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Information |
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| 09/05/2019 |
‘For what little I have been enabled to do, and for the fruit it has borne, I give God thanks, and gladly hear my testimony to the share that you love and your prayers have had in bringing so much to pass.’ |
| 09/05/2019 |
Your knowledge of Mr Wilson makes it unnecessary for me to say much. He is one of the strongest and most successful workers we have in France, winning his way to the hearts of officers and men alike, and creating an atmosphere of home and helpfulness which is most inspiring to all the men who come into contact with him. We deeply regret that his duties call him home, but I should like you to know (a fact which he will never tell you) the wonderful piece of work he has done for British soldiers and for the kingdom of God. May I say that, while recognising the claims of his church and home, I cannot help expressing the hope that it may be made possible for him to return to us at no very distant date. -- Yours sincerely, Signed, OLIVER H. McCOWAN, Organising Secretary of France.' |
| 09/05/2019 |
In 1903 he married Edith Dickson of Dungannon. No record of the marriage can be found with GRONI, so it is possible they were married in India. They went on to have at least four children. |
| 09/05/2019 |
George Wilson was ordained into the Irish Presbyterian Church in 1902. |
| 09/05/2019 |
George Wilson was educated at Queen’s College, Belfast. |
| 09/05/2019 |
Rev Andrew James Wilson became the minister for the Malone congregation in Belfast. |
| 09/05/2019 |
Known family: Andrew James Wilson, Isabella Wilson?, William Andrew Wilson (born 4th May 1869), James Wilson (born 12th February 1871), David Wilson (born 4th July 1872), Sarah Wilson (born 7th January 1874), Annie Wilson (born 21st May 1875), George Wilson (born 8th February 1877), James Wilson (born 26th December 1879), Henry Wilson (born 9th November 1881), Charles M Wilson (born 11th August 1883). |
| 09/05/2019 |
George Wilson was born on 8th February 1877. He was one of thirteen children, most of whom were born in the Ballymagran – Minterburn area near Caledon, County Tyrone. |
| 09/05/2019 |
George Wilson was the son of Rev Andrew James Wilson and Isabella Wilson (to be confirmed). Andrew James Wilson and Isabella Thomson were married in the district of Ards on 11th June 1868. |
| 09/05/2019 |
Known family: George Wilson, Edith Wilson, Thomas Wilson (born about 1905, India), George Wilson (born about 1908, India), Margaret Wilson (born about 1910, Co Antrim), Elizabeth Wilson (born 24th December 1913, Ballygoney Manse). |
| 09/05/2019 |
Rev Wilson served several times as a Y.M.C.A. chaplain in France. |
| 09/05/2019 |
He worked on mission stations in the district of Gujarat and Ahmedabad until around 1910, when he was forced to resign due to his wife’s ill health. The family returned home. |
| 09/05/2019 |
Concluding, Mr Wilson says:- |
| 09/05/2019 |
Nor is the work they have taken any sinecure. Our hut has become the centre of life to a very wide district. Men billeted in villages for miles around look to us for all sorts of help. I myself am generally absent one or two nights a week visiting these remoter billets, and helping to break the monotony of the long evenings with my Indian lantern talks. Al the football matches of the G.H.D. League are played in our field outside the hut, and we give shelter and entertainment to both teams and spectators. And we are on one of the great highways of Northern France, and the men of supply columns and despatch riders and passers-by of all sorts and conditions call on us from early morning till late at night, and all the time there are men billeted on the spot to be attended to. Added to this the Y.M.C.A. is now putting up two more huts in new centres, each about three miles away, and the superintendent of these new places, together with the Horse Guards hut, is to be put upon me. No minister could ask for a larger parish or more apprehensive parishioners, or for work that brings more joy in the doing of it. Tonight I am five miles from ‘my city on the hid’, but yesterday a horse was given to me and I rode some fifteen miles further on to visit the men of the Machine Gun Section, who were billeted in this village during my time with the Horse Guards in spring. It was a sad enough visit, for the section had been in action on the Somme, and I knew I was not to see the faces of some of the lads – the very lads, too, whom I had known so intimately. My hour with the men went only too quickly, but when I set out to face that long journey home in the pitch dark I did not set out alone, two of the little band of corporals rode with me, and left me only when I had come within three miles of home again. If ever I have done anything to serve the men out here, I can assure you I have my reward a thousand times over.’ |
