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Captain Richard WILSON (227656) MB MRCP
31st General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps Date of birth: 8th May 1915 Date of death: 20th July 1943 Died aged 28 Buried at Medjez-El-Bab War Cemetery Plot 18 Row B Grave 11
Richard Wilson was born at Manhattan in New York on the 8th of May 1915 the son of Joseph Lupton Wilson OL, a director and general sales manager of British Thomson-Houston Ltd (Engineers), and Marjory L. (nee Schoomaker)Wilson later of 68 Vineyard Hill Road, Wimbledon Park in London. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Olds House from September 1928 to December 1932. He was a Corporal in the Officer Training Corps, achieving Certificate A in 1931 and gained his School Certificate the same year. He was appointed as a House Captain and as a Prefect in 1932 He went on to Clare College Cambridge where he later achieved a MA. He was married in London in early 1942 to Barbara (nee Pallister), who was a nurse at St Thomas' Hospital in London during the war. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps on the 14th of March 1942 and was later promoted to Captain. He was posted to the 221st Field Ambulance before transferring to the 31st General Hospital, based at the Balmoral Protestant Male Industrial School at Musgrave Park in South Belfast where he joined them on the 15th of May 1942. The unit moved to a transit camp at Larne on the 18th of May 1942 before travelling to England where they re-opened at Hatfield House at Hatfield in Hertfordshire on the 7th of June. On the 15th of October 1942 the unit arrived by train at Glasgow where they embarked on board HMT Viceroy of India, and were all on board by 7.30am. They set sail for the Middle East at 4pm. On the 8th of November they were attacked by enemy aircraft and the vessel was straddled by bombs but no damage was caused. They were attacked again the next day but the bombs missed. They arrived at Algiers on the 10th of November 1942 where they disembarked during the afternoon. They remained at Algiers until the 30th of November when they boarded a train at 8.30am and arrived at Mechta Chateaudun at 10pm, where they boarded trucks for the move to their new base at Oued Athmenia, arriving there at midnight. In July 1943, Richard Wilson was taken ill suffering from exhaustion. On the 18th of July he was placed on the dangerously ill list and was in a comatose state by the following day. He died at 4.15am on the 20th of July 1943. A post mortem examination recorded that he died from acute bronchopneumonia. Samples from the autopsy were taken to Algiers for further examination at the university laboratory there. His funeral cortege left the hospital at 8.30am the next morning. He is commemorated on the war memorial at Clare College Cambridge.

Olds House