge of the English High Court,
Lord Justice Mathew, said that Wilson would certainly have been raised to the bench in Britain, had he not accepted an appointment to the
High Court of Calcutta in 1878 (at that time, known as the High Court of Judicature, Fort Williams, Bengal). In 1880, Wilson was elected Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Calcutta, a position he held until 1884. In 1888–89, Wilson was president of a Commission of Inquiry which sat at
Poona, to investigate corruption allegations which had been made against
Arthur Crawford, the Commissioner of the Central Division of the
Bombay Presidency. The lengthy hearings attracted considerable public attention in both India and Britain. After sixty-seven public sittings, the Commission found Crawford not guilty of the more serious charges of taking bribes, but guilty of borrowing money from his Indian subordinates. and returned to Britain. He was appointed Legal Adviser and Solicitor to the
Indian Office, and in 1898 was appointed a Knight Commander of the
Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE). In March 1902, Wilson was sworn a member of the
Privy Council, and the following month took his place on the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, at that time the highest court for the Empire. By that time, he was physically weak, having trouble even walking across the room at committee meetings, but he retained his intellectual vigour. Wilson died on 28 December 1915, at the Moorings, Heathside,
Woking. == Personal life ==