| 09/05/2019 |
‘That was three months ago. Of the strenuous work that has filled all the days between then and now it is not for me to speak. But I am not afraid to tell you of the results of it. Three months ago I stood amongst strangers. Tonight I am away from that hut and am helping to start the work in another; and my absence is possible because these men, once strangers, have taken upon their already heavily burdened shoulders the work and responsibility of the hut, and have set me free to go and minister for a week to another regiment in need. Is it any wonder I am proud and grateful? And I would like you to whom I owe so much, and Mr McClelland, to be sharers with me in my pride and gratitude. |
| 09/05/2019 |
Arriving at Boulogne he was met by old friends, who however stood aghast at his accompanying luggage, comprising a bagatelle table, boxes of games, socks and mufflers provided by the kindness of the people of Ballygoney and surroundings, and a whole lantern outfit lent to him by Mt Hyndman. At headquarters he met Rev J C Blair of India, Rev Robert Hyndman and Mr Kilpatrick, who were successful leaders of huts. Mr Blair and Mr Hyndman were up at the front doing a fourth month’s service with the Y.M.C.A. On returning to his old work he received a very hearty welcoming tea party, and the hut was started on a new spell of life and prosperity. Continuing, Mr Wilson writes:- |
| 09/05/2019 |
He then refers to his return to France and his plunging into the old familiar round of duties. On his way he spent four days in London visiting the Y.M.C.A. headquarters, and taking part in some of the extensive and important and noble night duties carried out on behalf of the army in providing beds and meals and other accommodation for our men. |
| 09/05/2019 |
After acknowledging the loyalty with which the people are standing to the old congregation under Mr McClelland’s leadership, and especially by their attendance at the afternoon service, and adding that Mr McClelland’s unselfish ministry and his people’s loyalty are a continual inspiration to him, Mr Wilson expresses his pleasure at the knowledge of the quickened life in the Sabbath school. He also refers to the success of the harvest thanksgiving service, and the sale of work at Coagh, at which the children of Ballygoney Missionary Band took such a prominent part, and expresses his warmest thanks to all – to Mr McClelland and Mr Ferguson, to the members of the committee, to the Sabbath school teachers, to the choir, and to the faithful collectors for what they are doing to make his work possible among the men at the front without let or hindrance to the work at home. |
| 09/05/2019 |
Rev George Wilson, B.A., Ballygoney, who is at present acting for a second term as a Y.M.C.A. chaplain in France, has written a long letter to the members of his congregation, which was read at the service on Sunday week by Dr Burgess, J.P. Rev W T McClelland, Coagh, is ministering to the congregation during the absence of Mr Wilson. |
| 09/05/2019 |
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| 09/05/2019 |
From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 9th December 1916 Rev George Wilson in France |
| 09/05/2019 |
In November 1916 he wrote a substantial letter to his congregation detailing his work. |
| 09/05/2019 |
When I was introduced to Major Trimble, the senior on the spot, and congratulated him on his fine collection of Belfast specimens, it was to be told he was himself another old Instonian! With him was a very gentle, quiet man, Major Smith, the chief surgeon. The first thing that struck me was the healthy look and cheery spirits of the men. They had not all been wounded -- some were suffering from trench fever, one or two from tubercular troubles. One man with trench fever had been in the landing at Suvla Bay. On a board hung discs showing the number and place of all the vacant beds. The doctors gave the orders for the locating of each case; a disc was taken off the board and pinned to the man's coat, and then two men brought in the light hand-carriages, and in silence the stretcher was laid on and wheeled off. The officers were everyone most kind to us. Major Smith asked us to follow one case to the ward. We were in the ward in a few moments, and the sight we saw would have touched the hardest-hearted. The electric lamp was covered with red muslin, and the ward was all dim and silent. The sister in charge came noiselessly down the ward to meet the stretcher-bearers. Then two of them and the ward orderly lifted him on to the clean white bed. He