Monarch Elizabeth II Children Robin Wilson Monarch Elizabeth II Role Poet | Succeeded by Audrey Callaghan Name Mary Baroness Preceded by Vacant Succeeded by Vacant | |
 | ||
People also search for Harold Wilson, Robin Wilson, Giles Wilson, James Herbert Wilson, Ethel Wilson | ||
Preceded by Elizabeth Douglas-Home | ||
British poet Mary Wilson Baroness Wilson of Rievaulx Died at 102
Gladys Mary Wilson, Lady Wilson of Rievaulx (née Baldwin; born 12 January 1916), is an English poet and the widow of former UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson; who served from 1964 to 1970 and again from 1974 to 1976. She is the only spouse of any Prime Minister to become a centenarian.
Contents
- British poet Mary Wilson Baroness Wilson of Rievaulx Died at 102
- Biography
- Titles from birth
- References
Biography
She was born in Diss, Norfolk, the daughter of Reverend Daniel Baldwin, who was a Congregationalist minister. She attended boarding school at Milton Mount College near Crawley, leaving in 1932 to attend a secretarial course in Cumberland for two years. She was employed as a shorthand typist at Lever Brothers in Port Sunlight before marrying Harold Wilson on New Year's Day, 1940. She and Wilson had two sons, Robin (born 5 December 1943) and Giles (born 1948).
In 1970 her volume of poetry, Selected Poems, was published and in 1976 Wilson was one of three judges of the Man Booker Prize, the other judges being Walter Allen and Francis King. According to the Dictionary of National Biography entry for Harold Wilson, written by Roy Jenkins, Mary Wilson was not satisfied with life as a political wife. It was this detachment which gave the Private Eye spoof Mrs Wilson's Diary, the supposed diary of Mary Wilson, written in the style of the BBC's daily radio serial Mrs Dale's Diary, a spurious look of authenticity.
Mary was widowed on 24 May 1995 when Harold died of colorectal cancer and Alzheimer's disease after 10 years of illness. They had been married for 55 years. As of 2007 she lived in Westminster, a short distance away from Downing Street. She also retains the couple's holiday home in the Isles of Scilly.
In 2013, at age 97, she accepted an invitation to attend the funeral of Margaret Thatcher. She is the oldest living spouse of a former British Prime Minister, the longest lived Prime Minister's spouse on record, and the only centenarian.