WILSON, ROBERT ARTHUR (1820?–1875), Irish humourist and poet, was born at Falcaragh, co. Donegal, where his father, Arthur Wilson, was a coastguardsman, about 1820. His mother, whose maiden name was Catherine Hunter, a native of Islandmagee, co. Antrim, contrived to give him a fairly good education at home before sending him to Raymunterdoney school. He became a teacher at Ballycastle, Antrim, after leaving school, but only for a short period. About 1840 he emigrated to America, where he remained some years, working as a journalist. On his return to Ireland he joined the staff of a paper in Enniskillen, whence he proceeded to Dublin to take up the position of sub-editor of the ‘Nation,’ under Charles Gavan Duffy. His knowledge of the tenant-right question was found particularly useful in his new employment. But his restlessness prevented him from remaining long in Dublin, and he went back to Enniskillen, editing there successively ‘The Impartial Reporter’ and ‘The Fermanagh Mail.’ In 1865 he went to Belfast, where he became the leading writer on the ‘Morning News.’ In a short time he was recognised as the most popular of Ulster writers. His ‘Letters to my Cousin in Ameriky,’ which appeared in the paper under the signature of ‘Barney Maglone,’ made the fortune of the paper, and were read with delight, not only in Ulster, but over the rest of Ireland. The circulation of the ‘Morning News’ was enormously increased, and for some years Wilson's clever prose satires on local celebrities and humorous lyrics proved the most popular literature in the north. To the ‘Ulster Weekly News’ and other journals, under the signatures of ‘Young Ireland,’ ‘Erin Oge,’ and ‘Jonathan Allman,’ he contributed racy poems in northern dialect, many of which are still familiar to Ulster men. His eccentricities and irregularities, however, prevented him from doing any enduring work, and his tendency to drink became more and more pronounced as he grew older, and finally led to his death. While on a visit to Dublin during the O'Connell centenary celebrations in 1875, he drank more than usual, and on 10 Aug. was found dead in his room. His body was removed to Belfast, and buried, in the presence of a vast number of people, in the Borough cemetery, where a monument has been erected to his memory by public subscription. Some of his poems are admirable—all are racy of Ulster. A small selection from them was published in Dublin and Belfast, 1894, under the title of ‘Reliques of Barney Maglone.’ The volume, which was edited by F. J. Bigger and J. S. Crone, contains a portrait and a biographical introduction by the present writer. The only work issued by Wilson himself was a humorous ‘Almeynack for all Ireland, an' whoever else wants it,’ London, 1871.
[O'Donoghue's Poets of Ireland; Belfast Morning News, 11–15 Aug. 1875; information from Mr. John Wilkinson, Falcaragh, co. Donegal.]
WILSON, Sir ROBERT THOMAS (1777–1849), general and governor of Gibraltar, fourth child and third son of the portrait painter Benjamin Wilson [q. v.], was born in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London, on 17 Aug. 1777. He was educated at Westminster school, and also under Dr. Joseph Warton at Winchester. After the death of his father and mother, his elder sister, Frances, married early in 1793 Colonel Bosville of the Coldstream guards, who was killed on 15 Aug. 1793 at the battle of Lincelles; with her assistance Wilson joined the Duke of York in the following year at Courtray, furnished with a letter of recommendation from the king. He was at once enrolled as a cornet of the 15th light dragoons.
He took part in the storm and capture of Prémont on 17 April 1794 and the action of the 18th. On the 24th he was one of eight officers with the two squadrons of the 15th light dragoons who, with two squadrons of Leopold's hussars, mustering altogether under three hundred sabres, attacked and routed a very superior French force at Villiers-en-Couché. This action prevented the capture of the emperor Francis II, whom the French were endeavouring to intercept on his journey from Valenciennes to Catillon, and had already cut off by their patrols. The results of this magnificent charge, undertaken with the full knowledge of the danger incurred and of the object to be attained, were twelve hundred of the enemy killed and wounded, three pieces of cannon captured, and the withdrawal of all French posts from the Selle, with the consequent safety of the emperor. Wilson's horse was wounded under him. Four years later the emperor caused nine commemorative gold medals to be struck—the only impressions—one to be deposited in the imperial cabinet, and the others to be bestowed upon the eight British officers of the 15th light dragoons. George III gave permission for them to be worn ‘as an honorary badge of their bravery in the field’ (London Gazette, 9 June 1798). In 1800 the emperor conferred upon the same officers the cross of the order of Maria Theresa, which George III on 2 June 1801 permitted them to accept, with the rank of baron of the holy Roman empire and of knighthood attached.