stretched himself, poor chap -- it was a long time since he had lain on a bed like that -- the sister and the orderly took charge, and we went out again. And so silently had all been done that not a single patient moved in those two long rows of beds. But all the cases were not like those first four. Soon I noticed a man whose face was blanched and bloodless. Major Smith moved over and lifted up the edge of the blanket -- one leg amputated! In another ambulance came two cases with bandaged head and eyes. One was marked "Urgent" by a label pinned to the bandage. The other had no label. The oculist was in the shed along with the other officers. He came a across, peeped under the bandage of this second man, replaced the bandages, and then turned round and said to us, "That man will never see again." He then came up to the "Urgent" case. The man was singularly cheery, and was giving out his name and number in fine style. The oculist looked at one eye and told the man that it did not seem so bad. "That's right, sir. They fixed me up champion yesterday, and I'm all right now." And so on all through the thirty-two cases. The discipline and arrangements were perfect. |
| 09/05/2019 |
‘Y.M.C.A. Headquarters, Abbeville, May 12th, 1916. Dear Mr Ferguson, -- I write you as an office-bearer in the Rev George Wilson's church to ask you to convey to his congregation the very deep sense of gratitude and appreciation of our association for the generous action of your church in making it possible for Mr Wilson to spend the past six months with us in work among the troops in France. |
| 09/05/2019 |
The following letter was read to the Ballygoney congregation, and from it it is evident that Mr Wilson's services are appreciated in France:- |
| 09/05/2019 |
The Congregation's Appreciation: On Sunday, 4th inst., the congregation of Ballygoney unanimously granted leave to Mr Wilson to return to France to continue his Y.M.C.A. work for the duration of the war, and at the same time accepted the generous offer of the Rev W. T. McClelland, of Coagh, to undertake the pastoral oversight of the congregation during Mr Wilson's absence. Delegates from Ballygoney met the members of the session and committee of Coagh on Monday evening, and it was arranged that the evening service in Coagh should be dispensed with, and that the regular services should be held, the one in Coagh at noon, and the other in Ballygoney at three o'clock in the afternoon, commencing with the first Sabbath in July. This action is a token of the fine spirit that animates both congregations, and of their desire to have some share in standing by our men at the front. |
| 09/05/2019 |
Mr John Glasgow, J.P., proposed a vote of thanks to both lecturer and chairman. This was passed by acclamation, and the proceedings were brought to a close by the singing of the National Anthem. |
| 09/05/2019 |
At the outset of his lecture Mr Wilson said that there were certain aspects of the war on which he was not in a position to speak. He had seen little of active war conditions, and those at the front had fewer data for an opinion on the Great War problems than had those at home. Only once had he come into touch with the actualities of war, and that was when he shared in the alarm caused by the visit of a German aeroplane one day on which he happened to be in at the British Headquarters. On the occasion of a visit to the great base camp of his district, Mr Wilson, through the kindness of some Belfast doctors, was given an opportunity of seeing something of the life and work of our hospitals. Mr Wilson proceeded to speak of his intercourse with our Indian troops, and gave some interesting illustrations of Indian attitude to the war. Omitting all reference to his work amongst two transport columns, Mr Wilson went on to give a vivid account of his life among the men of the Royal Horse Guards in their village billets, and to describe the Y.M.C.A. hut which had been specially erected for the regiment, and the, nature of the work which was carried on there. He also gave an amusing account of the walls and wires and red tape that safeguard our headquarters in France. Mr Wilson's opportunities for an intimate knowledge of the men were unique, and it was cheering to hear him speak of the fine spirit in which our men are bearing their part in this terrible campaign. He gave many illustrations of the good humour that brightens the oftentimes gloomy enough billets of the men, and eases the irksome monotony of life for troops removed for a time from the active fighting. Mr Wilson made an appeal for games for the men's use in the huts, and specially mentioned draughts and chess, and wall and floor quoits as games that would be anywhere welcome. In conclusion Mr Wilson dealt with the changes which had been wrought by the war in the hearts and minds of the men. He spoke especially of the new affection for home, for "Blighty," as the army calls England, adopting, after the army fashion, the Indian word for England -- and of the decision and the clarity of vision with which the men face the great realities of life and death. |
