Charles Peter Wilson. MBE (1916-2009)
Peter Wilson was born in Ossett on the 10th January 1916 whilst his father, George Frederick Wilson was Mayor of Ossett.
He was educated at Ackworth School, Near Pontefract, from 1926 to 1932, he was a classmate and friend of Albert Lindley, both of them enjoying success in the sports teams, and on leaving he joined the family textile firm, Wilson Brothers Chickenley Ltd., to work alongside his father and two brothers. He was a keen hockey player, playing at Dewsbury and Saville before the war and for Slazengers afterwards, before becoming an umpire, rising to County Status. He married Rachel Mary Sykes in 1939 just before the outbreak of war. He immediately enlisted in the RASC and he served in France before being later posted to the Far East where, after the fall of Singapore, he was interned as a POW by the Japanese at Non Pladuk, which was a staging junction for the Burma Railway. After repatriation at the end of the war he rejoined the family firm, and became a Councillor for the West Ward on Ossett Borough Council, where, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, father and brother, he was Mayor from 1955/6. He became a Traffic Commissioner for the Yorkshire Area for 19 years and was awarded the MBE for his services.
He and Mary had three children. Chris ( Scholar 1951-6) was born in 1940, Jane in 1947 and Paul ( Scholar 1961-4) in 1950.
On his retirement in 1982, he, Mary and Paul moved to Dartmouth in South Devon where he had spent many happy holidays as he and Paul enjoyed going to the Point to Point meetings in the area.
Not wishing to idle his time he became a small market trader on Dartmouth Market selling a variety of textiles which he sourced from around the country.
Mary died in 2004 and Paul in 2006 and from then he was alone there, but was visited regularly by Jane and had many attentive neighbours. He was still fit and active, walking daily into Dartmouth and enjoyed many holidays with Jane, visiting his granddaughter in Majorca and also to Portugal.
He died after a short illness in Abergavenny Hospital near where Jane lives in South Wales on the 16th February 2009, aged 93.
