Originally Posted by
julieoapw
There's a portrait of him and his wife (Lady Frances Campbell Wilson I think) in the main ballroom in the Town Hall.
The plot thickens, because I had assumed he was a bachelor. 'Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress' would be the official titles I suppose, because he was not a Lord of the Realm to my knowledge. My cousin has found a vellum scroll bearing two large seals attached with ribbons (in a fitted red case) granting Frank Wilson a coat of arms. I need to study this more carefully, but I had assumed it is contemporary with him being Lord Mayor. My cousin also has a small quantity of corporation crockery bearing his monogram.
Would being Lord Mayor suggest he was involved with politics in the City?
div>
The puzzling thing to me is that Frank Wilson was one of 16 children of my great-grandfather HENRY HOUGH WILSON who lived near Stockport, commuting daily to the Manchester commodity exchanges dealing in flour and associated products. Only 12 of the children survived to adulthood. I had assumed Frank Wilson was based over here too, so I had underestimated the strength of the Liverpool connection. I have not researched the family history in a serious way. The substantial family home in Offerton was sold and demolished before the second war, I assume on Henry Hough Wilson's death.
As a boy in the 1960s we occasionally visited Frank in an old peoples' home in Stockport. My mother used to take him bottles of Yates' Navy Rum which was his favourite tipple.
I shall try to get over to Liverpool to check out the portrait .... thanks very much for the tip.
Bookmarks