| 09/05/2019 |
Later in 1902 Rev George Wilson went to Ahmedabad, Gujarat State in north western India, with the missionary arm of the Presbyterian Church. |
| 09/05/2019 |
In Houston's laboratory (at its snug little stove) followed one of the evenings of my life. I happened to start them on the bacteriological problems caused by the strange conditions of the war, and the four men proceeded to hammer out, each from his own point of view, the various theories that had been propounded in answer to them. The most striking thing said was by Houston at the very outset of our talk -- namely, that we are back again one hundred years, and facing the problems our forefathers had to face a century ago. The two main problems, they said, wore those caused by secondary haemorrhage and by gas gangrene. The talk then turned wholly to the haemorrhage question, and it was an education to hear those fellows talk. |
| 09/05/2019 |
The 1911 census lists George as age 34, living with his wife and family at house 10 in Lansdowne Crescent, Portrush. He is described as being a minister of the Irish Presbyterian Church and Missionary in India, who was on leave. |
| 09/05/2019 |
When I searched out Dr Houston, where he pored over his microscope, I found yet another Belfast man - Dr John E McIlwaine, the officer deputed to receive the convoy. McIlwaine took me up to the receiving shed, and showed us all the arrangements for the various kinds of cases - the undressing and bathing and redressing rooms for the ‘sitting’ cases, and the stretcher carriers for the lying-down ones. The R.A.M.C. men were all sitting about, awaiting the order to fall in on the approach of the first ambulance. On a table in the undressing room one of them was asleep. He woke up and rose when we entered, and who should it be but our friend ‘Angelina’, out of ‘Trial by Jury’ - a gentle-looking lad who made up into one of the loveliest women I ever saw! We had just finished a hurried round when the signal was given, and all the men stood to their posts. The clerks sat two and two behind each of four small tables. On the opposite side of the table were the trestles for receiving the stretchers (in the trestles let-down seats were fixed for men able to walk). The man who had worn the kilts, the Scotchman of the jury, was at the door with notebook in hand; his work seemed to be the noting of the number of blankets on each stretcher as it was unloaded, and then attending to any kit the men had with them. The officers were all assembled. |
| 09/05/2019 |
‘The concert and play were being given - the one by the nurses, the other by the male staff of the St. John's Hospital. The hut was a wild scene. It was crowded beyond description. There were six ladies in the first half - a sort of troupe - who sang and tripped about most daintily. One of them recited very well. The second half was Gilbert and Sullivan's ‘Trial by Jury’, and was simply great. The get-up of the men in itself was enough to set you into a roar, and when the jurymen got into the box and carried on their antics laughed till my sides were sore. The judge was a superb get-up, and his singing and acting were the same. At the close I went round to the dressing-room to see the men, and I asked to be introduced to the judge that I might congratulate him. He was disrobed by this time, and dispainted, and when he turned round where he stood pitting on his boots who should it be but Dr Percy Crymble! That started us to talk! Crymble asked me to go in and see Tom Houston at work on his laboratory, and there I found McCloy, another Belfast man. It was delightful to see the old familiar faces, and to find them all doing such fine work. I began to move towards home about 10.30, refusing Tom Houston's invitation to remain till 11.30 to see the arrival of a convoy of wounded. Half-way towards home, however, I had to pass the ‘Walton’ hut, which lies at the foot of a steep railway embankment, and we were able to wait with Corkey until we saw the ambulance train come past to the siding. Grisson had his lorry, and we motored up the hill to the hospital. |
| 09/05/2019 |
In 1919 there was a crisis in the Irish Presbyterian Mission in Northern India as the leader, Dr Steele, had died and several other missionaries were forced to retire through illness. George Wilson answered the call and returned to India, spending the remainder of his life there. |
