merit was conferred upon him in 1912, but he was careless of formal honours, and resolutely declined a peerage on retirement. In 1919 he succeeded to the baronetcy, on the death of his brother, Sir Roland Knyvet Wilson. On 25 May 1921 he died at Swaffham after a short illness. He was unmarried.
[Admiral Sir E. E. Bradford, Life of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson, 1923; private information.]
WILSON, Sir CHARLES RIVERS (1831–1916), civil servant and financier, was born in London 19 February 1831, the eldest son of Melvil Wilson, of independent means, by his wife, Louise, daughter of Major-General Sir Benjamin Stephenson. He passed through Eton to Balliol College, Oxford, and graduated B.A. in 1853. Three years later he entered the Treasury, and was appointed private secretary to James Wilson [q.v.], the financial secretary. From 1869 to 1874 he performed the same function for Robert Lowe (afterwards Viscount Sherbrooke) [q.v.], while Lowe was Gladstone's unpopular chancellor of the exchequer. Promotion came at the end of this administration, and Rivers Wilson was appointed comptroller-general of the National Debt Office (1874). This post brought him into touch with the critical position of Egyptian finance; and when, a year later, Disraeli's purchase of the khedive's shares in the Suez Canal made its prosperity of primary importance to Great Britain, Rivers Wilson was deputed by the British government to serve on the council of the Canal company, while retaining his comptroller-generalship.
The experience which he acquired in this capacity, and during a short mission to Cairo in 1876, marked him out as the natural representative of Great Britain when Egypt's default of payment in that year led Great Britain and France to agree upon a joint investigation of khedivial revenue and expenditure. This was delayed for some time by the obstructive tactics of Khedive Ismail; but on 4 April 1878 a commission was appointed, of which M. de Lesseps was president, and Rivers Wilson, in the capacity of vice-president, the effective head. A first report (rendered in August) not only prescribed drastic financial reforms, but also recommended limitations of the khedive's absolutism. On 23 August Ismail summoned Rivers Wilson to hear his acceptance of the report, and a few days later authorized Nubar Pasha to form a ministry in which Wilson should take the portfolio of finance—the first foreigner to hold a cabinet position under a khedive. Wilson went home to negotiate a loan upon the hypothecated khedivial estates, and did not take up office in Cairo until nearly the end of November. The ministry was destined to brief life. Though supported by the powers, it was barely tolerated by Ismail, who avenged his restriction to a constitutional position by declining responsibility for the extrication of his country from the financial straits to which his own extortions, and a recent low Nile, had condemned it. In view of his attitude, Wilson agreed with Nubar that the doctrine of ministerial responsibility should be logically enforced by the exclusion of the khedive from the deliberations of his council. In this policy Wilson undoubtedly was influenced by Nubar, for whom he had much respect and affection. Within three months it became clear that an irresponsible khedive of Ismail's prestige and power could nullify any measures taken by a ministry without his previous advice. Proof was offered by the military mutiny in February 1879, when Nubar and Wilson were dragged out of a carriage, hustled violently into the ministry of finance, and held there, the animus of the crowd being directed against Nubar, and only against Wilson when he stood by his colleague. The ministers were rescued by Ismail in person, and on the following morning Nubar resigned. The finance minister, however, and the minister for public works, M. de Blignières, carried on under Sherif Pasha, Wilson stout-heartedly refusing to find money for the mutineers till it could be procured by loan at a reasonable rate. But his position was rapidly becoming untenable. His views about restricting the khedive's share in government had not only exasperated Ismail, but caused difficulties with the British political representative, (Sir) Hussey Vivian; and when he proposed a plan for dealing with the April coupon by postponement, the khedive appealed confidently to his other ministers, the chamber, and the country against an act of insolvency. The end came on the eve of the publication of the final report of the commission of inquiry, which, it was known, would declare Egypt bankrupt. Both European ministers were dismissed by Ismail on 7 April. During the following twelve months, which saw the deposition of Ismail and the establishment of Tewfik as a constitutional president of his council, Wilson performed no function in Egypt. But he was recalled from his London office in April 1880 to be president
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