| 09/05/2019 |
In 1912 Rev George Wilson became the minister of Ballygoney Church, near Drumullan in County Tyrone. |
| 09/05/2019 |
Rev Wilson was based in northern France. |
| 09/05/2019 |
Crymble's X-Rays: The surgeons cannot explain the bleeding which is following in so many cases after an operation has seemed for a time to be most successful. Houston is trying to solve it from the bacteriological side, and is inclined to think that the time that elapses before the bleeding is "the period of incubation" of some microbe. Crymble, on the other hand, ascribes it to some surgical shortcoming, and is at work on it with X-rays and dissection. McIlwaine is, of course, a medical man. It was a great treat to sit by and hear these skilled exports talk. Cases were quoted and, looked up, and at one stage McCloy prepared a microscopic slide to illustrate some point that had been raised. The talk went on in the laboratory till about 11-30, and then when I rose to get home Crymble asked me to go and see his X-ray apparatus. Houston came with us, and that meant another interesting hour. We scarcely glanced at the apparatus; but Crymble showed us some of his most interesting plates, fixing them in an ingenious arrangement of mirrors in order to bring up the stereoscopic effect of the plates -- the photos are all taken in stereoscopic pairs. All were interesting; but perhaps the most wonderful was one of a brain injured by a bullet that had grazed the cranium and driven some of the bone into the brain. The wonderful thing was that Crymble was able from his photo to diagnose the presence of gas gangrene. (Gas gangrene has nothing to do with asphyxiating gas, but is the old name for gangrene which gives off gaseous matter). The insertion of a tube proved Crymble to be correct. Altogether I came away feeling very proud of my fellow townsmen and the fine work they are doing. |
| 09/05/2019 |
George’s brother, Rev William Wilson also was with the Y.M.C.A. in France. On 20th March 1918 William left Abbeville, after visiting several huts there, and set out for Le Treport, a small town on the coast, intending to visit his brother-in-law and his brother, Rev George Wilson, B.A. William was killed in a motor accident en route. News was at once sent to Rev George Wilson and his younger brother, Captain Charles M Wilson, of the Army Ordinance Department, who hurried to Le Treport. They accompanied his remains, which were conveyed to Harve by motor ambulance. |
| 09/05/2019 |
Rev George Wilson was Principal of Stevenson Divinity College, Ahmedabad, 1925-1938 and Moderator of the United Church of North India, 1944-47. |
| 09/05/2019 |
In 1952 Dr George Wilson was sent to Gogha, a remote station. Here he found more time to pursue his gift for writing, which included an introduction to the New Testament in Gujarati and for the Bible Society, ‘The Story of the Gujarati Bible’, completed in 1959. |
| 09/05/2019 |
In 1959 he died in the hospital at Surendranagar (a hill district and hospital centre) only a week after reading the proofs for this work. |
| 08/05/2019 |
From The Witness dated Friday 16th June 1916: ‘Ulstermen at the Front - Lecture by Rev George Wilson |
| 08/05/2019 |
A lecture, entitled "With the Horse Guards and the British Headquarters in France," was given in the Courthouse, Cookstown, on 12th June, by the Rev George Wilson, of Ballygoney, who has lately returned from six months' work in France under the Y.M.C.A. Mr John Byers presided, and the opening exercises were conducted by the Rev Robert Hyndman. |
| 08/05/2019 |
Writing to his brother (Rev W A Wilson, M.A., Coleraine) from the Y.M.C.A. quarters somewhere with the British Expeditionary Force, Rev George Wilson, B.A., of Ballygoney, in a recent letter, describing an entertainment in one of the huts, wrote:- |
| 08/05/2019 |
From The Witness dated 7th April 1916: Belfast Doctors at the Front - Ulster Minister's Tribute to their Fine Work. |
| 08/05/2019 |
The Women’s Guild have made up several parcels of comfort and games to send to the front with the Rev G Wilson, B.A., Ballygoney, when he returns to his work as chaplain amongst the troops. The parcels contain about 60 pairs of socks, 2 lots of games (per Mr and Mrs Cooney), and a bagatelle table (per Miss McCormick). The Guild have also forwarded to the proper quarters a quantity of old silver, the proceeds to go to the U.V.F. Patriotic Fund. |
| 08/05/2019 |
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| 08/05/2019 |
From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 5th August 1916: Moneymore |
| 29/04/2019 |
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| 29/04/2019 |
The History of Coagh booklet lists Reverend George Wilson as having served with the Y.M.C.A. in the war. |
